This issue’s Industry Insider is Dewitt Latimer, the Chief Technology Officer at the University of Notre Dame, where he has operational oversight of the IT infrastructure and serves as the University’s chief IT strategist. Dr. Latimer also holds a joint appointment as the interim director for Notre Dame’s Center for Research Computing.
Dr. Latimer addresses questions on multi-modal communication technology.
For readers that may be unfamiliar, what exactly is multi-modal communication technology?
Multi-modal communications leverage multiple and disparate forms of communications to convey messages. Examples include SMS text, IM, cellular voice, traditional landline voice, e-mail, campus portals, digital signage, IP-based building voice enunciators, EAS sirens and CATV channels (closed circuit or EAS).
How long has multi-modal communication technology been used on campuses?
The basic elements of multi-modal communications have been on campus since the inception of modern-day IT services such as campus voice services/voicemail and campus e-mail. The onslaught of new digital technologies and the penetration of mobile services on campus in the last decade have brought the balance.
How has multi-modal communication evolved since its inception?
You have greater diversity of services from the original pairing of voice and e-mail. Moreover, you have outside service providers to contend with, which is both good and bad. Good in the sense that you have greater resiliency to local disaster taking out all your campus services; bad in that you have to deal with the performance of various service providers.
In what unique ways are universities using this technology today?
Aside from emergency communications, schools are using multi-modal communications to inform the students and employees alike of school closings, individual class cancellations, social functions, and many others. There are schools with the opinion, however, that over-saturation of the various modes of communications will desynthesize the recipient from messages from the school and therefore not act when a true emergency alert is sent.
What are the advantages of multi-modal versus using single text messaging?
SMS was not built for mass communications and is subject to delays and dropped messages. In times of emergency, it is often competing with other cellular resources. The same can be said of all forms of communications. That is why it is not wise to put all your eggs in one basket.
What types of institutions would get the most from this type of system? Is it universally-viable across every type of campus or would larger/smaller campuses benefit more?
Every campus could and should benefit from such a strategy. By and large, except for schools in traditional areas of danger (hurricane, tornado, earthquake, fires), schools have relied on county or local provided emergency alert systems.