The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • B7

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013 The Boston Globe Business B7 Everbridge filled communications gap in blast The goal is to simplify communications in high pressure situations. With Everbridge's assistance, Rooney said, convention center officials were able to communicate the need to evacuate to roughly 200 employees simultaneously. Even after the initial terror and urgency had faded, Rooney said, Everbridge's software continued to help. "Later that night," Rooney said, "we used it to give all our employees direction on the next day that we would be open for business, but there would be restrictions on access to the Hynes." vard Business School. By the end of Monday, hundreds of thousands of messages had been sent about the bombings using Everbridge's products, Ellertson said.

Everbridge's employees monitored the aftermath of the bombings mainly via computer from the company's operations center in Los Angeles, where multiple televisions were tuned to news coverage in Boston. In most, if not all, cases, the company's customers used previously crafted messages such as "Are you safe?" combined with prompts, like pushing a specific telephone button to respond, to communicate where they were and what was happening, and frazzled, is choosing who is going to receive the message," Ellertson said. At Pearson, for example, executive vice president John La-Vacca said the software first helped gather the company's incident command team, which is responsible for implementing the company's safety plan, on a conference call. The system then helped the group notify employees of what had happened. The technology was also used to verify the safety of employees in the Boylston Street office, which was accomplished by sending workers a message asking them to assure the company of their safety.

One worker, a spectator at the Marathon, was injured but is already home and expected to recover, LaVacca said. At the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center and the Boston Common Garage, meanwhile, the software notified employees via text and e-mail that both facilities were being shut down and would be swept by law enforcement dogs, said James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. "It was scary because there was a great deal of uncertainty about what might happen next," Rooney added. "On the list of targets, convention centers, arenas, and stadiums are always prominent." EVERBRIDGE Continued from Page B5 pagers, faxes, even electronic billboards or road signs. "So many people their reaction is, 'Oh my God, is John running? Is our employee Bill safe? Are our friends in Boston, our family, said Everbridge chief executive Jaime Ellertson.

Everbridge, which has its East Coast headquarters in Waltham, helped provide the answer for many in Boston. The company, which has about 75 local employees, services nearly 2,000 customers, including Boston Children's Hospital, Boston advertising agency Arnold Worldwide, and Har to coordinate their efforts. The goal is to simplify communications in high pressure situations by providing clients with ready-to-use alerts that can be sent networkwide or to a select few say those living or working closest to the site of the bombings. "All you're doing at the time of the emergency, when you're PHOTOS BY KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Stephanie's on Newbury as the Back Bay restaurant reopened Wednesday to a bustling lunch crowd. block, Back Bay begins to recover ErinAilworth can be reached at eailworthglobe.com.

Follow her on Twitter ailworth. Marathon medals for sale online MEDALS Continued from Page B5 eBay, with bids ranging from $162.50 to $306. "I think it's absolutely horrible," said Ashworth, who finished the Marathon a half-hour before the explosions and whose twin sister completed it just nine minutes before the bombs detonated. "I don't know of any runners who would do that and sell their medals for a profit," Ashworth said. "I know several friends haven't gotten medals who were stopped at the 25-mile mark.

A lot of people left the city or didn't want to go back to the site." Some runners reported that the Boston Athletic Association handed out medals to runners picking up their belongings at the Park Plaza Castle. Ashworth's husband and the company's president, Dan Ashworth, said he believes the medals were probably stolen after the blasts. "It's just disgusting," he said. "Everyone was evacuated, so the medals were probably just left there for anyone to take." An eBay official said the company does not allow listings that "graphically portray, glorify, or attempt to profit from human tragedy or suffering" and added that teams are monitoring listings to ensure they comply. In addition, people can report items to eBay for review.

But as of Wednesday evening, all five medal listings remained. Ashworth Awards, which has made Boston Marathon medals for 31 years, provided 26,000 of them to the Boston Athletic Association before the race. The Ashworths said they would work with the association if requested to help provide medals to runners who did not receive them. Kim Ashworth said she has displayed medals from past marathons on the wall at her home, but this year's is still sitting on her night stand. "It will always have a different meaning to me.

There is a lot of sadness around it," she said. "There was such elation after finishing the event. I still have a sense of pride, but there is numbness. I haven't fully processed what happened." JennAbelson can be reached at abelsonglobe.com. phones version 4.0 or newer the versions code-named Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

If your phone is older, you're out of luck. Indeed, right now only a handful of Android phones are Home-compatible, such as the Samsung Galaxy III and Note II. There is no plan for an iPhone version. That's too bad; Apple's phone, with its traditional static icons, suddenly seems stuck in a time warp. Meanwhile, on a growing roster of Android phones, just switch on and watch your friends' view of the world start scrolling by.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at brayglobe.com. Shermine Kaschani relaxed at the Starbucks Coffee on Newbury Street as it again welcomed customers Wednesday. based coffee chain. The Starbucks at 755 Boylston adjacent to the scene of the second bomb explosion, suffered structural damage in the front of the shop, including shattered windows. "Thankfully, everyone in the store is safe and accounted for," Riley said.

She added that Starbucks will continue to compensate the employees for the hours they would have normally been scheduled to work while the store is closed. At Berkeley and Boylston Patrons filled patio tables at Block by BUSINESS RESUMES Continued from Page B5 residents to try to resume their regular routines, but disruptions persisted throughout the neighborhood. The Lenox and Charlesmark hotels remained closed, and several companies said they don't expect access to buildings that are part of the investigation zone until Monday. "We're losing business. It's difficult," said Mark Hagopian, operating partner at the Charlesmark Hotel.

"We're trying to get in touch with people and accommodate them at our other property or other hotels in Boston. We're doing the best we can." Across the street at the Mandarin Oriental, residents and guests with existing reservations were permitted inside, but the hotel's restaurants and spa were not open. Paulo Cunha Alves, the consul general of Portugal in Boston, said he was unsure when his staff could return to their offices at One Exeter Plaza. Until then, consulate employees are working from home, taking vacations, and like many others waiting to return to a sense of normalcy. Facebook TECH LAB Continued from Page B5 sor.

Battery life is better than decent. I did my usual test: hooking the phone to a Wi-Fi network and streaming the four-hour movie epic "Cleopatra." The First made it to the end with the battery still at 47 percent power. Any battery that can withstand Richard Burton's overacting should see you through a typical day. When you first start the phone, it demands your Face-book username and password. Once that's done, the phone's home screen basically turns into your Facebook news feed, the feature that displays a stream of comments and pho "We are safe, we are alive We just have to wait us and many other companies," Cunha Alves said.

At the Shops at Prudential Center, all but four of about 75 restaurants and stores were back in business. Around the corner on Newbury Street, thick crowds of shoppers replaced swarms of police officers, fire officials, and investigators who had occupied the retail district since Monday. Nearly every merchant was open, although many had security guards posted out front. "I would say it's a very normal Wednesday right now," said Derek Flodin, assistant general manager at Stephanie's on Newbury Street, which reopened on Wednesday to a steady flow of traffic and a bustling lunch crowd on the outdoor patio. A heavily armed guard stood outside the Taj hotel for a second straight day, while a pair of officers kept watch over the busy patio outside Starbucks on Newbury Street.

"We are incredibly saddened by the events there, and the safety of everyone is a priority for us," said Jaime Riley, a spokeswoman for the Seattle- software is tos posted by your friends. You can scroll from message to message with a sideways flick of the finger, but there's no need. Left alone, the feed quietly rolls across the screen, gently sliding from item to item. For some reason, updates aren't presented in strictly chronological order, but I seem to be seeing the prettiest ones. The overall effect is friendly and personal, reminiscent of Microsoft Windows Phone software, with its "live tiles," which provide constant updates on friends and family.

I found myself staring at the screen or flipping images back and forth for 15 minutes at a time. I have such interesting Facebook friends. And perhaps But reminders of Monday's event remained. Well-wishers posted signs on barricades and brick walls to express sympathy for the victims and their families, and encourage citygoers to bounce back. Many people congregated along the barricades to snap photos of police and the empty city blocks around the explosions.

Nearby, a pair of Buddhist monks spent much of the afternoon praying at a spot where people had left a large pile of flowers. TV reporters used the surreal scene as a backdrop for their live shots, with the staging for the Marathon's finish line looming in the distance. One young boy rode toward the barricades on his bicycle, singing aloud as he watched the armed guards and TV trucks. "There's a crime scene," he said to no one in particular. "No one knows what's going to happen.

A bomb went off." Beth Healy and ErinAilworth of the Globe staff 'contributed to this report. JennAbelson can be reached at abelsonglobe.com. Follow her on Twitter jenna-belson. Casey Ross can be reached at crossglobe.com. pops a window where you can reply by typing or using the speech-recognition feature.

You can carry on multiple conversations at once, even when talking on the First's speaker phone. The chat heads appear whenever a message ar-rives, no matter what app you're using, so you won't miss much. Still, the First is no "Face-book phone." It's a good, solid Android handset running an app that puts Facebook front and center. This is exactly the right way to do it, because it means many existing Android phones can run the same app. Many, but not all.

Facebook Home works only on Android right at home on newer Android streets, Pam Logan and Priscil-la Brown tried to put the bombings out of their minds while on break from their jobs at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. They said the area had started to get back to its typical rhythms, even as police and reporters from around the world continued to pulse through the streets. "It feels a little less like a memorial today," Logan said. "On Tuesday, there were a lot more marathoners on the streets with their jackets on. It seems more normal today." messages and Google Now updates appear as pop-ups on the Facebook Home screen.

This is especially important for fans of Google Now, which automatically alerts you to stuff that Google thinks you need to know, like traffic conditions between home and the office, the score of the Red Sox game, or when that package from Amazon.com is due to arrive. Available on Android versions 4.0 and newer, Google Now is among the smartest of smartphone apps, so Facebook was wise to blend it in. Facebook Home's most clever feature, called "chat heads," displays the images of friends who send you personal messages. Touch an image and up because their photo uploads fill the entire screen of the phone, they're more immersive than on a desktop or computer. A round icon at the bottom of the screen features the user's own Facebook image.

Dragging this icon lets you access the phone-dialing software as well as the standard array of Android apps. Among them is the full-featured Facebook app, where you can post status updates and upload photos in the usual way. Facebook Home shoves Google's software into the background. But key Android features, such as Gmail and the marvelous Google Now information service, are as accessible as ever. Incoming e-mail.