# Alert messaging

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alert_messaging
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alert_messaging.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert_messaging
> Source revision: 1304000942
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Machine-to-person communication that is important or time sensitive}}
{{redirect|Alerts|other uses of "alert"|Alert (disambiguation)}}
'''Alert messaging''' (or '''alert notification''') is machine-to-person communication that is important or time-sensitive. An alert may be a calendar reminder or a notification of a new message.

Alert messaging emerged from the study of [personal information management](/source/personal_information_management) (PIM),{{Fact|date=April 2009}} the science of discovering how people perform certain tasks to acquire, organize, maintain, retrieve and use information relevant to them. Alert notification is a natural evolution of the concept of [RSS](/source/RSS)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mallawaarachchi|first1=Vijini|last2=Meegahapola|first2=Lakmal|last3=Madhushanka|first3=Roshan|last4=Heshan|first4=Eranga|last5=Meedeniya|first5=Dulani|last6=Jayarathna|first6=Sampath|date=2020-05-29|title=Change Detection and Notification of Web Pages: A Survey|url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3369876|journal=ACM Computing Surveys|language=en|volume=53|issue=1|pages=1–35|doi=10.1145/3369876|issn=0360-0300|arxiv=1901.02660|s2cid=57759312 }}</ref> which makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner. Alerting makes it possible for people to keep up with the information that matters most to them.

Alerts are typically delivered through a [notification system](/source/notification_system) and the most common application of the service is machine-to-person communication. Very basic services provide notification services via email or [SMS](/source/SMS). More advanced systems (for example [AOL](/source/AOL)) provides users with the choice of selecting a preferred delivery channel such as e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS), instant messaging (IM), via voice through voice portals, [desktop alerts](/source/desktop_alerts) and more. Novel approaches provide users with the ability to schedule their own alerts (for example [Outlook Calendar](/source/Outlook.com)). The most sophisticated service providers embrace all capabilities, aggregating a multitude of reminder, notifications and alert, catering the delivery system to the specific context of the content being delivered thus enabling users to create sophisticated scenarios.

==Alerts and spam==
The notion of content being delivered to users has received negative connotation over the years{{Fact|date=April 2009}} and is sometimes labeled as [spamming](/source/Spam_(electronic)), particularly for information that hasn't been requested by the user. The advent of technologies such as [RSS](/source/RSS) and now alert notification are an effort directed to creating an antithesis to spam: the information being received by users is exclusively from opt-in requests.

==FCC==
The [Federal Communications Commission](/source/Federal_Communications_Commission) is continually working to improve their ability to put in place a notification system in case of emergency, in an attempt to help protect citizens.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Von Ah|first=Andrew|date=6 February 2020|title=EMERGENCY ALERTING: Agencies Need to Address Pending Applications and Monitor Industry Progress on System Improvements|url=https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/704365.pdf|journal=GAO Report|pages=62|via=MasterFILE Premier}}</ref> The first system was the [Emergency Broadcast System](/source/Emergency_Broadcast_System), an emergency warning system in the United States, used from 1963 to 1997, when it was replaced by the [Emergency Alert System](/source/Emergency_Alert_System). On April 9, 2008, the FCC approved an emergency alert text-messaging system so that cellular telephone users can get text message alerts in case of emergencies.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Batchelor|first=Laura |author2=Jennifer Rizzo|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/09/fcc.cell.phone.alert/index.html?eref=rss_tech/|title=FCC approves emergency alert text-messaging system|publisher=CNN.com|date=10 April 2008|access-date=2 March 2011}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Jones, W. (2008). ''Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management''. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. ''Book info at:'' [http://www.elsevierdirect.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780123708663 Morgan Kaufmann]| [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0123708664 Amazon] {{ISBN|978-0-12-370866-3}}
* Jones, W. & Teevan, J. (Eds.) (2007). ''Personal Information Management''. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. ''Book info at:'' [http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/JONPEP.html University of Washington Press]| [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0295987375 Amazon] {{ISBN|978-0-295-98737-8}}

==See also==
*[Google Alerts](/source/Google_Alerts)
*[AlertOps](/source/Alertops)

==External links==
* [https://www.google.com/alerts Google Alerts]

Category:Personal information managers

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alert messaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert_messaging) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert_messaging?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.