[LINK] Evaluating Emergency Management Websites, ANU, 9 June

[Russell Ashdown]

>From my experience, the WWW doesn't qualify for use as an emergency 
communications medium.  For starters.  You are relying on the 
telephone network not being congested during an emergency (fat 
hope!); then you are relying on there being power available to power 
PCs and related comms gear (yes, the exchanges and telco 
infrastructure has 8hr battery backup, but the subs do not). Thirdly, 
you are hoping that the website can handle the sudden deluge of 
packets (yeah, likely!); and, then service them in a timely fashion 
(Not in my experience).

Pie-in-the-sky for my money.  Give me the good old tranny with a 
spare set of batteries anytime.  I can walk off with it and still 
keep informed about what is going on - and in REAL TIME!!!!

Russell

On 1 Jun 2004 at 8:55, Tom Worthington wrote:

> I wrote Mon, 24 May 2004 09:36:51 +1000 (was: "Tracking Terrorism and
> NSW Emergency Coordination Failure"):
> 
> >The NSW Government doesn't seem to have a web site for providing
> >information to the citizens about emergencies, such as bush fires and
> > terrorist attacks. ...
> 
> For a much more systematic view of what is, and should be, on an
> emergency web site, Linkers are invited to the ANU seminar in Canberra
> by one of my students:
> 
> >Title: Department of Computer Science Seminar
> >Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2004
> >Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00pm
> >Venue: Room N101, CSIT Building [108]
> >
> >Speaker:  Miss Shelby Canterford (3rd year Student at DCS, ANU)
> >
> >Title:Evaluating Emergency Management Website
> >
> >Abstract:
> >In this seminar, I will discuss the use of the World Wide Web for
> >disseminating emergency information.  I have constructed evaluation
> >criteria to assess the effectiveness of public information websites.
> >The criteria cover the web design principles of accessibility,
> >usability, searchability and credibility, as well as the emergency
> >management literature. These principles are then used to construct
> >five criteria that can be used by web developers to assess their own
> >websites.  I will show the use of the criteria by assessing three
> >websites. The main problem highlighted by the assessment is that of
> >accessibility and points to an area that needs to be addressed
> >further.
> >
> >URL: http://cs.anu.edu.au/lib/seminars/seminars04/dept20040609
> >
> >Biography: Shelby Canterford is a third-year BSc student. This
> >seminar is part of the assessment for a COMP3700 (Topics in Software
> >Engineering) project done under the supervision of Tom Worthington
> >and Ian Barnes.
> 
> ps: The notes from my Sydney talk "Using new Networking Technology for
> Emergency Coordination: a personal view", for ACS NSW Branch Forum,
> May 2004 are at <http://www.tomw.net.au/2004/enetp.html>.
> 
> 
> 
> Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
> Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
> http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
> Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
> Publications Director, Australian Computer Society
> 
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