With the recent massacre at Virginia Tech, many in the media are asking the question, "why was there no mass notification or shut-down of the campus after 2 hours"? Here's details of a mobile SMS solution that could be used in emergency situations.

OmniAlert specializes in mass communications for sending time-sensitive information to large groups of people.

Mass Communication defined - A selective mass communication system is defined as a platform to deliver a message to an entire audience by all means necessary with one click of a button

How it Works:

Omnilert Network enables clients to send urgent messages to multiple devices of subscribers within an entire community or groups of the community to communicate important information. The web-based service requires no additional hardware or software, is extremely easy-to-use, and is completely self-administered by each client and their subscribers.

The service can instantly and simultaneously send alerts to a subscriber's:

• Mobile phone (via SMS text message)
• Traditional wired phone
• Satellite phone
• Blackberry
• Smart phone
• Wireless PDA
• Pager
• E-mail account
• Web page (via our Bulletin Board feature)
• Personal portals (MyYahoo, Google or AOL page)
• RSS Readers

Omnilert Applications:
Omnilert is ideal for organizations responsible for the well being of citizens, employees, students, athletes, volunteers, partners, first responders and others.

It's difficult to question weather such a solution could have prevented the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University, however, given the level of pentration of cell phone usage such a solution does indeed need to be considered in the future.

For more information about OmniAlert see http://www.omnilert.com

Now here's a chilling news item that was reported last year on Roanoke.com... the story was titled Tech looks to tap into text messaging. The story details how VT was considering following the lead of other colleges by implementing a text messaging notification system. The need for such an alert system came out of last year's evacuation of the student center due to a manhunt. It's indeed somewhat troubling that a solution was considered but has yet to be implemented. No doubt such solutions will be in demand from this day forward.

Another mass notification system that could be used in such a situation is provided by e2Campus - e2Campus is a selective mass notification system that empowers schools to send time-sensitive messages to parents, students, faculty and staff – wherever they are. See http://www.e2campus.com/notification_services.htm

Other mass alert notification systems:

• http://www.affordablemessaging.com/notification-system.html
• Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) http://www.celltick.com
• Desktop Alert Mass Notification Systems 3.0
• http://www.universalalert.com/

Our thoughts and best wishes go out to all those affected by the recent massacre at Virginia Tech.