Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng paved the way for micro blogging and chat to be better known as tools in saving lives. And this is why I think the Marikina City Government is harnessing the power of the web to provide better services to the public.

I was browsing the official Marikina City website when I saw this Live Help widget on the sidebar.

Its powered by Yahoo Pingbox.

You can chat with an “operator” and provide you with  – hopefully – any help you need.

Wanted to try it, however, no one’s in. Its offline. Maybe they could provide a 24 hour service. I suggest Marikina City should also use twitter and plurk.