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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
NY-ALERT's New Mobile Application: iAlertz
NY-ALERT’s mobile application (app) – iAlertz – provides users with critical and emergency life-safety information statewide. NY-ALERT is the State’s free, web-based alert and notification system that has more than 5.1 million subscribers.
NY-ALERT sends thousands of safety alerts every day. In New York we are truly a mobile society and the new iAlertz app enables citizens to receive information they need to know wherever they are. Best of all, iAlertz is free for everyone to help keep them and their families safe.
The new iAlertz Notification and Alert app provides real-time alerts on a wide range of topics including weather, traffic, security, and hazardous materials spills to subscribers’ handheld devices based on their current geographic location or profile settings.
Additionally, the app allows users to receive quick contact information on their handheld devices for municipal services such as police, fire, medical, missing persons, transit and utilities. The app has “zoomable,” scrollable and interactive mapping linked to contact information which provides route directions based on the current geographic location of the user’s handheld device.
The iAlertz app is provided by the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) and was developed in partnership with Buffalo Computer Graphics, Inc. and 911Next Corporations. The app can be found in the App Store on your handheld device or by visiting www.ialertz.com.
The launch of its mobile app coincides with the release of NY-ALERT Version 3.0 which provides the public with new mapping that allows them to search for alerts and other public safety information through an easy-to-use interface. Other changes included in Version 3.0 are new reporting options, multimedia text messaging, and updated GIS application for notifiers user portals including text alert subscription.
During the response to Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee which ravaged more than half the state, NY-ALERT was activated more than 5,500 times, including 45 for life safety evacuations. The system pushed out 2.3 million email messages, more than 890,000 text messages, and more than 1 million phone messages. I-Alertz was continually updated with shelter information, road closures and other disaster-related information.
Launched by the New York State Office of Emergency Management in 2007, NY-ALERT is a statewide mass notification system that allows schools, universities, county governments, the NYS Department of Transportation, the State Office of Counter Terrorism, and others, to notify New York residents via a variety of means, including fax, pager, e-mail, automated phone call, RSS feed to the Web site, and SMS text message. Understanding today’s mobile society, NY-ALERT messages now can be proactively sent to mobile subscribers.
The alerting system now encompasses more than 800 different entities at 160 organizations who are able to send alerts to their audiences. Sixty out of 64 campuses of the State University of New York use it, as do all 23 campuses of the City University of New York. NY-ALERT also services 43 counties and 28 state agencies, and continues to grow.
Besides weather and traffic alerts, citizens can sign up at the NY-ALERT Web site (www.nyalert.gov) to get Amber and Missing Child Alerts, public health alerts such as flu vaccine clinics, consumer protection board news, sex offender re-location alerts, and state and local government press releases. The system is issuing nearly 50,000 alerts a month.
On June 20, NY-ALERT was recognized for its innovations by being named a 2011 Laureate in the Computerworld Honors Program, which is widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the Information Technology Industry. NY-ALERT is one of 255 Laureates from 23 countries in 11 categories, chosen from more than 1,000 entries worldwide.
In its letter nominating NY-ALERT, Sybase cited how NY-ALERT was used to assist the public during emergencies. “During one of this winter’s storms that hit New York City and surrounding counties, NY-ALERT sent one million text messages in 15 minutes, along with 388,000 phone calls and 4 million e-mails. In the last eight months, we sent out 156 million e-mails and 93 million text messages. That’s up 4 times and 9 times, respectively, from the same period a year ago.”
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