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Blackboard Connect Supports Growth of New York City's Successful Notification Program

Posted on: Thursday, 4 June 2009, 15:05 CDT

Notify NYC expands to bring important alerts to residents citywide

WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- New York City's closely watched notification and alert program expanded recently to serve residents citywide, thanks to the success of the initiative's pilot phase which has been supported by Blackboard Connect(TM) mass notification technology from Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB).

Notify NYC began in December 2007 as a pilot program covering four neighborhoods. Since then, New York's Office of Emergency Management has successfully delivered important and relevant messages to thousands of city residents. Last week the program expanded to cover the entire city, and residents can sign up to receive alerts - via text, email and voicemail messages - on everything from public health warnings, natural disasters and AMBER alerts to subway delays, school closures and alternate side parking changes.

"Anyone will be able to sign up for neighborhood-specific emergency alerts on their cell phone, email, or home landline," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "You can be just about anywhere and receive instantaneous information about events of concern in your community, or any other area of the city. Many New Yorkers have this technology in their pockets, and I'm glad that their government can now supply them with timely emergency information."

Drawing on the experience gained in delivering over 1 billion messages for more than 2,500 government and education organizations nationwide, the Blackboard Connect platform has enabled officials at state and local governments, federal and military agencies and K-12 and higher education institutions to reach residents, students and parents quickly, regardless of their location or preferred method of communication.

"We're proud to partner with New York in expanding this successful program that can help New Yorkers be more engaged and aware of events around them," Brendan Cotter, President of Blackboard Connect for Government. "We've worked for years with large cities, agencies, institutions and systems that have the same goals and challenges that New York does in making their notification program successful, and look forward to leveraging that experience to support a greater number of residents."

The Blackboard Connect platform focuses on multi-modal communication: sending messages through multiple modes of communication to ensure a greater probability that more individuals can be reached more quickly. The platform supports voice messages to land lines, cell phones and satellite phones; text messages to cell phones, PDAs, networked digital signage and other text-based devices; text messages to e-mail accounts; and messages to TTY/TDD receiving devices for the hearing impaired.

Notify NYC is the product of a multi-year mayoral initiative to enhance and strengthen the City's public communication systems and improve the coordination of public information during major events. Notify NYC will integrate information and technology services for multiple City agencies, and provide the public with a one-stop destination for time-sensitive and important notifications.

New York City residents can sign up for the Notify NYC alerts online at http://www.nyc.gov or by calling 311. Residents can register multiple email addresses or phone numbers, and can elect to receive different types of alerts.

For more information about Blackboard Connect solutions, please visit http://www.blackboard.com/Alert-Notification/Connect-Platform.aspx.

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day. Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-Q filed on May 7, 2009 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of June 4, 2009. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to June 4, 2009.

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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