AwareSpot: A Location Based Alert System for Mobile Phones
Written by Tenereillo, Inc.
Wednesday, 02 July 2008
A free service for public service, law enforcement, news and media, or just for fun
SAN DIEGO- Makers of the well known Trapster® speed trap social network for mobile phones, as seen on CNN, AOL, and hundreds of other news sources, today announce AwareSpot™. AwareSpot is a FREE location based alert system for mobile phones and personal navigation devices, such as Garmin and TomTom. AwareSpot is designed so that police, public safety and community service organizations, media such as news, television and radio stations, clubs, businesses, and more can quickly and easily set up community alert broadcast channels that deliver location based, relevant, timely information to their audiences.
The best way to understand AwareSpot is by example. A San Diego news station wants to let its viewers know about traffic jams in the area. Almost everyone carries a mobile phone, so text messages are a great way to deliver the information. But no viewer would want all of the alerts in the entire San Diego area sent to their mobile phone – that would result in a large number of irrelevant messages, for areas they never travel in, and a huge mobile phone bill. AwareSpot is the solution. The station might set up a new AwareSpot distribution list called “SD Area Traffic Alerts by Channel 10 News”, and let their viewers know about it via TV or their Web site. Their viewers then visit AwareSpot.com, and subscribe to “SD Area Traffic Alerts by Channel 10 News”. Viewers set up areas, routes, days, and times that are relevant to them. For example, a person who lives in La Mesa, and works in Sorrento Valley might want alerts during their normal commute hours for the route along the 805 and 8 freeways, in the area around La Mesa on Saturday and Sunday during the day, and the Sorrento Valley area around lunch time Monday-Friday. They would not want to be bothered with alerts in Chula Vista or the 5 freeway near Carlsbad, or for alerts that happen in the middle of the night. Channel 10 News now finds out about an overturned lemon truck and subsequent closure of 3 lanes on highway 805, and creates an alert graphically using the AwareSpot map at 3PM on Thursday. That alert is sent to their viewers via a mobile phone text message, but only those viewers who have specified that they want alerts for highway 805 on Thursday afternoon around 3PM will get the text message. In the same way a radio station or club can use the system for contests or promotional events.
Alerts can also be “sticky”. For example, the North County Sheriff’s Dept can create sticky alerts for 6 different construction zones in the Encinitas area. Sticky alerts can be downloaded to navigation devices such as Garmin or TomTom. Again users of the sticky alerts specify areas and routes of interest. Any time that the data changes in those areas or routes of interest, an e-mail notification is sent to the user alerting them that new data should be downloaded to their navigation device. For example, maybe a new construction zone or road closure is added, and two of the previous 6 construction zones are now gone and should be removed.
“After overwhelming positive response to another location based mobile service of ours, Trapster.com, we had law enforcement and media asking for a service they could use. So we created it!”, said Pete Tenereillo, Founder, & President. The service is of benefit to users and the community, but also promotes brand awareness and loyalty for the media, businesses, and organizations that provide the alerts. “If you provide your users something of value, for example alerting them to a traffic jam and saving them from wasting hours stuck in traffic, it will pay back in many ways - they will remember you next time they make a product selection, or choose a news or information source,” said Tenereillo.
AwareSpot works on any mobile phone that can receive text messages, and most personal navigation devices. The AwareSpot service is free, but standard text messaging rates apply.
About Trapster.com
Tenereillo, Inc., founded in 2003, based in Carlsbad, CA, creates mobile social networking technology that allows users to collaborate and create up-to-date, relevant geographic content. For more information visit www.awarespot.com; send email to ; or call 858-367-7249.
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