[LINK] ACT Emergency Website Failure During Bushfire Emergency

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Fri Jan 24 10:32:38 AEDT 2020


The ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) website failed yesterday during 
a bushfire emergency in Canberra: 
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/aws-outage-cripples-act-emergency-services-agency-website-as-canberra-bushfire-rages-536944

The website is now working: https://esa.act.gov.au/

I ran a Google Page Speed Insight test on the home page. The desktop 
version rated 8 out of 100, and the mobile version 1 out of 100. This is 
not a good result.

Much of the problem is due to server response time. But some of the load 
could be taken off the server with optimization of the design. For 
example, changing the format of images, sizing them appropriately, and 
reducing unnecessary ones.

During the the 2003 Canberra bushfires, there was some discussion of 
this on Link. I made some suggestions: 
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2003-January/047691.html

Later one of my students researched the topic and I gave some lectures 
and talks on on emergency website design: http://www.tomw.net.au/2006/wd/


-- 
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P http://www.tomw.net.au 
+61(0)419496150
TomW Communications Pty Ltd. PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Prof. Standards Legislation

Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University 
https://cecs.anu.edu.au/research/profile/tom-worthington



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