Boilers test text channel for emergencies

As a loyal Indiana fan, I’m not one to toot the horn of our in-state academic neighbors to the north often, but this merits a little noise:

Purdue University will conduct what is believed to be the first large-scale, real-world test of using text messaging to issue emergency alerts.

The test, which will begin on Monday, Sept. 24, will involve more than 7,200 volunteers who will accept the test messages and respond so that researchers can track the actual time it takes to deliver messages to a mass audience.
From PhysOrg.com, “Purdue to test the limits of text messaging“

Purdue has been one of the leaders in examining texting technology as a means of communicating to the campus population (specifically students) during emergency situations. The project is a reaction to the tragic shootings on the Virginia Tech campus last spring, when 33 people—including the gunman—died in the massacre. In the aftermath, school officials were taken to task about their inability to properly warn students. It has since been suggested that cell phone text messages or Facebook content would be useful channels to quickly communicate alerts. Other universities have announced plans to use text messages as an emergency notification system—and some, like Princeton, have tested large-scale phone trees—but on Monday, Purdue will be the first to put text messaging to the test.

The experiment will examine the infrastructure and time the spread of the alert messages. There are several factors that can delay delivery, such as cell tower proximity, strength of signal, and volume of traffic on the system at the time. Researchers hope to gather evidence showing this is a good enough channel to incorporate into the Boilermakers’ own emergency announcement system, or to identify which engineering problems need to be addressed before doing so. The data will be shared with other institutions. Of great interest from an HCI design perspective is if the test will account for the courteous practice, sometimes enforced by teachers, of disallowing use of cell phones and laptops in the classroom.

As with other state schools, Indiana University has ramped up their own system development. The school has added voice capabilities to the tornado alert system, with plans to explore texting later in the fall. Ivy Tech announced their texting system last month, rolled out for testing in Central Indiana campuses only.