Tragedy and Mobile

This past week has been tough. So many innocent lives devastated by a heinous act of one. My heart goes out the families involved and many people that have been affected by the happenings at Virginia Tech.
Over the week the conversations in the media have shifted from the perpetrator and the event to what can be done to prevent something like this from happening again. The Mobile Phone alert system has been mentioned more than once, however it seems to be questioned because of some of the perceived obstacles such as GPS use, and carrier privacy concerns. Mobile Alert systems have been implemented well where the need has been acknowledged and SMS is seen as a regular form of communication. Take Netcare 911 in South Africa as an example. Security companies have employed the SMS alert system with huge successes and more than 70 000 people a month have signed up for their services since inception. Check out Netcare911

SMS however is ubiquitous and to a large degree universal especially when considering colleges. We are in discussion right now to add our SMS feature to both a School Broad casting company that will pair voice and text options extremely well and also create a mobile extension for a college based online messaging solution. The most basic need is to have a communication and to be able to have that be managed in a manner that will allow for the utmost availability possible. VT sent an e-mail 2 hours after the first shooting and there is much discussion about the time delay. The most basic answer to why this happened is that someone had to be in an office to activate this message and most office personnel only arrived around 9am. SMS I believe could answer some of the issues even though there will remain more holes.
The shortcode gateway we use at MobileCause allows for 2 way messaging and given the correct moderation tools (we have these designed) could create a way for a student in trouble to communicate their need. We know that SMS was the only form of communication that still worked in the days after Hurricane Katrina, yet there was no single moderation system. MobileCause will be rolling out such systems with our partners in the next 60 days.

We are launching our suite of products for ministries which will include Mobile Devotionals, and other unique tools that ministries can use to spread the Word this week. We are looking forward to truly serving others with our applications and knowledge.