Author:  Howard Ryan

Google's keyword spiders caught this article for me the other day and I was stunned as yet another story of how a mass notification system under performed during an emergency was published.

By Scott Travis and Jerome Burdi |South Florida Sun-Sentinel1:01 AM EDT, May 1, 2008
BOCA RATON - Sirens, audio alerts and e-mail warned Florida Atlantic University students and employees in the middle of the night Wednesday of a shooting on campus.

Within minutes notifications went out, but some students say it took too long to receive the automated messages. Some were confused by the sirens.

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It just amazes me that the nations most coveted asset (our advanced learning institutions) have somehow overlooked the fact that there are millions of students who sit at their computers worldwide around the clock every day.

The systems they have purchased are good for certain types of alerting.  No doubt.  But why not also kick into the mix a alerting component that jumps out of the students computer and grabs them by the collar? 




Because that is what Desktop "alerting" is capable of doing. 

The U.S. Military has figured this out but the schools are now just starting to really make the move.  Little by little the requests for alerts to desktops ( Net Centric Alerting ) are coming in from schools.