Officials deem security test successful
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 09/25/2007
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Although it may take a few weeks to analyze all data collected from Monday's test of the University's Emergency Notification System, officials deemed the test successful.
"The objective is to gather data," said Scott Ksander, executive director of Information Technology networks and security. "We have data, and good data."
University officials sent nearly 77,000 combined text and e-mail messages at 11:25 a.m. Monday. All text messages and e-mails had been sent out within seven minutes. The University asked that recipients reply to the messages to judge the amount of time it took for the notifications to be received and to see which method worked better.
"I'd give a slight edge to the e-mail because of sheer volume," Ksander said.
The test, which was funded by a donation from Verizon Wireless, is the first in the nation done on such a large scale.
Just fewer than 10,000 students, staff and faculty signed up to receive the emergency text message test. A total of 19,887 text messages were sent, however, because some people received two messages: an opt-out message, which participants were told to ignore, and the actual test text.
Ksander said more than 2,000 positive replies were received from text messaging within 10 minutes of sending the message. About 865 people responded in that same amount of time to the e-mail they received.
"(We) did anticipate increased positive confirmation from text messaging," Ksander said, because students are more likely to be closer to their phones than their computers.
But sending emergency notifications via text messaging is complex. Ksander said there is a diverse population of cell phones, cell phone plans and cell phone vendors used on campus.
"This test will also give us information about how the vendors work here," he said, "and help us to understand the differences in vendors and differences in the plans."
Because the texts and e-mails were sent at the same time, it will be possible to analyze which system works better for emergency notifications.
"There is no single path here," Ksander said. "We want to find which are the shorter paths."
Christina Harp, a senior in the College of Agriculture, received her emergency text message test at 11:30 Monday; she thought the five minute difference was a short amount of time. She said sending text messages to students is a good way to reach them.
"I figured it could be a fast way," she said. "And why not help (the University) and make their job easier?"