Emergency and non-emergency telecommunications geo-notification system

• US 7,895,263 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2004
• Issued: 02/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Inventors: Putra, Cinta, Kirchmeier, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele; Krista M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vostal; O. C.
• Application Number:
  US10/877,821
• Time in Patent Office: 2,433 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/203, 379/37, 707/E17.108
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/006 with transmission via telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/205 Broadcasting broadcasting in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/566 of the information or information source or recipient
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing electronic notifications are described. A notification broadcast initiation is received over a network from a first user. The notification initiation is for a first notification intended for recipients in a first area selected via a GIS system. A determination is made as to which of the recipients in the first area are members of a notification system and have submitted contact paths to the notification system. For those recipients that are members of the notification system, the notification is provided using the submitted contact paths accessed from a system database. For those recipients that are not members of the notification system, the notification is provided using contact information from a reverse 911 database.

Claims

1. A method of providing notifications via an electronic notification system, the method comprising:

receiving authorization to access a first reverse 911 database maintained by an entity different from the notification system, wherein the first reverse 911 database includes a plurality of contact paths, and wherein each of the plurality of contact paths is associated with a corresponding zip code;

receiving over a network a selection of a first geographical area;

receiving from a first user a notification instruction for a first notification intended for recipients in the first geographical area;

identifying a set of recipients residing in the first geographical area according to zip-codes from the first reverse 911 database corresponding to the first geographical area;

determining which of the identified recipients in the first geographical area are registered users of the notification system, said registered users having submitted contact paths to the notification system, wherein the submitted contact paths are stored in a second database maintained by the notification system, wherein the determining comprises comparing the identified recipients'"'"' contact paths from the first reverse 911 database with the submitted contact paths stored in the second database;

for those identified recipients that are determined to be registered users of the notification system, providing the notification using at least one of the submitted contact paths in a user specified order; and

for those identified recipients that are determined to not be registered users of the notification system, providing the notification using the contact paths from the first reverse 911 database, wherein

the identifying, the determining and the providing of the notification are performed automatically by a processor executing on a computer system of the electronic notification system.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the registered users have a notification system password.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first geographical area is a selected geographic area.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the submitted contact paths include an instant message identifier.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the submitted contact paths include an email address.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the submitted contact paths include a phone number associated with a mobile phone.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

comparing contents of a first reverse 911 data source with contents of a second data source to identify recipients that are common to both data sources, the contents of the first reverse 911 data source comprising geographic location information and at least one unique communication path for each of a first plurality of recipients, and the contents of the second data source comprising unique communication data paths for each of a second plurality of recipients, wherein the first reverse 911 data source and second data source are maintained by separate entities;

identifying, based on the comparing, that the first plurality of recipients and the second plurality of recipients have one or more recipients in common;

receiving an instruction to issue a notification to recipients in a specified geographic region;

selecting, based on the geographic location information from the first reverse 911 data source, recipients residing in the specified geographic region;

notifying the selected recipients which are among the identified common recipients via the corresponding unique communication data paths in the second data source; and

notifying the selected recipients which are among the identified non-common recipients via the corresponding at least one unique communication path in the first reverse 911 data source,

wherein the comparing, the identifying, the selecting, and the notifying are performed automatically by a processor executing on a computer system communicatively coupled with the first reverse 911 data source and the second data source.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the unique communication paths contained in the second data source comprise any of a mobile telephone number, an email address, a pager number, a facsimile number, and a SMS text address.