If you, like Greg from Mobivity, run a mobile services company, get on the blower [that’s ‘phone’ if you’re not up with the English lingo] to your local schools and colleges and offer them an update service. Companies such as Omnilert and Rapide have been trailblazing this service — I want to see more. I think every large institution should have a text alerts system setup and ready to rock.
Have a read here of Greg’s perspective….
Link: » Virginia Tech Shootings – Why Wasn’t Anyone Notified?
I spent most of today with my head down at my computer working on an upgrade to Mobivity. At around 4pm I was horrified to receive an IM telling me what happened at Virginia Tech.
As I started looking online for details, I could not believe that 2 hours had elapsed between the first shooting and the second. The first thing I thougt to myself was, ‘Why wasn’t anyone notified?†After the first shooting, every single student, faculty member, and university employee should have known that there was a murder and that the gunman had not been caught.
It was at that point that I realized I had not used the phone, turned on the radio, or checked my email or rss feeds since 8am. The only things that I responded to all day were instant messages from my partner, and a text message from my wife’s cousin.
It’s painfully obvious that the Killer App for SMS is emergency notification. 25,000 students could have been notified instantly of the situation, and directed to where they could get more information.
My partner and I had been talking about adding school notifications to our system, and I am more convinced than ever of its importance.
In addition to today’s horror in Virginia, thousands of people in NJ are evacuating their homes due to flooding from the storm we were hit with. This morning my daughter got up at 5:50am and got ready for school, only to find out that it was closed because of the weather. The school knew the night before they were closing. How many kids went to school today to find it closed? Who would have thought thought school would be closed for rain?
I noticed some other blog posts about this, most notably @ SMS Text News. There appear to be a few companies setup specifically for these types of alerts, and I’m sure they will get much more attention tommorow. This is something I will be offering to my children’s school district immediately.
Let me know how you get on Greg, I hope they’re responsive.