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After Virginia Tech: Milwaukee company offers free messaging service to universities
Published April 20, 2007 - BizTimes Daily
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The mass shootings at Virginia Tech University on Monday prompted Milwaukee-based Brevient Technologies LLC to offer its Jyngle messaging service free of charge to colleges and universities across the nation to use as a method of emergency communication.
Jyngle is a mobile and online messaging service similar to other social networking Web sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com. The service is available at www.Jyngle.com.
While MySpace and FaceBook allow for online messaging to groups of friends, Jyngle takes social networking to the next level by enabling mass messages to be delivered in text or voice format to mobile phones.
In the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech this week, Brevient is offering its enterprise version, typically a paid service, with features that cater to business and institutional needs, to universities and colleges for free.
Some people have been critical that Virginia Tech administrative officials did not notify students of the first two shootings for hours. Campus officials across the nation are saying they are reviewing their emergency communication procedures.
The offering of Jyngle's enterprise version free of charge was a direct response to interviews by news media indicating that university representatives nationwide are seeking faster ways to communicate with students, said Matt Lautz, chief executive officer of Brevient.
"This week's tragedy has caused many people, including all of us at Jyngle, to rethink our priorities," Lautz said. "We have a service that is capable of assisting colleges and universities in emergency situations. We believe it's our responsibility to make that aid readily and financially available to them."
The Jyngle primary services version is free for individual use by organizations, sports teams and community groups.
To read SBT's previous exclusive story about the launch of the Jyngle service, visit www.biztimes.com/news/2006/9/29/give-them-a-jyngle.
