EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM UPDATE

2/11/2008 Annual Meeting 2008: The Next 10 Years1

Mark Katsouros, The University of [email protected]

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

UPDATE


The Spectrum of Solutions “Sirens”/Loudspeakers Voice/Phone (Especially Cell Phones) Voice Mail Broadcast √ Text Messaging (SMS) E-mail (“Mass Mail”) √ Web RSS Feeds Pop-ups Video/CATV (e.g., UITV)E

Instant Messaging AM/FM Radio Fire Panel Alarms with Voice Enunciation Public Address Systems (Including Mobile/Portable) Digital Signage (Including Changeable Message Signs on Roads) Two-Way Radio Emergency-/Weather-Band Radio Social NetworkingE

Word of Mouth (More Help in an Emergency Situation than One Might Realize)


How a Few of the Vendors Seem to Stack up(Based on Individual Research/Trials)

Sigma Communications’ Reverse911 (Hybrid)– GIS Mapping– Extra/Contingent Calling Capacity via Hosted Part (Per-Call-Minute Pricing

Model)– Single Point of Failure

Alcatel-Lucent’s Automated Message Delivery System (Hybrid)– IP and NTSC Video Support (Local Only)– Digital Signage Support (Local Only)– SIP/“Presence” Support (Local Only)– Potential Calling Capacity Issues (if Local)

Xtend’s Emergency Campus Notification (Local)– NTSC Video Support– Digital Signage and 2-way Radio Support– Potential Calling Capacity Issues

The NTI Group’s Connect-ED (Hosted) √– Excellent Calling Capacity (and Unlimited-Calls Pricing Model)– True SMS Support– Web Access– GIS Mapping


Current Trial at The U. of Iowa: Connect-ED

Quickly Brought into Production Data Imports from Enterprise Directory, so Same

Self-Service Portals Facilitate Maintained Contact Info

Microcosm of Multi-Pronged Concept (Voice, E-mail, and SMS Support, with More Apparently Coming)

“Unlimited calls” model naturally supports continued testing and system familiarity.

“Unlimited groups” further add to flexibility of system.


Current Trial at The U. of Iowa: Connect-ED (cont’d.)

GIS MappingThis function allows us to contact only those within a specific geographical area (within some distance of a single point/address, or within a parallelogram that we define). The following example illustrates a 1/8-mile radius from my home address:



In the interest of time, UI went with this solution immediately (1st year). Goal was to be in full production by start of Fall ‘07 semester, which was achieved. Likely utilizing an RFP at FY’s end.

Policies/Procedures were developed/ratified, which took much effort. This planning is obviously critical.– Who’s authorized to declare an emergency and initiate a

mass emergency notification?– What should the notification say? (Pre-established message

templates for the different kinds of emergencies are a must, both for speed and to ensure that the right message is conveyed.)

– Who technically has (or should have) the capability/know-how to actually launch a message?

– What’s reported back, on the success of the notification, and to whom?



Branded service as:

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM



Phased Approach: Phase 1 – Relies on voice communication

endpoints, particularly mobile phones; “add-on” database maintained manually (9/1/07)

Phase 2 – Adds additional, diverse communication endpoints, particularly text messaging via SMS (12/13/07)

Phase 3 – Adds automation of the data exchange and back-end processes (3/1/08)

Phase 4 – Mostly “wish list” items at this point, such as “opt-in” groups and non-medium-specific communication preferences (4/1/08)


Current Trial at The U. of Iowa: Connect-ED (cont’d. [CSV import file columns])

ReferenceCode FirstName LastName Status Language Gender Group (∞) ContactType HomePhone WorkPhone MobilePhone HomePhoneAlt WorkPhoneAlt MobilePhoneAlt

PrimaryPhone SMSPhone TTYPhone AdditionalPhone ParentNames HomeAddress HomeCity HomeState HomeZip EmailAddress EmailAddressAlt Terminate Institution Any others (internal use)


Policies/Procedures

Who’s authorized to declare an emergency and initiate a mass emergency notification?

Per UI’s Critical Incident Management Plan (CIMP; Section IV)…

1. University President2. Vice President for Student Affairs3. Director of Public Safety

Public Safety Shift Commanders will be designees of the Director of Public Safety, and there obviously may be other designees as well, but the list of authorized users will need to be kept reasonably short/manageable.


Policies/Procedures (cont’d.)

What should the notification say?

Per UI’s CIMP (Section VIII): “The President’s Office has authorized the following Alert message __________. Please relay this information to affected individuals in your department or work area.”

We filled in the blank in advance (i.e., established emergency-specific templates).



Templates: Active Shooter

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: An active shooter is reported to be at/in {location(s)}. Please take safe cover immediately, and as far away from {location(s)} as possible. Call 9 1 1 from a safe location to report shooter sighting. See W W W dot U Iowa dot E D U for further details as available.SMS script:Active shooter at/in {location(s)}. Take safe cover immediately, & as far away from {location(s)} as possible. See www.uiowa.edu.



Templates (cont’d.): Bomb Threat

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: A bomb threat has been reported for {location(s)}. If you identify anything suspicious, please do not approach, but evacuate immediately and call 9 1 1. See W W W dot U Iowa dot E D U for further details as available.SMS script:Bomb threat at {location(s)}. If you see anything suspicious, don't approach, but evacuate at once & call 911. See www.uiowa.edu.



Templates (cont’d.): Hazmat

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: A(n) {hazmat incident} is reported to be at/in {location}. Immediately evacuate and avoid {location} [and {other affected location(s)}]. See W W W dot U Iowa dot E D U for further details as available.SMS script:{hazmat incident} at/in {location}. Evacuate at once & avoid {location} [& {other affected location(s)}]. See www.uiowa.edu.



Templates (cont’d.): Natural Disaster

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: A(n) {natural disaster condition} is reported to be occurring at {location(s)} [and threatening {other location(s)}]. Avoid {location(s)} or, if anywhere near these areas, take safe cover immediately. [(For earthquakes:) If indoors, take cover under a sturdy desk or other furniture. If outdoors, get into the open, away from buildings and power lines. If driving, stop where safe and in the open, and stay in car. (For flash floods:) If outdoors, get to higher ground immediately. If driving, don’t attempt to drive through flooded roadways.] See W W W dot U Iowa dot E D U for further details as available.SMS script:{natural disaster condition} at {location(s)} [& threatening {other loc(s)}]. Avoid {loc(s)} or take cover. See www.uiowa.edu.



Templates (cont’d.): Severe Weather

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: A(n) {severe weather threat} is reported to be in {location} [and heading in the direction of {2nd location}]. Avoid {location(s)} or, if anywhere near these areas, take safe cover immediately. See W W W dot U Iowa dot E D U for further details as available.SMS script:{severe weather threat} in {location} [& heading towards {2nd location}]. Avoid {location(s)} or take cover. See www.uiowa.edu.



Templates (cont’d.): Terrorist Attack

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: A(n) {terrorist threat} is reported to be at/in {location(s)}. Please take safe cover immediately, and as far away from {location(s)} as possible. Call 9 1 1 from a safe location to report suspicious activity W W W dot U Iowa dot E D U for further details as available. SMS script:{terrorist threat} at/in {location(s)}. Take safe cover at once, & as far away from {location(s)} as possible. See www.uiowa.edu.



Templates (cont’d.): Tornado Warning

In our police chief’s voice:This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.Text-to-speech enunciated:[DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for {location(s)} until {expiration time}. {Details, if available and relevant.} If you are caught outside, seek shelter in a nearby reinforced building. As a last resort, seek shelter in a culvert, ditch or low spot and cover your head with your hands. The safest place to be during a tornado is in a basement. Get under a workbench or other piece of sturdy furniture. If no basement is available, seek shelter on the lowest floor of the building in an interior hallway or room such as a closet. Use blankets or pillows to cover your body and always stay away from windows. If in mobile homes or vehicles, evacuate them and get inside a substantial shelter. If no shelter is available, lie flat in the nearest ditch or other low spot and cover your head with your hands.SMS script:Tornado warning for {location(s)} until {exp. time}. Seek sturdy shelter immediately, in a basement if possible.



Templates (cont’d.): Cancellation of Classes

Text-to-speech enunciated:Hawk Alert, [DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: The University of Iowa has cancelled all {qualifier, e.g., afternoon and evening} classes for {date}. {Exceptions, if any.} See the U I homepage for more details.SMS script:UI has cancelled {qual., e.g., afternoon & evening} classes for {date}[, except for {exception(s)}]. See UI home page for details.


Policies/Procedures (cont’d.)Note that SMS (text) messages have a maximum size of just 130

characters (including spaces), so the following abbreviations/deletions are recommended for the aforementioned templates if/when utilizing SMS:

Delete “EMERGENCY HAWK ALERT:” prefix. Leave out definite and indefinite articles (“the”, “a”, and “an”). Abbreviate “has been / is reported to be [occurring] in/at” to just

“reported in/at”. Abbreviate “immediately” to “immed”. Abbreviate “evacuate” to “evac”. Abbreviate “location” to “loc”. Abbreviate “through” to “thru”. Abbreviate “See WWW.UIOWA.EDU for further details as

available.” to “WWW.UIOWA.EDU for details.” Consider using standard chat abbreviations if necessary (“4” vs.

“for”, 2” vs. “to”, “B” vs. “be”, “R” vs. “are”, “U” vs. “you”, and so on).



Who technically has (and/or should have) the capability/know-how to actually launch a message?

UI’s CIMP (Section VIII) identifies “Information Technology Services” (the central IT organization), but does not reference specific contacts. (We’ve approved/established a specific list.)

We also provide access to (and training on) the Hawk Alert System to Public Safety, University Relations, and others, such as Student Affairs, Health Protection Office, etc).



What’s reported back on the success of the notification, and to whom?

Pilot samples (with minimal numbers) follow…



Per notification:



Per month (including account overview):



Proposed report recipients: University President The Critical Incident Management Team as defined by the CIMP (Section VI)

– VP for Student Services & Dean of Students– Assistant VP & Director of Public Safety– University General Counsel– Executive VP and Provost– Director of University Relations– Associate VP of Finance and Operations & Director Human Resources– University Business Manager– Senior VP and Treasurer– Director of Risk Management– VP for Research– Associate VP & Director of Facilities Management– Senior VP & University Treasurer– Assistant VP & University CIOExpanded as needed to include:– Director of University Counseling Service– Assistant Director of Human Resources– Director of Health Protection Office– Director and CEO of University Hospitals and Clinics– Director of Resident Services– Director of Animal Resources & University Veterinarian

ITS Communication Specialist Director of ITS-Telecom & Network Services


(Other) Lessons Learned

A solid communication plan (about your ENS) is critical.– Communicating the Need for Faculty, Staff, and

Students to Provide/Update Their Contact Data– Advertising that Need (and a Link) on Your Course

Management System, Existing Portal(s), Other University Websites, etc. (“Ensure that you're notified in case of an emergency on campus with Hawk Alert.”)

– Announcing the Test (and Test Feedback Survey)– Communicating with the Mass Media (Beware of

sensationalism.)– Preparing Your Help Desk…


Websitehttp://hawkalert.uiowa.edu


FAQ1. What is the Hawk Alert System?2. How does Hawk Alert work?3. How do I sign up to receive Hawk Alerts?4. How do I utilize the system if I’m visually- or hearing-impaired?5. Is there a fee for the Hawk Alert System?6. What phone number will I see on my Caller ID when I receive a Hawk

Alert? I want to program that number into my phone.7. How does a member of the University community enter contact

information so that it can be available for use in emergencies?8. When entering data for use by the Hawk Alert System, may I include

contact information for a spouse or significant other, or parent(s), so that they’ll be alerted during emergencies?

9. For what types of emergencies will I be notified via this system?10. What types of Hawk Alerts (in terms of media) are available?11. What is the time frame in which I should expect to receive a Hawk Alert?12. How can the Hawk Alert System reach thousands of people in just

minutes?13. Who is responsible for declaring an emergency and sending out a Hawk

Alert?14. Will this site (http://hawkalert.uiowa.edu) contain information about the

emergency?


FAQ (cont’d.)15. If I input my mobile phone number, will it be published (i.e., viewable when

someone searches for me in the directory via http://www.uiowa.edu/homepage/directories, the Herd Book, or the University white pages)?

16. What should I do if I use my mobile phone as my home phone (i.e., I don’t have a landline at home)?

17. Will the Hawk Alert vendor share UI’s information with anyone?18. What if I want to get text messages instead of, or in addition to, a voice call?19. Does the system support numeric pagers?20. My contact information is up to date, per these instructions. Can I test my

ability to be notified to make sure the system will work for me?21. Other members of the University community received emergency (or test)

Hawk Alert messages, but I did not. What should I do?22. I work at the hospital on campus and no one here received a recent Hawk

Alert. What happened?23. What action should I take if I do receive a Hawk Alert?24. Should I attend classes if there is an extreme weather condition?25. I recently graduated or left the University, and/or no longer wish to receive

Hawk Alerts. How can I ensure that I won’t be notified?26. Are University affiliates included in the Hawk Alert System?27. How are duplicate phone numbers handled?28. Who can I contact with additional questions?


New Portal:


Campus-Wide Test

On Friday, October 5, 2007, at 9:00am, UI initiated the following notification to every home, work, and mobile number we had in the targeted population set:

This is UI Police Chief Chuck Green. Please listen to this important Hawk Alert.

[DELIVERY_DATE], 9 o'clock A M: Hello, [FIRST_NAME]. This is only a test. If this were an actual emergency, you'd be receiving official information, news, or instructions. The Hawk Alert System serves [SCHOOL_NAME] students, faculty, and staff. Your feedback is important. Please go to Hawk Alert dot U Iowa dot E D U to report when you received this test message. This concludes our test of the Hawk Alert System.


Campus-Wide Test (cont’d.)

The system also sent the following e-mail notification to the “Routing” e-mail addresses of the same population set:

Hawk Alert System TEST, [DELIVERY_DATE], {time}: Hello, [FIRST_NAME]. This is only a test. If this were an actual emergency, you'd be receiving official information, news, or instructions. The Hawk Alert System serves [SCHOOL_NAME] students, faculty, and staff. This concludes our test of the Hawk Alert System.



General Points Made with the Campus: The test did exactly what a test should do: It

provided data and valuable user feedback. We contacted more people in a shorter

amount of time than ever before, which is the goal of the emergency notification system.

We received a lot of feedback from the UI community, which is very helpful.

Students, faculty, and staff need to make sure their contact information is up-to-date via the portal(s); we can’t reach people with outdated or incorrect contact info.



More General Points Made with the Campus: Make sure that people in your household are aware of the

system and how it works, in case they’re at home when a Hawk Alert comes through on your home phone (this is particularly important for students who are using a parent’s/guardian’s home phone number).

Hawk Alert is one tool in a multi-faceted approach to emergency notification. Other means available to us are the siren towers, website postings, media coverage and word-of-mouth.

The importance of word-of-mouth should not be discounted. If you receive a Hawk Alert in an emergency situation, tell everyone you come in contact with!

If you’ve provided your cell phone number, program in the Hawk Alert number – 319-384-0911 – so you know that you’re receiving a Hawk Alert and you don’t ignore it.



Data from NTI (vendor): 100% of the e-mails were sent within 6 minutes of the

specified send date. The voice calls were comprised of two categories:

throttled and non-throttled.– There were 57,573 phones called. Of those 44,239 (77%)

were successfully delivered (live answer or answering machine) during the first attempts.

– The non-throttled were 48,726 (85% of the total) phones of which 42,592 (87%) were successfully delivered.

– All first attempts were completed within 24 minutes of the send time.

– On the non-throttled the average first attempt time took 18 minutes.

NTI is pretty certain that 18 minutes can get well below 15 minutes and probably closer to 10 minutes.



Our Feedback Data:



Problems We Discovered: Duplicate calls occurred due to the [FIRST_NAME] tag being

inserted into the message which causes the system to remove duplicates based on Firstname and Phonenumber rather than just Phonenumber.

Voice mail port availability/behavior will need to be considered when defining the on-campus throttle points.

Parents who weren’t aware of the system or the test – or neither – contacted us because they didn’t know why they were receiving a call; some of these people were quite upset.– We may need to make what we mean by “Residing” phone number

clearer (“local” vs. “permanent”).– We may need to consider communicating future tests to parents.

E-mail: While the e-mail message was sent out within six minutes, it took much longer for the messages to be delivered; we’re investigating how we might optimize this.


Social Networking (experimental)


Social Networking (experimental; cont’d.)


Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

Data inter-exchange standard for alerting and event notification (flexible format)– Provision for text, video, audio– Multi-lingual and multi-audience– Digital encryption and signature– Geographic targeting

May 31, 2007 - FCC Order requires National Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants to accept messages using CAP. A “Further Notice” seeks comment on whether Participants should be required to deliver EAS alerts originated by local, county, tribal, or other state governmental entities.

http://www.incident.com/cookbook


Additional Resources ACUTA is compiling a collection/summary of its members’

plans, to be posted on the ACUTA website (http://www.acuta.org).

Archives of [email protected] (http://listserv.educause.edu/archives/cio.html)

EDUCAUSE Business Continuity Management Constituent Group (http://www.educause.edu/12480)

EDUCAUSE Business Continuity Planning Resource Page (http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=142)

Internet2 Disaster Planning and Recovery Group (http://security.internet2.edu/dr)

Joe St Sauver’s “Mass Real Time Emergency Notification” Slides from I2 (http://www.uoregon.edu/~joe/notification)

Lengthy Study Conducted in Florida (http://ec.creol.ucf.edu/FinalReport_EmergComm.pdf)


Additional Resources (cont’d.)

SUMMARY-Emergency Notification Systems.xls from EDUCAUSE CIO Archive (http://listserv.educause.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A3=ind0610&L=CIO&P=1881333&E=2&B=--------------070607060106030807070506&N=SUMMARY-Emergency+Notification+Systems.xls&T=application%2Fvnd.ms-excel)

University of Iowa, Critical Incident Management Plan (http://www.uiowa.edu/~pubsfty/cimp.pdf)

A more verbose (if you can imagine) version of this presentation given during the last Net@EDU CCWG Meeting at EDUCAUSE 2007 (http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EDU07335c.pdf).

(New) EDUCAUSE Emergency Notification Systems Wiki (http://connect.educause.edu/wiki/Emergency+Notification+Systems)

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM UPDATE

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