Margaret Stuart, Managing Director of BlackBerry Canada launches the Most Valuable BBM network to aid in locating lost children. - Photo by Gadjo SevillaBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Putting technology to the service of communities was the message today at the Toronto Police Service HQ in downtown Toronto where the Missing Children Society of Canada, Most Valuable Network and CodeSearch teamed up with BlackBerry to launch a BBM channel specifically for helping locate lost children.
The launch event featured Dr. Alok Mukherjee of the Toronto Police Services Board, Amanda Pick of the Missing Children Society of Canada, BlackBerrys managing director Margaret Stuart and Richard Bartrem, VP of communications for WestJet as well as Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.
"There's no greater responsibility than to take care of our children," Blair said. "We need all Canadians to get involved in this initiative and for them to get involved, they need to be informed."
By using the BBM Channel for the Missing Children Society of Canada can update subscribers on missing children complete with photos and all the necessary information that law enforcement has to share.
One of the roadblocks in enabling mass adoption of the BBM Channels app is that some companies' corporate systems don't allow the installation of certain apps.
The MCSC Channel on BBM is available on BlackBerry 10, iOS and Android devices
This means that BBM may be outlawed by certain corporate CIO's.
Chief Blair and the Missing Children Society of Canada say that enabling this feature will put the ability to help get the word out on missing children to corporate users.
"We need to put emerging and availble technologies to good use," said Dr. Alok Mukherjee of the Toronto Police Services Board.
The Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC) named BBM Channels the "Most Valuable Instant Messaging Service" as part of the group's Milk Carton 2.0: The World's Most Valuable Project.
The Milk Carton 2.0 project's goal is to define new ways to find missing children.
Social media's immediacy is key because the first hours after a child goes missing are the most important in the search.
BBM Channels lets users connect with the broader BBM community beyond their personal BBM contacts.
With more than 91 million monthly active BBM users around the world, MCSC will be able to access a large social network and send a content-rich, geo-targeted message to quickly get people involved in the search for missing children through the MCSC BBM Channel ( Channel ID: C0012598C).
BBM Channels is available within BBM on BlackBerry, iPhone and Android smartphones by downloading BBM in BlackBerry World, the Apple App Store, or Google Play.