Since the average citizen is NOT an Amateur Radio operator, there is a need to have a standardized method of being able to communicate with one another. Nearly everyone has at least one form of communication requiring no license to operate: CB, FRS/GMRS, or MURS radios. There is a movement in the prepping community to setup an emergency communications protocol that will allow people to communicate during a situation when communications are down. Because this link-up protocol is being distributed among various circles, if someone needed assistance they have the highest probability of linking up with someone of like-mind, even if the two parties did not personally know each other prior that moment.
Enter the Channel 3 project. The channel three project is where people will monitor the radio on the threes-
It is based in the KISS principle. Go read the whole thing.