Comment on Teammate Kathleen's Blog

I was just looking through my teammates blogs and I noticed a post made by Kathleen on the article about Virginia Tech that we discussed in class. The article discussed how certain information tools could have been used to faster warn students about the gunman on campus. There was a huge time difference between when the first shooting happened and when a warning email went out to the students. A difference of two hours could have saved alot of lives.
Kathleen discusses the use of a text message alert system that goes out to all the students in case of emergency. I think this would be an extremely effective tool considering so many students always have their cell phones with them and constantly check them and text message. Kathleen brings up a good point when she said this system could have a downside if the phone numbers fall into the wrong hands. She states that phones could turn into something like email and spam could fill up our in-boxes. Getting spam in email is annoying enough, so spam in a phone would be so much more annoying.
Kathleen also cites how effective the use of blogs can be in emergency situations. According to the article, blog posts were up two minutes after the second shooting occured. If more students were aware of blogs, this could be a very effective tool. Kathleen mentions how many students are always using the networking site Facebook. She also says that the article states "Virginia Tech: If You Are OK, Please Update Your Facebook Profile." This just shows has resourceful facebook and other sites can be. If a student was wondering if one of their friends was okay, all he would need to do is check to seen if there was activity on the friends facebook page.
Kathleen says that she doesn't think the school is to blame for the incident, considering it was a domestic dispute that evolved into much more. No one could have anticipated what would later occur. However, she goes on to say that the school could have researched better ways about how to inform students of a pending emergency.
Many other institutions are being affected by this incident. Schools are now more aware of the need for a better emergency awareness system. Hopefully one good thing that can come from the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech will be increased awareness and precatuion on campuses everywhere.