Translating Twitter for campus disasters

Bucket Brigade is available for free on Android mobile devices.

Twitter just got even more concise: Students, faculty members, and campus administrators can tweet more efficiently with an application that provides a shortcut for asking for #Help or telling loved ones #Imok.

Bucket Brigade Keyboard, a free app for Android devices developed by University of Colorado (CU) doctoral student Daniel Schaefer, uses an alternative keyboard to translate Twitter chatter into syntax used during fires, earthquakes, floods, or campus shootings.

Creating a common language for emergencies, Schaefer said, could improve social media communication during the tense first hours of a natural disaster or security incident. Students, in other words, won’t be yelling into the void of tweets and random hashtags.…Read More

Ford & Zipcar join social forces to get college students behind the wheel

Ford and Zipcar have entered a two-year agreement that will make Ford the largest automotive source for Zipcar U, the short-term car rental company’s university program, Mashable reports. Zipcar U is on more than 250 college campuses across the U.S. As part of the launch, the first 100,000 students to sign up for the service will save $10 from the $35 annual fee. Additionally, $1 will be deducted from the hourly rate of the first million hours of rentals at select universities…

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