When Bad Things Happen - Cellular and Internet Provide News, Experience Overloads

Today a gunman at Virginia Tech went on a rampage, killing and wounding scores of people at two locations on campus. Details are still emerging, but there are some examples of how the use of Internet and telecommunications technologies has impacted both the school and the country.

There were four technology issues that have arisen over the course of this event: 1) problems with notification of the crisis via email to students affected, 2) overloading of the local cellular network, rendering student cellphones essentially useless, 3) the overloading of the university servers during the crisis, preventing students from learning in real-time what what going on from their school, and 4) individuals cohering conflicting information on news sites via Wikipedia and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The murders occurred in two bursts, separated by about 2 hours. This gap is important, because it actually could have allowed for some appropriate notification to students. However, according to CBS News, "Students complained that there were no public-address announcements or other warnings on campus after the first burst of gunfire. They said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again."

It is unfortunate that emails were delayed until students were in class and hence vulnerable targets. In an absence of header and routing information, there are two possibilities - either the emails were not sent promptly because they were not thought urgent (school authorities erroneously considered the situation under control), or the emails were sent but delayed due to server issues. The latter would be highly unusual, however, because email servers are considered specialized services and usually kept separate from informational webservers in datacenters.

Students in West Ambler Johnston, a freshman dorm which houses about 900 students, where the first shootings occurred were told to stay in their rooms in "lockdown". According to the NY Times, "details emerged from witnesses describing a gunman going room to room in a residence hall". According to the Roanoke Times, which has continually updated a real-time blog on the tragedy, "Richard Waldrop, a freshman who lives in West Ambler-Johnston, said he didn't know about the shooting in the building until he tried to go to class and was told not to leave."

As the crisis continued, cellular communications became difficult, if not downright impossible. "Pauletta Robins, a Blacksburg resident, said she'd spent the morning trying to contact her husband, Todd, a painter at Tech. Cellphone circuits were jammed and she hadn't been able to talk to him" (Roanoke Times). Telecommunications networks presume only a few circuits in use at any one time. The common image of cellphones is one of "instant communication, anytime, anywhere". However, the reality is any localized disaster, whether man-made or natural will likely result in an overload as those under siege desperately call out and those outside the area desperately call in to check on their family and friends.

One of the more provocative reports from ABC News states "Michelle Billman, general manager of student radio station WUVT, told ABC News that someone in the class got a text message around 9:50 a.m. indicating that something was going on. 'We were told to stay in the building, away from the windows' Billman said, describing a frantic scene. 'It really wasn't organized. Almost everyone else just left, and while the kids were running out, people said, 'Come back, come back.'" A private text message received via cellphone by a student might have resulted in a rapid evacuation, saving lives. What if this notification method had been used throughout the campus community when the first emergency occurred? At the very least, it would have allowed for caution and awareness.

The absence of good cellular communications once the crisis began left students with only one recourse - the Internet. Students who tried to find out what was happening from the university found it difficult, however, as the web servers were overloaded. "The campus web system was quickly overwhelmed by e-mail traffic, and concerned online visitors, after news of the shootings broke. Students said they could not get on Virginia Tech's site for information" (ABC News). Unlike large commercial sites which plan for large bursts in traffic, Virginia Tech probably had no contingencies setup to increase bandwidth and server capacity in the event of an emergency. Students thus turned to other sites like Facebook and MySpace (ABC News).

The other source of information for real-time news of this event were Internet news sites. The New York Times was one of the first national news sites to break the news, followed by ABC and CBS. The Roanoke Times blog was probably the best in terms of on-the-spot interviews. Due to the many slightly different reports, a Wikipedia entry was established referencing many different Internet news stories (Roanoke Times), and revised as the news (and death toll) was updated. And finally, the most widely distributed footage was reportedly shot by engineering graduate student Jamal Albarghouti on his "Nokia N70, a cellphone that costs $427 on Amazon" - another example of the power of personal digital media in the Internet age.

UPDATE: The gap in notification and lack of Internet and cellular notification emergency planning has now become an issue. See
WARNING CAME TOO LATE TO SAVE LIVES. THE QUESTION: Why did students go to class -- as if nothing happened? by Alec MacGillis and Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. Of note: "A campus spokesman said earlier this semester that the university was working with a company to provide a service that would send out text-message alerts to students' cell phones." However, cellular circuits became jammed with incoming / outgoing calls from a relatively small percentage of students. There would have to be considerable overcapacity planning implemented to handle 26,000 cell messages simultaneously transmitted and primarily locally received. This is because the same bandwidth used for voice communications is the same bandwidth used for cell alerts and to read messages. Priority is always given to voice communications, and text messages notification and access is postponed when bandwidth is limited.

This doesn't have to be the case for text communications, however. Text communications could be handled out-of-band. But this would mean always allocating a small amount of bandwidth to text. Text messaging does not make as much money for the telecommunications companies as voice communications, so there is always a bias towards voice. The gross amount of revenue (over 90%) is voice communication, so even a small amount of permanently allocated bandwidth for text impacts their bottom line by a few percent (or, to be more precise, that is the fear) for no appreciable gain. Text messaging is intended for idle time -- not in lieu of voice. In the case of emergency text message notification, this bias could be the difference literally between life and death.