Tag: Text

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News News Blog

911 Text Service Officially Launches

You can now text 911 in an emergency, as city officials announced the official launch of the new system on Tuesday.

The Text to 9-1-1 system here is the first in the state, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said. The option is meant for times when calling isn’t possible or safe, as the system’s slogan — “Call if you can, text if you can’t” — suggests.

Michael Spencer, emergency communications administrator, said the main drivers of the new system were the deaf, hard of hearing, and speech impaired communities. Spencer said the new system will give them equal access to 911.

Strickland said the service is vital for those communities who “really could not take part in the other system we had. It’s really important to serve all Memphians and I’m proud of that fact.”

The system has been live for a couple of weeks as it underwent testing and operators were trained, Spencer said. It’s currently only available in English, but Spencer said the department is working to expand to other languages.

“The system is already paying dividends,” Spencer said citing a 911 text made last night by someone in a domestic dispute. “We were able to get the information we needed and get first responders there.”

The new text system is “another step in our improved service to Memphis,” Strickland said.

Other efforts to improve the system have included decreasing the 911 wait time from just under a minute to fewer than six seconds. Strickland said the next step is to fill the 23 job vacancies at the emergency communications center.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Why Nobody Can Pay Attention Anymore

There’s a pile of books beside my bed, most of which I’ve started, few of which I’ve finished. The last book I finished was a short novel that was compelling enough that I actually went to bed early and finished it over the course of a week earlier this month. But that’s rare, these days.

I’m a fast reader, and I used to immerse myself in a book until I turned the last page. Lately, I’m more likely to start a book, set it aside, and never get back to it. My attention span isn’t long enough to get me across Lick Creek. I’m running out of bookmarks.

Distractions are the new, you know… whatever. Go see some live music, and half the audience is holding up their phone to put a video on Facebook instead of actually listening to the music. Go out to eat, and you’ll often see two people at a table staring at their phones or taking Instagrams of their food, instead of talking and eating. Walking in the woods, communing with nature? Hey, look at that maple foliage! I need to get a picture of that to share. Watching the Grizzlies on TV? It’s a lot more fun if you’re on Twitter, too. It’s called double-screening, and the attendant GIFs, snarky tweets, and Vines just add to the experience. Did you know they’re now calling Jon Leuer “Tennessee Dirk”?

Information is served to us like a vast, weird, never-ending buffet where the Cheetos are next to the prime rib, which is next to the gummi bears. Here is a small sampling of Tuesday’s headlines on Huffington Post: “Missouri Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Grand Jury Decision”; “Adrian Peterson Suspended for Rest of Season”; “Japanese PM Calls Special Elections as Country Slides Into Recession”; “Hacker Group Goes to War with KKK”; “Why We Never Got Those 250 Emoji We Were Promised”; “You’re Buying Your Sheets All Wrong”; “The Three-Minute Skill That Will Totally Change Your Breakfast”; “Legendary Photog Snaps The World’s Most Beautiful Women (NSFW)”; “GOP Hires Constitutional Lawyer in Obama Lawsuit.”

Where to start? Sure, I need to know about what’s going on in Ferguson and in Washington, D.C., but I’m curious about that secret breakfast skill. And I certainly don’t want to continue buying my sheets all wrong. And I wonder just how NSFW those pictures are… Oh wait, I just got an email. Hey, someone wants to be my friend on Facebook. Oops, need to answer this text, first. BRB. Oooh, puppy video!

Whew! It’s an ADHD world, but I really want to reconnect with that pile of books. Maybe it would help if I started live-tweeting as I read them?

Categories
News The Fly-By

Campus Upd8

CREDIT: Franc Podgorsek | dreamstime.com

About six hours after University of Memphis football player Taylor Bradford was shot outside the Carpenter Complex on Poplar Ave. September 30th, approximately 4,500 students received a mysterious text message.

It didn’t say there had been a murder, just that classes would be canceled the following day and advised students to watch the news. It also listed a hotline number that students could call for more information.

“I woke up with my phone beeping at 4 a.m.,” says U of M student Chris Hayden. “They sent out another one later in the morning. I think it was effective because I would have had no other way of knowing classes were cancelled.”

But some students think the update from tigerText, the school’s subscription text-messaging alert system, was sent too late. The student government passed a resolution earlier this month condemning the university for failing to send information immediately after the shooting.

Students also have complained that due to spam filters used by certain cell phone service providers, some tigerText subscribers didn’t get the message at all.

“I understand their frustration,” says Derek Myers, University Police deputy director. “I think in the future, we’ll send out a breaking-news alert over the tigerText system just saying something like, ‘we’re investigating a shooting at Zach Curlin and Central.'”

Myers says the school has created an advisory committee for student input on how future situations should be handled. He says they’re also working on how to overcome spam filters.

“We’re working with the vendor, and they’re talking to various cell phone companies to make sure there’s no more problems with spam filters,” Myers says. “I got my message in five seconds, but others did not get the message at all.”

The day after the homicide, university officials passed out flyers urging students to sign up for tigerText at tigerText.memphis.edu. Since October 1st, more than 2,000 additional students have signed up for the service, bringing the total number of subscribers to almost 7,000.

Originally tigerText was intended for alerting students of class cancellations due to inclement weather, but the Bradford murder was the first situation in which the system was used.

“It seems that young people all have cell phones with them 24 hours a day, and they’re texting like crazy,” says Curt Guenther, U of M’s director of communications. “Colleges are realizing they need to change with the times. E-mail is almost passé.”

Besides evaluating the school’s alert system, Myers says the university is adding more security cameras and emergency phones following last month’s homicide.

“We’re actually down about 18 percent in our overall crime numbers, but the perception is that crime is up,” Myers says.

U of M student Matt Tubinis says he feels pretty safe on campus.

“The Carpenter Complex doesn’t really feel like it’s on-campus,” Tubinis says. “It’s not like somebody got shot by the fountain [in the middle of campus].”