[LINK] Maintaining services online during a flu pandemic
Tom Worthington
Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au
Wed May 27 18:05:25 AEST 2009
The Australian Government released a Influenza Pandemic Business
Continuity Guide for Australian Businesses in July 2006:
<http://www.innovation.gov.au/Pandemic_Business_Continuity/Business%20Continuity%20Guide%20for%20Australian%20Business/Pages/home.aspx>.
The guide suggests use the telephone, video conferencing and the
internet to conduct business as a way to avoid meeting people face to
face, even when participants are in the same building. However, it
points out that demand for services may be impacted by a pandemic,
for example demand for internet access may increase. It suggests
checking the business has an adequate infrastructure, including
computer networks and internet presence.
The Australian National University has released a revised ANU
Pandemic Response Plan
<http://facilities.anu.edu.au/ANUPandemic/ANUpandemicResponsePlan.html>.
Like many such plans, this envisages a progressive reduction of
organisation activities with all but essential activities being
stopped. However, this is based on the assumption that educational
activities require gatherings of people. Instead, education and many
administrative services, can be maintained using telecommunications,
while avoiding face-to-face gatherings of people, as recommended by
the Australian Government. Most staff and students can stay at home,
but maintain educational and research activities online.
Some simple steps would be required, such as checking that procedures
allow for distribution of electronic documents in place of paper
ones. Some procedures for example may refer to requiring
"signatures". This requirement can usually be met with an email
message with the person's name typed on it, but where a higher level
of authentication is required, submission via a password protected
system might be needed . Staff may need to be issued with additional
equipment at home and trained in its use. Students may need advice on
what to get. Online courses would need to be checked to make sure
they work on slower home links and ones overseas. Servers would need
to be checked for capacity (as suggested in the government guide).
In addition to telephone and Internet services, educators can make
use of broadcast and cable TV services, including in Canberra
Transact, to provide content. In the event of a pandemic, is likely
that a significant proportion of the population will be at home and
looking for something to keep them stimulated. The universities and
schools might make some materials available for this purpose.
ps: The ANU COMP2410 students have completed their assignment on
designing a swine flu advice web site for Australia. This expertise
is now available, if needed:
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/05/designing-influenza-pandemic-web-site.html>.
Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617 http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
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