August 22, 2008
Should Emergency Notification Go Interactive on Social Networks?
Colleges are experimenting with social networks — including Facebook and MySpace — to deliver emergency alerts, as detailed in a free Chronicle article today.
Some officials are excited by the ability of social networks to make emergency information interactive, allowing students, professors, or administrators to report on-the-ground details if disaster strikes that could help emergency officials or others on campus. But other campus emergency officials feel that official university pages should not be open to outside comment, for fear that people could post rumors or false information that could do more harm than good. Do you think your campus should allow interactive emergency alerts?
Posted on Friday August 22, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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An emergency notification must be delivered by a controlled or contracted source. Any suggestion that a university will use social network sites for emergency notification could invite hoaxes — and a hoax could put students, faculty, staff, emergency response personel, and community members at considerable risk. My advice would be no, never.
— Cathie M. Currie Aug 25, 07:53 AM #
even the most avid facebook users still check their e-mail more than they check facebook. If you have facebook constantly running, odds are you also have e-mail constantly running. This would provide no benefit over the current notification systems, and as Cathie mentions it would open up the possibility of greater problems.
— Katherine Aug 25, 08:40 AM #
I’m not sure I agree with Katherine and Cathie.
When you remember how much facebook was used by students and media to get/find the news after the Virginia Tech Tragedy, it really make sense for institutions to be part of this conversation, even if it’s just to stop rumors that can start in these uncontrolled spaces.
When Union University was hit by 2 tornadoes and its website went down, they used facebook and a blog to keep information flowing.
Now, I’m not sure that a social networking website designed tol be used just for emergencies will do the job. It makes sense to incorporate the features in the daily activities of its potential users, but they won’t probably remember to log in if something happens.
— Karine Joly Aug 25, 09:26 AM #
To clarify my first comment:
The college/university website is either directly controlled or contracted by the school, and is the appropriate site for emergency notifications. An ‘alert window’ on the homepage and/or the start page for registered IPs, could be dormant but keyed open instantly (by a wide range of decision makers) to contain an alert and a link to a page with further information and an input mechanism.
I would never suggest a separate only-for-emergencies site. As Karine notes, a site designed only for emergencies would not be even minimally effective.
— Cathie M. Currie Aug 25, 12:32 PM #
Katherine, I don’t think your assertion that “even the most avid facebook users still check their e-mail more than they check facebook” is true for many young people. Do you have any data supporting that assertion? There are many anecdotes, including some in my own experience, of being able to reach college students easier using Facebook than with e-mail. I’ll have to dig through some things to double-check but that seems to be in accord with the published research.
I agree with Karine and Cathie that a separate “social networking tool” (I’m hesitant to even use that label; how could such a tool effectively incorporate social networking?) for emergencies will probably be ineffective for many emergencies, particularly those of smaller scope and shorter duration. But I’m happy to see interest and experimentation in this area!
— Kevin Guidry Aug 25, 01:52 PM #
I found that student are much more responsive to social networking sites than to email. true they may have email going all day, but are they really reading listserv messages? There are some great 3rd part software providers like OrgSync.com that let the campus create and control the social networking and can have an alert messaging and text messaging capability. I think text messaging will be the most effective and fastest way to get to students, but it will also be good to open as many paths to get info out as possible.
— john Aug 25, 07:57 PM #