Amidst all the coverage of the role blogs and wikis have played in the Asian tsunami disaster, it was interesting to note in a Poynter Institute posting today that SMS has also been employed.

SMS—short message service, also known as text messaging—is one of those technologies still viewed as a conversation tool for teens; it hasn’t yet penetrated the world of business communication in a big way. There have been some applications that transcend youth, such as the service offered at the Republican National Convention that alerted protestors where a protest was taking place about which the authorities had not yet learned. And there’s a nifty 411 service that works via SMS.

But the potential of SMS may be more fully understood following the actions taken by cell phone carriers in Sri Lanka, who broadcast help numbers to their subscribers, as well as to visitors who had their cell phones set to roam. Indian TV stations broadcast SMS numbers residents could use for inquiries and donations, and people in Singapore are using SMS to make donations. Look for the introduction of more uses of SMS in 2005.