Florida A&M University (FAMU) has purchased the e2Campus mass notification system. FAMU is using the web-based service to communicate urgent news to students, faculty and staff whether recipients are in class, on campus, or hundreds of miles away.Sherri S. Luke, Crime Prevention Officer at Florida A&M University said, "This is an awesome crime prevention tool. Two thumbs up for e2campus."
Using e2Campus' centralized interface, a FAMU school official types a message, selects the groups to receive the message, and then presses a button to send it. Within seconds, the message is simultaneously sent to thousands of relevant people via the method each person chose to receive it, such as a mobile phone, personal or school email account, RSS feed, wireless PDA, or "My Yahoo," AOL, or Personalized Google web page.
AW SUKIE NOW!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI do hope they supervise the Emergency Notification System better than the FAMUINFO email list and not let people start sending out notices about season tickets, parking regulations, NIMH grant deadlines, secretarial training, new graduate student orientation, the National Psoriasis Foundation, the NAA crab boil, the conference on the scholarly engagement of science and theology -- and the other stuff everyone has had to wade through on FAMUINFO.
ReplyDeleteAnd all that wouldn't be so bad if the senders simply bothered to put an accurate descriptive subject line on it.
If they can only keep the emergency system for emergencies only, and not for whatever notice somebody decides to send -- perhaps another notice about the opening of the website of the Office of Institutional Research.
Of course, that could be an emergency in itself, but that's a different topic.
Who will be the recipients of this new technology? Certainly not the faculty, because the faculty is never the recipient of anything, except bad treatment from the administration. In 2006 there are a number of departments and divisions on campus that don't even have working computers, or computers, period, for that matter. Always some kind of new stuff, but the faculty always gets left out of the loop.
ReplyDeleteAs usual..... This is what happens when there is no shared governance.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to faculty needing things and having computers---I bet all those faculty members who write grants have state of the art computer equipment, copiers, and start of the art technology, etc. because they write it into their grants. More faculty need to write grants to meet their needs and help offset what the university is doing. Get some work done faculty and do what you are hired to do--TEACH, RESEARCH, AND PUBLISH.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know your courseload is heavier than other universities. Even still there are several faculty on the campus that are successfully doing it all.
Congratulations FAMU for introducing new technology into the workplace. If we had some creative faculty they would write a grant to homeland security to secrue funding to make sure faculty also have access to the technology and computer to read messages.
In regards to wading through information--isn't the network called FAMUINFO. We are damned if we do, damned if we don't. First we don't have enoguh communication, now we have too much and the wrong type.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I understand the concept of delegating this system to real emergencies which I think it will be since the FAMU Police Dept are involved in this.
Can somebody please send an "Emergency Notification" to Castell Vaughn Bryant titled we don't need your services anymore?
ReplyDeleteIf anybody in the administration is reading this, here are some sincere suggestions for improving FAMUINFO:
ReplyDelete(1) Screen all items to make certain that each contains an accurate and DESCRIPTIVE subject line. That way, history teachers won't keep opening emails about grants open only to pharmacists.
(2) Screen all items to make sure that attachments are reduced in file size. There have been too many 1 MB (and up) attachments.
(3) Require submitters to FAMUINFO to limit their information to the email body, except for rare occasions when an attached graphic file or poster is justified. In general, graphics files and posters should be posted online and the email should contain a link to them, for those few who need them. The rest of us should not have our email bandwidth consumed by, say, PowerPoint slides that contain, oh, 15 words announcing a meeting.
(4) Do not use FAMUINFO to send out notices directed to such a limited audience that departmental email would be more appropriate. Place such notices in a departmental newsletter; post it online; send out a link to it with a very brief text summary of its contents.
DO NOT SEND OUT THE NEWSLETTER (which is usually a large PDF file) TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT ASKED FOR IT.
Information is good when it is considerately targeted. Not when everybody gets everything and has to wade through it like junk mail.
Any improvements you can make along these lines will help FAMU's internal communications.
Thanks to anybody who is listening.
I agree.
ReplyDelete