God bless the dead at Virginia Tech and the people who love them. Some thoughts:
- Text messaging is the best possible communication tool in the event of a fast-moving emergency. Email is good, but text messaging is better— immediate push, more mobile to get info where it’s needed, and the devices are ubiquitous
- Loosely coupled, unofficial communication that is based on official info is the best. Many blame the University for not putting out an email alert until two hours after the first incident. They should have sent an email earlier, but it’s easy to understand why they might think twice before sounding the alarm based on what they knew at the time
- However, the essential info— that 2 people were shot in a dorm and that the killer was on the loose— was probably discernible from the police scanners. If a local scanner aficionado had access to a text alert system, they could have notified hundreds or thousands of people in one swoop, without the strictures that University and police officials work under. Those people can notify hundreds of other people, especially in a confined area like a classroom
- A system like this would lead to more “false positives”— alerts that ending up being unnecessary— but if the system is opt-in, you only get what you signed up for. If enough people are in the system, you’ll get enough coverage to make it effective