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Cell Text Alerts to the Rescue?

by Tim Stevens on April 18, 2007 at 05:27 PM

Since the horrible shootings on the Virginia Tech campus earlier this week, everyone from students to the media has been asking questions. Questions like what caused the shooter to act as he did or how did he get his weapons?

For Virginia Tech administrators, the questions are focused on the school's policies -- specifically, what they could have done differently to more quickly inform students and potentially save lives? According to 'USA Today,' the answer may be the implementation of some sort of automated security text-messaging system, such as the one operated by Rave Wireless.

Rave's system lets university administrators send out text messages to anyone who signs up, something that, needless to say, could have saved lives two days ago in Blacksburg, Virginia. Given the popularity of texting, especially among students (who take their phones with them everywhere), Rave seems like a much more effective means of emergency communication than the e-mails most universities currently rely on. Rave's system also offers other benefits, like sending a caller's location to campus security, provided the caller's phone is GPS-enabled. Rave's service is currently used by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Quinnipiac University, among others.

Coincidentally, the 'Wall Street Journal' also ran a story on text-and-email alert systems such as Mobile Campus, which is used at the University of Texas, Austin, and sends alerts via text and email simultaneously. (You'll have to sign-up for the WSJ to view the article, but the online edition of the paper offers a free two-week trial.)

People will continue to ask questions for weeks and months to come after this tragedy, but with Rave's phones ringing off the hook since earlier this week from other interested schools looking to license the company's technology, it seems that some, at least, have found their answer.

From 'USA Today'

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Tags: Cell Text Alert, CellTextAlert, College, Rave Wireless, RaveWireless, Texting, Virginia Tech, VirginiaTech

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