LSU Test A Success
LSU Officials Say Text Messaging Test a Success:
Preliminary results show 99.2 percent success rate
For additional information, please see the article on the LSU website.
clearTXT to present at Southeast Venture Conference
We’re proud to announce that clearTXT is one of only 40 companies selected to present at the Southeast Venture Conference. SEVC is one of the most highly regarded conferences in the southeast, so we’re thrilled to be selected. From the press release:
“The presenting companies represent some of the most promising technologies in the region. A diverse range of industries are represented in the first round of companies, including Energy, Mobile, Defense, Health, Security, New Media and Life Science.”
“Presenting companies will present to an audience of investors and executives from around the region. A total of 40 companies are expected to be showcased at the second annual conference. Currently, there is over $40 billion under management representing by investors already registered for the conference.”
The full press release is available here.
Interview with Robert Scoble
Doug Kaufman, CEO of clearTXT, was interviewed by prolific video blogger Robert Scoble. You can see the full interview below. We’ll also have a briefer version online soon. Enjoy.
Maricopa Community College District Select clearTXT
Maricopa Community College District Selects clearTXT Ubiquity
Ubiquity Provides a Cutting-Edge Means of Communication with Students, Faculty, and Staff
Cary, NC, August 22, 2007 – The Maricopa Community Colleges have stepped to the cutting-edge of communication with their students, faculty and staff through an agreement with clearTXT. clearTXT’s Ubiquity, the company’s flagship information delivery and alerts platform designed specifically for colleges and universities, allows the colleges to connect with students via cellular text messages in the event of campus emergencies or need for immediate communication.
As one of the largest higher education systems in the world and the largest provider of health care workers and job training in Arizona, the Maricopa Community College system is comprised of 10 colleges, 2 skill centers, and numerous education centers dedicated to educational excellence. More than 200,000 students attend the Maricopa Community Colleges each year while nearly 4,500 full-time and more than 9,000 part-time faculty and staff are employed.
Increasing student communication opportunities is the primary reason Maricopa Community Colleges looked into mobile messaging to reach their students. Nearly all of the system’s students commute to the various campuses and centers. In addition, many students in the system enroll in multiple colleges during the same semester or academic year. This multi-institutional attendance pattern, common among students attending community colleges, called for a single system-wide solution.
The agreement between the Maricopa Community Colleges and clearTXT came after the successful introduction of the service at Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC). As a commuter community college whose students manage complex daily schedules, EMCC felt clearTXT would be essential in helping meet one of its primary goals – increasing academic engagement and faculty-student communication. A secondary, but critical, consideration was the ability to issue campus-wide emergency alerts.
“For a number of years our college faced the challenge of how to best reach our students with the most up-to-date campus, classroom, and emergency information,” said Roger Yohe, director, center for teaching and learning, EMCC. “The use of e-mail as a primary means of direct communication has been deemphasized as most all of our students now own cell phones and use text messaging regularly.”
All of the college’s approximate 5,000 students and 800 full- and part-time faculty and staff have opt-in access to clearTXT, granting permission to the college to text students, faculty, and staff on their cell phones in the event of a need for immediate communication. Students may opt-in via Blackboard, a web-based software system used by the district for flexible teaching and learning.
After initially implementing the system in January of this year, the college recognized that as with most innovative technologies, early adopters on campus were the first ones to actually use clearTXT. In order to further increase user adoption and effectiveness, the campus offers regular faculty workshops on how to use clearTXT as a student communication tool.
The ability to integrate with any legacy e-learning system has proven to be a key factor in promoting academic engagement and faculty-student communication. The clearTXT Building Block provides simple integration, built-in authentication, and automatic course messaging through Maricopa’s Blackboard system.
“Our honors program coordinator reports a greater connection with her students through their use of clearTXT,” said Yohe. “We have a number of enrichment programs for our Honors students and the coordinator finds a text message is much more effective than an e-mail reminder.”
The college also experienced success with the system’s emergency messaging capabilities. The day after the Virginia Tech tragedy, Estrella Mountain received an on-campus threat. As an integrated part of the college’s emergency communication plan, an evacuation message was immediately sent to students, informing them that the campus would be closed until further notice. Students were directed to the college home page for additional information.
“While we hope to never execute this particular type of message again, we were very happy with the way in which clearTXT helped us deliver the message to our campus community in a very efficient and timely manner,” said Yohe.
About clearTXT
Founded in 2003, clearTXT is a leading provider of information delivery and alerts platforms for colleges and universities. clearTXT was created by an academic solely to provide communication solutions to the academic community. Its Ubiquity product enables a multi-channel approach for campus communications by sending messages via email, text message, ticker desktop window, instant message and pop-up desktop alert (both PC and Mac). clearTXT currently provides distributed information delivery systems to dozens of universities, including the University of Cincinnati, Louisiana State University (LSU), Seton Hall and the University of Memphis. For more information, visit www.cleartxt.com or call 1-866-472-1901 (toll free).
About Estrella Mountain Community College
Estrella Mountain Community College is located on Thomas and Dysart Roads in Avondale and offers transfer-ready academic courses and job-specific occupational training to more than 13,000 students annually. Estrella Mountain is part of the Maricopa County Community College District, one of the largest community college districts in the nation. For more information, visit http://www.estrellamountain.edu or http://www.maricopa.edu.
About the Maricopa Community Colleges
The Maricopa County Community College District is one of the largest community college districts in the nation. It includes 10 colleges - Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Estrella Mountain Community College, GateWay Community College, Glendale Community College, Mesa Community College, Paradise Valley Community College, Phoenix College, Rio Salado College, Scottsdale Community College and South Mountain Community College. The District also includes the Maricopa Skill Center, SouthWest Skill Center, several satellite campuses and business/industry, technical and customized training institutes and serves more than a quarter million students annually. For more information: 480-731-8333, 480-731-8000 or www.maricopa.edu. District News: www.maricopa.edu/press.
clearTXT Offers Ubiquity Basic Edition
Ubiquity Basic Provides Critical Messaging Capabilities to All Organizations – At No Cost (through 12/31/07)
Cary, NC, July 09, 2007 – clearTXT, a leading provider of information delivery and alerts platforms for colleges and universities, today announced the availability of Ubiquity Basic Edition, a limited-time free offering of its flagship system. A similar offering proved highly successful in the past and, as a result, clearTXT felt the time was once again right to address escalating needs in the education community.
“We believe that every school should have a system to send information and alerts to mobile phones, email, and desktops quickly and reliably. Because this is such an important cause, we eliminated all the barriers, including price, and made it as simple and easy for any school to sign up and use the system,” said Doug Kaufman, clearTXT CEO. “With Ubiquity Basic Edition, any school can deliver information in seconds to faculty and students during any situation, including emergencies.”
The Ubiquity platform is managed through an intuitive user interface via a web browser. With no mobile software applications to download or install, the fully-hosted solution does not require additional personnel or IT infrastructure changes. clearTXT Ubiquity allows organizations to take a multi-channel approach when communicating with students, staff and faculty by sending messages to mobile phones, email, and computer desktops (both PC and Mac).
Additional highlights of clearTXT Basic Edition include:
- Unlimited number of subscribers allowed (i.e., those with an official school email address)
- Broadcast message delivery via SMS means messages are delivered quickly and reliably
- List segmentation and group messaging capabilities ensure the right information is delivered to the right people every time
- Ability to receive third party information via RSS feeds (such as alerts from the National Weather Service)
- Fully-customized registration and login page
Organizations have until December 31st, 2007 to sign-up for and receive Ubiquity Basic Edition at no cost. For additional information or to sign-up, please refer to http://www.cleartxt.com/i/offer.php or call 866.472.1901.
About clearTXT: Founded in 2003, clearTXT is a leading provider of information delivery and alerts platforms for colleges and universities. clearTXT was created by an academic solely to provide communication solutions to the academic community. Its Ubiquity product enables a multi-channel approach for campus communications by sending messages via email, text message, ticker desktop window, instant message and pop-up desktop alert (both PC and Mac). clearTXT currently provides distributed information delivery systems to dozens of universities, including the University of Cincinnati, Louisiana State University (LSU), Seton Hall and the University of Memphis. For more information, visit www.cleartxt.com or call 1-866-472-1901 (toll free).
clearTXT featured on MobileCrunch
clearTXT was featured recently on MobileCrunch, one of the most well known and influential blogs about mobile technology. The mission of MobileCrunch is to identify, profile, test and even help develop the technologies, applications, services and devices that will define the next generation of connected mobile computing.”
To read the story, Click Here
LSU Press Release
LSU Implements clearTXT Ubiquity Information Delivery Platform for Campus-Wide Emergency Communications
Solution Capable of Alerting All 35,000 LSU Students, Faculty, and Staff Within Minutes of Emergency Situations
Cary, NC, June 06, 2007 – clearTXT, a leading provider of information delivery platforms for colleges and universities, today announced that Louisiana State University (LSU) has implemented the company’s Ubiquity product to manage its campus-wide public safety-related communications. As the framework for the university’s Emergency Text Messaging System, Ubiquity will allow LSU to notify up to 35,000 students, faculty, and staff of an emergency situation.
“Our university is committed to a continuous effort to enhance campus safety,” said LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe. “The ability to easily manage the delivery of emergency notifications serves as another method of improving our system for communicating with the LSU family.”
The LSU Emergency Text Messaging System is a service that allows anyone in the LSU community, including the LSU AgCenter and Paul M. Herbert Law Center, to receive alerts, news, or other emergency information via text message, desktop alert, and email. LSU students, faculty, and staff members can voluntarily sign-up for the new service by providing their cell phone information through their university PAWS account.
When considering the type of communication system to implement, it was important that the university find an easy-to-use, easy-to-access, and easy-to-manage message delivery system. As Ubiquity is managed through an intuitive user interface via a web browser, users and/or administrators are not required to download or install additional mobile software applications. In addition, there are no subscription fees; however, users are responsible for regular text messaging rates through their cellular service providers.
“Working with a fully hosted solution that provides remote web access from any location has kept our associated operational costs down to a minimum,” said Ricky Adams, LSU chief of police and directory of emergency operations. “We have implemented the LSU Emergency Text Messaging System as part of our university’s crisis communication plan without requiring additional personnel or IT infrastructure changes - a distinct advantage to our university as we seek ways in which to maximize our campus-wide budget.”
Ubiquity is the only information delivery platform created by an academic specifically for the academic community. Ubiquity allows administrators to take a multi-channel communication approach, allowing for users to receive information via different devices across different channels (i.e., mobile phone, email, desktop ticker window, instant message, and pop-up desktop alert.) In addition, universities such as LSU can receive critical third-party information via RSS feeds such as National Weather Service and Department of Homeland Security alerts.
About clearTXT
Founded in 2003, clearTXT is a leading provider of information delivery platforms for colleges and universities. clearTXT was created by an academic solely to provide communication solutions to the academic community. Its Ubiquity product enables a multi-channel approach for campus communications by sending messages via email, text message, ticker desktop window, instant message and pop-up desktop alert (both PC and Mac). clearTXT currently provides over 70 educational organizations with distributed information delivery systems, including the University of Cincinnati, Seton Hall and the University of Memphis. For more information, visit www.cleartxt.com or call 1-866-472-1901 (toll free).
It's Official - Ubiquity Release
We are very pleased to announce the official release of the newest version of the clearTXT platform, Ubiquity. Ubiquity is a big step forward for clearTXT on many fronts. Please read the press release for details.
Microsoft Case Study
Our partner, Microsoft, just published a case study about the ways in which the University of Cincinnati increases information access and quality of life for its students, teachers, and staff. The University of Cincinnati is one of the most progressive schools in the country, and this case does a nice job of illustrating that fact. clearTXT is a central part of their mobile initiative and is highlighted in the case study.
Please take a moment to read the case study and forward it to colleagues. The case study is located at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=201333
Mobility In Education Community -- Press Release
clearTXT launched the Mobility in Education Community for schools looking to use mobile phones and other mobile technologies in education.
Research Triangle Park, NC, February 8, 2007 – Visit any college campus and you’ll see students talking on and sending text messages with their cell phones. The popularity and ubiquity of cell phones is leading many schools to explore ways of using cell phones and other mobile technologies for educational purposes. Today, North Carolina based clearTXT Inc, introduced the Mobility in Education Community (www.mobecom.org), a site created to help these schools and promote the growing opportunities and promise of mobile technology in education.
The Mobility in Education Community provides various tools for gathering information about mobile technologies, learning best practices for integrating mobility into education, and sharing ideas.
“The purpose of the community is to provide a single destination for anyone interested in expanding and improving the use of mobile technologies in academia,” explained Dr. Doug Kaufman, CEO of clearTXT and creator of the community. “We hope that, whenever a school considers using any type of mobile technology, mobecom.org is their first stop. They can gather information, post questions to the discussion list, and find out what people from other schools are doing with mobile technologies.”
One of the unique aspects of the site is the perspective on “mobility”. According to Dr. Kaufman, “when using the term ‘mobile’, most people and organizations mean the mobile phone. However, we believe that mobile refers to any technology that facilitates the delivery of information to people wherever they are, regardless of their device.”
The website is hosted and maintained by clearTXT, but they do not allow advertising or sales. The website states, “clearTXT is a for-profit company, but we pledge to keep our sales pitches out of the community.” According to Dr. Kaufman, “this is a place to learn from each other and grow as a community, not for us or anyone else to sell products.”
