????導致三人死亡、數百人受傷的波士頓馬拉松賽爆炸案發生后，美國特警、拆彈小組、地方警察以及很多提供信息的公民為最終擊斃嫌犯發揮了重要作用，他們的貢獻永遠不會磨滅。但是還有一個默默無聞的參與者也在搜捕嫌犯的過程中貢獻了自己的力量，它就是由加州格蘭岱爾市的Everbridge公司開發的一個緊急預警平臺。

????警方在逐街逐巷搜索嫌犯的過程中就是通過Everbridge的預警平臺通知地方居民，同時確保他們的安全。在某個單位要進行預警時，只需要通過Everbridge按一個按鈕，就可以發送出數千條信息，哪怕通信基站出現故障時也能使用。（這個系統可以通過Wi-Fi發送短消息）。波士頓馬拉松爆炸案期間，當地不少企業利用這個系統確認員工的安全，醫院也使用它來向醫護人員發布指令，警方也利用它向居民發送安全警告和信息。沃特敦消防隊隊長馬里奧?奧朗吉奧說：“我們非常希望限制人們外出，以便于執法人員在城中行動。它幫我們把這個信息以最快的速度傳遞了出去，幫了很大的忙?！彼€補充道，在其中一次搜捕過程中，沃特敦的消防部門一度在１５分鐘的時間內發送了１１,０００條信息，正是這次搜捕行動最終抓獲了其中的一名嫌犯焦哈爾?特薩爾納耶夫。

????據Everbridge公司ＣＥＯ杰里?艾勒特森介紹，Everbridge是在２００２年的９１１事件后創辦的。傳統的電話通知法由于經常十分低效，不適宜在２１世紀傳播緊急預警信息，因此基本上已經被Everbridge所取代了。Everbridge的系統不僅可以發布信息，而且還鼓勵收件人給予簡短的回復，以便收集信息。比如像“你安全嗎”或“你需要醫療幫助嗎”等短信，讓收件人有機會把重要的信息回復給政府機構。波士頓兒童醫院（Children's Hospital）經常用Everbridge來給護士發送指令。爆炸案發生后的混亂期間，兒童醫院使用了Everbridge系統召集員工參加重要的電話會議。如果放在過去，就必須通過電話挨個地向員工發傳呼。這家醫院的應急管理協調員尼古拉斯?列維特說：“信息變化得非常快，我們也需要一個快速發布信息的方法?！?/p>

????其它一些情況下，經過設置，Everbridge系統可以重復撥打人們的電話，直到他們接聽為止，這個任務放在過去用傳統的電話通知法幾乎不可能完成。Everbridge公司ＣＥＯ艾勒特森說：“通訊本身可能不能改變人的生死，但它在改變人們的安全處境上大有可為?！盓verbridge的客戶現在可以用這套系統聯系到３,５００萬名美國人，不論他們身在都市的鋼鐵叢林里，還是在“龍卷風走廊”的荒原上。

????Manpower -- SWAT teams, bomb squads, K9 units, scores of local police officers, and citizens providing information -- will forever receive credit for bringing down the suspects linked to the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and wounded hundreds. But there was another, little-noticed participant in the manhunt: an emergency alert platform created by Glendale, Calif.-based Everbridge.

????It was Everbridge's system that enabled officers to keep locals informed -- and safe -- as they tore through suburban streets in search of the suspects. Everbridge allows single entities to send thousands of messages at the push of a button, even if cell towers are down. (The system can send texts using Wi-Fi). During Boston's marathon bombings, local companies used the system to verify the safety of employees, hospitals used it to relay information to nurses, and police updated citizens with safety alerts and messages. "We really wanted to limit people being out [on the streets] so that those law enforcement folks could maneuver around the town," says Watertown Fire Chief Mario Orangio. "By getting that message out as quickly as we did, it helped immensely." At one point during the manhunt that resulted in the capture of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Watertown Fire Department sent out 11,000 messages in a 15-minute span using Everbridge, he added.

????Everbridge, which was founded in 2002 following the September 11 attacks, has essentially replaced the phone tree, an inefficient and often ineffective way to spread emergency alerts in the 21st century. Everbridge's system not only sends out messages but also gathers information by prompting receivers to use short, simple responses. Questions like "Are you safe?" or "Do you need medical help?" are examples of messages that would allow receivers a chance to send important information back to authorities, says Everbridge CEO Jaime Ellertson. At Children's Hospital in Boston, Everbridge is used regularly to help staff nurses, says Nicholas Levitre, the hospital's emergency management coordinator. During the chaos following the bombings, Children's used the system to get nurses onto important conference calls, a task that used to require sending out individual pages using the telephone. "Information was changing so rapidly," says Levitre, "that we just needed a way to get it out quickly."

????In other instances, the Everbridge system can be programmed to repeatedly call people until they answer the phone, a task more or less impossible with the old phone tree system. "Communication by itself probably isn't the difference between life or death," says Ellertson, "but it certainly can be the difference between keeping people safe or not." Everbridge customers currently reach some 35 million Americans, from urban jungles to the plains of tornado alley.