Patent ID: 8291011

Claim:
A system for communicating a message to a plurality of recipients, each recipient being associated with a respective communications device, each device being a respective one of a plurality of device types, each device having a respective address, the system comprising a processor and a memory containing instructions executable by the processor to provide: a dispatch module for receiving the alert message, message subscriber data, and recipient identification criteria, the message subscriber data identifying ones of the recipients and their associated communications devices and addresses, wherein the dispatch module is for compiling a list of the recipients based in part on the message subscriber data, and wherein the dispatch module is for communicating with a communications node accessible to the system for receiving from the communications node an identification of ones of the communications devices accessible via that communications node based on the recipient identification criteria, wherein the recipient identification criteria specify a logical or physical proximity of the devices to the communications node or a specified location, wherein the dispatch module is further for compiling the list of the recipients based in part on the identification received from the communications node, wherein the communications node is a network access point which is wired or wireless, and at least one of the communications devices accessible via that communications node is different from the communications devices identified in the message subscriber data; a delivery module for receiving from the dispatch module the message and the list of the recipients, the delivery module being further for receiving the device addresses based on the list of the recipients, the delivery module being further for communicating the message to the devices, the delivery module having for each device type a corresponding delivery sub-module for communicating the message to the devices of that device type; and a database for receiving and storing the message, the list of the recipients, an identifier for each recipient, the device types, and the device addresses.