Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Emergency Communication and Preparedness

This blog post is for week 3 of RIT’s Human Communication course.

As was widely reported on local Rochester news and to the school body on March 17th, a '”[possibly] armed individual [came] on campus”, and directions were given to recipients of the RIT Alert system:
Armed Intruder R.I.T. Alert! Take Cover. Posssible Armed suicidal person on campus. Go into nearest room. Lock or barricade the door. Follow instructions from authorities.
After the initial message was sent out via email and text message, students and others wishing to receive information about what happened went to the RIT website, which links to a page specifically for providing information during emergencies. However, to the dismay of those wanting this information, the page was useless, as no information had been posted. Nothing would be posted on that website until an hour or two after the event was over, in fact. During the time of the “armed intruder alert”, the school would only send out messages via the RIT Alert system, which presented problems of its own: the warning message would be sent out more than once to some people, and others wouldn’t get it at all. Some reports say that a subset of individuals received the messages, but were delayed for an hour or two. The system seems to have overloaded with the amount of traffic that was required to send out all of the messages, and so many were left in the dark.

After discovering the relative lack of information from RIT, many students turned to social networking websites, like Twitter and Facebook, in order to gather information about the current events. Through these mediums, students were able to communicate to others closer to where the events were occurring, and perhaps were able to gather more information. Some of this information was false or untrue, though. Part way through the events, a rumor surfaced starting on Twitter that there were ambulances and two dead people over by the Colony Manor apartments. While there may have been ambulances, the poster of the message on Twitter later apologized for the misinformation in order to dispel his prior statement. The power of these social media websites meant that simply making a clarification wasn’t enough; by the time the update was posted, the rumor had spread to a large number of students who were still awake at the hour, and was not immediately stopped.

The events of the 17th highlight the power of social networking sites and show the speed that news can travel when an important event has occurred. RIT has said they will be reviewing their protocols for mass notification, and will be taking steps to better inform the community, which would be much appreciated.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Integral Techniques to Keeping Interest

This is my blog post for Human Communication, week 2

Over the past few years I have been an avid listener of podcasts, especially regarding technology – Microsoft, Apple, Google, and other technology news that comes up week-to-week. The art of communication within podcasts and online audio is accentuated, as the listener is only focusing with one sense – the ears. With this limited scope of attention, the people speaking on the audio have no way to convey body motions or visual queues, so the only real way to convey motion is through the voice. The problem with this is when you’re attempting to listen to a person who is either tired and bored, or just has a monotone voice and isn’t interesting. I find myself tuning the audio out, and concentrating on the other three things I might be working on. 10 minutes later I’ll remember I was listening to something, and have absolutely no idea what happened during that last 10 minutes. The voice that doesn’t carry any emotion doesn’t have the qualities that would portray integral techniques of human communication in order to keep someone listening.

As podcasts have started evolving to include video, new problems may occur due to positioning of the camera, facial expressions, and a combination of other variables. On one of the latest video podcasts I’ve been watching, the camera for one of the two hosts is pointed at an odd angle up at his face, which only makes wrinkles and “pockets” under the eyes even more visible. The lack of facial movement or reaction to other things being said add to the dreariness of the show, and makes the listener/watcher have less interest in the show. I would think that camera positioning, “awakeness”, and emotion are just some of the things needed in order to make a successful audio or video presentation.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Human Communication, Post for Week 1

I can’t say I’ve truly introduced myself on here, so after almost a year and a half of having this website, here goes. My name is Stephen Repetski, and I’m currently a student in the 0535-480-72 Human Communication class. This is my first year at RIT, and I am majoring in Applied Networking and Systems Administration, a subset of the Networking, Security, and Systems Administration department in the GCCIS college. I don’t currently have an on-campus job, but have worked at the US Geological Survey and Sun Microsystems Federal during summers between school years. I don’t have a set focus on what I want to be after school, but some possibilities include being a Systems Engineer, or Network/Systems Administrator. I hope to minor in Russian, as well.

My reason for taking this class is primarily to fulfill the Human Communication requirement for my major, but also to hopefully learn how I can use types of communication to my advantage in the future for interactions with coworkers, friends, customers, and others. There were several classes to choose from, and this seemed like it would be an interesting fit. I have had many opportunities to use the types of communication talked about during class, but hope to improve the way I approach such messages in order to convey ideas in a more meaningful way and fashion.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Link for 3 March 2010

Bob Ryan Says Goodbye [nbcwashington.com] – Goodbye and good luck! We will truly miss you, Bob

Monday, March 1, 2010

Links for 29 February 2010