May 7, 2008
'Twittering' During a Campus Lockdown
Over on the blog bavatuesdays, a professor tells of a visit yesterday to the University of Richmond for a lecture that was interrupted by a lockdown following reports of a gunman on the campus. As the audience sat in a dark, locked room awaiting their fates, hoping and praying that tragedy wouldn’t befall another Virginia university, they began communicating and comforting each other via Twitter.
“I found the act to be really soothing,” Jim Groom, an instructional-technology specialist and adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington, wrote on his blog. “People at UR were sharing information and giving advice to one another, while the larger network from around the world was sending regards, prayers, questions, and their well wishes.
“I had a very powerful sense that those ‘others’ were there with us from beyond that lab, or even the UR campus. I can’t fully explain why that felt so good, someone even offered a Safety dance from abroad, nothing like a laugh during a moment of untold strangeness. …
“For those thinking about a means to manage a crisis, I would put Twitter, or an application like it at the top of the list. It proved invaluable today for all sorts of reasons, and it made all the other means of connecting with others and collecting information dreadfully inadequate.”
Here’s a link to Mr. Groom’s tweets from the day. —Catherine Rampell
Posted on Wednesday May 7, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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ASU has an emergency text service, but it’s not as fast as Twitter (when Twitter isn’t down). I think this would be a great idea for Universities looking to start a crisis communication service.
Just start a Twitter account, and have all the students and faculty “follow” the group. Then they can get updates on whichever service they decide to check their Twitter account. Cellphone – widget – IM – email.
With rumors surfacing that Twitter is moving away from Ruby on Rails, I wonder what they have planned for speed/reliability…
— Alan Bradford May 7, 05:06 PM #
Great Twitter always supports us!
— Igor Poltavskiy May 8, 04:59 AM #
As the webmaster for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, I have been experimenting with social networking apps and was on Twitter this past Tuesday. I heard about the lockdown two minutes after it started – since one of my Twitter buddies is a librarian at UofR. Thanks to Twitter, SCHEV knew about the situation before the local news picked it up.
— Kirsten McKinney May 8, 08:31 AM #
I’ve long wondered why time-wasters such as this are called “utilities.” But it looks like someone may actually have found a practical use for this one. I’d love to write more, but I gotta go feed my Webkin.
— GRF May 8, 12:03 PM #
Dear UR,
I am thankful that your campus responds to to an imminent danger in a responsive & courageous way. VT had the time (2+ hours) & technology, but chose not to notify – for VT, it’s all about money.
I am also thankful that you didn’t have to discover that VA’s sovereign immunity laws promote a culture of lack of accountability & favor an inept administration over innocent victims.
— Debster May 9, 02:02 PM #