Safety
Emergency, Emergency.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
It is very easy these days to be instantly updated. Wireless networks, text messaging, and RSS feeds have all but eliminated the need to be tied to a static location in order receive news or information. So in this world of instant-getification, a question that has been on my mind this morning is “How soon is soon enough?”
A couple of days ago, Kelly Sutton of HackCollege.com posted a distressing account of a shooting on his LMU campus in Los Angeles. Even though his school had an emergency notification system in place, it didn’t work fast enough. The shooting happened at 9:50 pm. He didn’t get notified until 12:51 am. Wowza. That’s (theoretically) three hours of time that that shooter could have been roaming the campus.
So what does this have to do with ASU? We have that fancy Emergency Text service, right? The one advertised square on the front page of ASU.edu? We’re covered, right?
After reading a comment from an anonymous ASU student to another post at HackCollege, I would have to say the answer to this question is a big fat yes and no.
The ASU service is open to students, faculty, and staff. It’s voluntary to opt-in to the service. According to the ASU student’s comment, the current service has the capacity to send out 15 messages per second.* Just for kicks, I’ll assume 65,000 subscribers. Join me on the next line as I attempt a little dimensional analysis:
(65,000 subscribers) / (15 messages/second) x (60 seconds/minute) x (60 minutes/hour) = 1hr 12min
Going back to my initial question for this post, I think 1hr 12min is officially not soon enough to notify students, faculty, and staff of emergencies. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a lot better than nothing. I just think we can do better. HackCollege suggested last month that colleges and other large organizations should look into using Twitter for mass communication. Here’s the concept:
- ASU sets up a Twitter account titled “Emergency Notification”
- Students, faculty, staff subscribe to “Emergency Notification” by setting up a (free) Twitter account.
- Students, faculty, staff receive communication via Twitter when ASU adds an update to “Emergency Notification” account.
Something that makes this an attractive alternative is the ability to access your Twitter account from just about anywhere. A popular way to receive notifications (called Tweets) is via text message. But it certainly does not end there. Just check out the Twitter Fan Wiki to see a current list of options. Holy Crap. I think it’s safe to say that no matter where someone is, they can receive a notification via Twitter. I’m still on the lookout for a toilet that is Twitter compatible.
So, ASU - whaddya say? Is it time to look for an upgrade? Let’s talk.
*speed claim awaiting verification from ASU officials.
Discussion
6 comments for “Emergency, Emergency.”
Post a comment
Great follow-up, Alan =)
Thanks Kelly. I’ll be anxious to see what reaction I get from the school.
The limitation of 900 messages a minute has nothing to do with the hardware or software at ASU. That limitation is plcaed on all facilitators by the cell phone carriers.
There is additional speed/bandwidth available but at a substantial fixed monthly cost.
900 to 1000 a minutes is light years faster then email or voice call out systems.
You must also consider a focused text message transmission issue not in your calculations.
What happens if 10,000 of those cell phones were in a single cell tower location?
Some url sites or software for text messages are one-way. A system with fully functional two-way text message capability should be mandatory.
Rick,
Thanks for bringing all this information to the table. I am assuming that you were part of the setup and that we have partnered with your company to roll out this invaluable service?
From what you are saying, it sounds like ASU has the opportunity to speed up the distribution of these emergency messages if we are willing to spend the money. Out of curiosity, how fast could we potentially reach everyone with the system that is currently in place?
Because of these limitations placed upon everyone by the cell phone companies, I would think it makes sense to use a system that is capable of transmitting communication simultaneously to a variety of mediums. That’s why the Twitter idea was intriguing for me. Each subscriber has the opportunity to receive communication via hundreds of possible outlets.
With a service such as Twitter, it seems as though a subscriber is not relying 100% on their cell phone in order to be informed of an emergency. In your opinion, does this possibility have any merit as an alternative solution to rapid mass communication?
We are not part of ASU’s alert system but are part of other Colleges and Universities around the country. Text messaging should not be the exclusive means to send out alerts, but because it is the quickest and the most likely to reach the end-user, it should be the first message sent out. Software or application providers that use urls, cell phones as modems, or locally installed software not using a provisioned “Short Code” take huge chances the messages may not be delivered and have no means to validate the phone numbers. In addition, I want to stress again the importance of a two-way system. This will also allow students, faculty and staff that may not be in a position to speak on the phone the abiltiy to text in updates status, locations of the intruder(s) etc. to the first responders.
We have the ability to ramp up to as many as 1,000 text messages per second, but there is a rather expensive monthly fee for that access.
[...] on the same campus have a lot to gain from using Twitter (think emergency and non-emergency alerts via Twitter), but I think that Twittering across campus is a great way for students to build [...]