Government Computer News
Emergency notification systems get the call
Shootings raise interest in large-scale communications
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ALERT SYSTEM: Alion’s Response Information Folder System can send alerts and updates, along with information on both building interiors and urban terrain.
The shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg April 16, in which a student killed 32 people and injured many more before taking his own life, underscored the need for mass-communication alerting systems, such as those already in use at some military bases, campuses and other locations, experts say.
Base alerts
Government agencies at the federal and state levels are deploying emergency notification systems that can send alerts to a wide range of communications devices, including desktop computers, cell phones and personal digital assistants. They also send alerts to large communities of people, from first responders to employees and citizens.
The Air Force Air Education and Training Command, for instance, uses an applica- tion from AtHoc that sends audiovisual pop-up alerts to the thousands of desktop computers of AETC personnel at bases where it has been deployed.
The AtHoc system is a major component of AETC’s Installation Warning System that has been introduced at 13 bases nationwide. IWS consists of Giant Voice, outdoor speakers on poles scattered throughout an installation; a telephone alerting system; and the AtHoc network alerting system.
The network alerting system is used for all kinds of communications across Vance Air Force Base, Okla. The base has had at least one close call with a tornado. The most prominent is notifying personnel about severe weather, said Master Sgt. Robert English, superintendent of command and control at the base.
Officials at Vance plan to upgrade the network alerting system in May, enabling AETC family members to subscribe to the service so they can receive alerts on their home computers, English said. “It kind of broadens our capability.”
The upgrade will “not only allow people at home to get the pop-ups that we send out at the base, it also has the capability of calling people’s phones and pagers — pretty much reaching someone by any type of electronic device they have,” English said.
The ability to push text messages to multiple communication devices is an essential requirement for emergency notification systems, experts say. For instance, Virginia Tech’s emergency communications systems included e-mail but not cell phone text messaging.
After the shooting rampage, David Jordan, chief information security officer of Arlington County, Va., offered to let Virginia Tech link into the county’s emergency notification system until campus officials could implement a more comprehensive system. But the provider of Arlington’s system, Roam Secure, had already made the offer, he said.
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