Patent ID: 7966020

Claim:
A method for notifying a group of wireless device users of an event, the method comprising: providing an algorithm from a notification server to each of a plurality of wireless devices for controlling a location updating process to obtain location data for the wireless device; receiving the location data from the wireless device at the notification server; storing the location data in a spatial database, wherein the spatial database associates the location data with a geographic region; receiving a request and a description of a geographic area in which a notification message associated with the request is to be distributed, wherein the geographic area comprises at least a portion of at least one geographic region; mapping the description of the geographic area to the plurality of wireless devices using the location data stored in the spatial database, wherein the mapping identifies the location of the wireless devices relative to the geographic area, at least one of the wireless devices being identified as being located within the geographic area; issuing the notification message to each wireless device identified as being located within the geographic area; receiving a subsequent request and a corresponding description of a geographic area; and updating the algorithm based on the subsequent request.