Wesley LoweryFor The Post''Trying to send a text message to more than 4,000 students during an emergency would be like wedging Columbus traffic into Athens, according to a new report.
Just imagine taking rush hour traffic from downtown Columbus and putting it in Athens
said Patrick Traynor, an assistant professor of computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Traynor said Ohio University's emergency text message alert system would clog phone lines and potentially keep students and faculty from placing and receiving phone calls. Traynor released a report in September outlining faults with emergency text alert systems.
Assistant Vice President for Safety and Risk Management David Hopka said there is a lot of reason for a lack of optimism in text message alerts, but added that he is cautiously optimistic about OU's system.
OU made the system available to faculty members and students last winter as part of the emergency notification plan.
The service notifies participants via text message in the event of an emergency. Students and faculty can sign up for the messages at www.ohio.edu/emergency by providing their phone number and service provider.
According to Sean O'Malley, OU's Information Technology communications manager, a total of 4,855 people were registered for the program as of Oct. 7. Of these, 4,247 are students, while 608 are faculty members, said O'Malley.
Phone networks especially cellular phone networks have a small network and very small outreach potential
Traynor said, The system may possibly prevent people from dialing 911 in the event of an emergency because there are not enough cellular resources on a college campus.-
said Traynor. Because everyone is using their phones
text messages take hours or days if they are received at all.
While Hopka acknowledged multiple reasons that a message may not reach a student, he said the IT department is working to correct these issues.
I am very pleased with what our tests have shown
said Hopka.
OU's text message system has been tested twice, once in September 2007 and again in May 2008. According to O'Malley, only 403 recipients responded to the May test, as opposed to 1,154 in the first test.
Despite the drop-off in participation, O'Malley said that the results of both tests were consistent.
We've gotten very similar results from both tests so far
said O'Malley, We plan on doing another test later this quarter.
During the initial test, 80 percent of respondents said they received the message within six minutes, while an additional 10 percent received the message within half an hour.
Forty-nine respondents, about 4 percent of total respondents, said they did not receive the message at all.
Hopka said that the flaws illuminated in both tests were expected before the system was implemented, and future tests will improve the system.
We always anticipated setbacks with text messages
said Hopka. Nothing is fool-proof.wl373808@ohiou.edu
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