Following is a pretty interesting write-up from our friends at Springwise on Nixle, a new location-based social community messaging tool that lets neighbors communicate with each other, while offering secure messaging by local government and municipal agencies. Based on the hyper-local targeting abilities, it will be interesting to keep an eye on this to see if there become any marketing opportunities for nearby retailers and the like.

Here’s how it works. Through Nixle’s community information service, granular, location-based information is pushed out directly to the community by SMS, Web & e-mail. Neighborhood residents can broadcast locally targeted news, events & recommendations. Additionally, thanks to a partnership with Nlets (who provide messaging services for law enforcement agencies), Nixle says it is the first authenticated & secure service for connecting municipal agencies, schools & community organizations with residents in real time. This means police departments can send alerts and advisories to residents, right from their police terminals.

Nixle is offered at no cost to government agencies, community organizations and consumers. Local residents can decide how much information they want to receive in real time; and all messages are archived online for later access.

Since Nixle launched publicly about a year ago, more than 3,800 public safety and community agencies across the United States have begun using it.

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