WRAL Tech Wire

TXTing Gets Serious

A sample of a message sent over the clearTXT system. (clearTXT photo)

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As the massacre at Virginia Tech unfolded, leaving more than 30 people dead, students in many cases communicated with each other through text messages. The university sent out alerts via e-mail. And many people, from students to family to media, turned to the Internet, blogs and Web portals for the latest information.

But with millions of students using cell phones, TXTing – shorthand for sending text messages – is becoming a more popular form of communication. And as the tech tragedy showed, TXTing has moved beyond the humor of TV commercials where parents scream about their children sending messages to being essential.

Doug Kaufman, chief executive officer of clearTXT, is building a business around TXTing and is working with colleges and universities around the country to develop alert and information systems that provide faster and simpler means of communicating. More than 20 educational institutions, such as the University of Cincinnati, are using clearTXT, which Kaufman launched in 2003.

In fact, one client used clearTXT to send out a message about a bomb threat and closing the school last Thursday.

WRAL Local Tech Wire talked with Kaufman, who is a former executive with education software firm Blackboard, about TXTing and its importance as a communication tool on Friday.

Text messages were flying during the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech. It appears TXTing is rapidly moving from entertainment for young people to delivery of essential information, from business to emergencies. Do you agree with that trend? Why is it occurring?

Yes, I do agree that this is the trend. Text messaging is a well-established and essential form of communication in many other countries such as the UK and Japan. However, in the US, most people initially considered text messaging as more of a novelty, or non-essential, means of communicating. When I started the company in 2003, I spent the first year explaining to people what a text message was, how it worked, and how the opt-in nature makes it very different than email spam. Now the US is starting to follow the lead of many other countries; in the last two years, text messaging usage has increased dramatically in the US. There are now more than 12 billion text messages sent every month just in the US and the trend has spread from teenagers to business people, politicians, stay-at-home mothers, and everyone in between.

There are a few reasons why text messaging is becoming so much more popular in the US. I believe that mainstream television shows that incorporate voting via text messaging, such as American Idol, significantly raised the awareness. This helped people recognize the simplicity, ease-of-use, and value of TXTing. In addition, when phone lines (voice) became jammed during tragedies such as 9-11 and the London bombings, text messages were still able to get through. Right away, people recognized the effectiveness and inherent benefits of text messaging during critical emergency situations.

What makes TXTing an alternative to a voice phone call or an e-mail?

There are many benefits to text messaging. Text messaging is very simple to use, private, and efficient. It’s typically faster to send a text message than make a phone call, and the recipient doesn’t have to be available to receive the message.

Plus, since all modern cell phones are text messaging capable, it's available to the widest possible user base. As a technology, it has fewer limitations - anywhere you can receive a signal on your cell phone, you can receive text messages. Plus, it’s a store-and-forward system, which means that the recipient’s phone does not need to have a signal or even be turned on. Messages are stored in a queue and are delivered once your signal returns or the phone is turned on.

As you know, text messages have size restrictions – generally, they are no more than 160 characters. This may seem like a limitation, but is actually a benefit. It helps reduce the overhead needed to deliver messages and encourages people to include only the most important information in the message.

Please explain technology that enables delivery of TXTing vs. other media, such as phone call and email.

When you send a text message from your cell phone, it goes through a Short Message Center (SMSC), then travels to a cell tower, which in turn sends the message to the recipient’s phone as a very small packet of data (the message). Because the message size is restricted, it requires less bandwidth to deliver the message than to have a 2-way voice communication.

What lessons can be learned from the Tech tragedy to help prevent either as large a scale event or to give warnings for all kinds of disasters, from terrorism to weather?

Tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech, and others, demonstrate several important points. First, they show just how important it is to communicate with people and disseminate emergency information as soon as possible. Information is power, so the ability to inform people during difficult situations helps people not only stay safe, but feel more secure. One of the most unfortunate aspects of hurricane Katrina was that most people weren’t receiving information about where to go, what to do, or even if help was on the way. Being able to send information to those people would have made a significant impact on them psychologically and maybe even physically.

In addition, events like these reinforce the fact that there’s no single form of communication that will reach 100% of the people 100% of the time. The most effect way to reach the greatest number of people is to use many different delivery methods. This is precisely why clearTXT delivers messages to mobile phones, email, computer desktops, and more. With this approach, you reach people wherever they are and on whatever device they are using at the time.

I also think that these situations show the power of connecting people and provide different ways of spreading information to each other – I guess you can say it’s the power of the people network. As one person learns information about the situation, they can quickly and easily communicate it to others. We saw this at Virginia Tech – students were able to pass information to each other via text messaging. This can be really powerful.

In your experience, how are colleges leveraging this tool?

Schools are using text messaging for many different purposes. Some schools are using it strictly for emergency alerts. Other schools are sending text messages about school events, sports scores, and so on. With clearTXT, students can receive a wide variety of information on their mobile phones, such as class announcements, schedule changes, assignments, campus alerts and news, information about events, group messages, and much more. It’s a very flexible system.

Do you envision private businesses and government agencies also moving in the direction of TXTing?

They already are moving in that direction. These organizations certainly see the value in instantaneous communication with people in the field or across the country. They recognize the productivity benefits as well as the security benefits.

What business factors led you to launch a business focused on TXTing?

One thing to keep in mind is that while text messaging is a central component of clearTXT, it is just one way we deliver information. Our goal is to deliver the right information to the right people at the right times, regardless of their device. The mobile phone is so pervasive that it makes sense for text messaging to be an integral component, but it is one part of a larger, anytime, anywhere communication system.