My university’s entire site is down--webpages, Bearmail, and most importantly to people yet to turn in their grades, the Faculty/Advisor Center also. I noticed yesterday, but expected the site to reappear quickly. Nope. Either they are doing one heck of an upgrade (bad timing for that with grades due before nine AM on Monday) or something less predictable is wrong that could take some time to fix. *Update* It’s working now (10:00AM CST 05/18/08), Yea! Let the grading resume.

My grades are in, so I didn’t think much of it except to note that if it was still down Monday at eight when offices open, I should check in with the department chair’s assistant to see what is being done about the deadline. i was fairly sure there would be GTAs who hadn’t turned in grades before the crash who would need to know what to do. And how do I tell them without university email? Well, I will put up a sign in the GA room, but realistically, few of them will be on campus. I could call each one, but I know how often people check voicemail--some do, but there are always those who check it every few days or not at all, and those are always the ones I’m trying to reach. Enter Facebook.

I got a Facebook message this morning from a resourceful GTA who wanted to know how much trouble he would be in if the site was still down at deadline. I answered that no one will blame him and to have some iced tea, watch sports, write a short story, and check the site periodically. After I messaged him back, I changed my Facebook status to “Lanette thinks that MIssouri State GTAs who can't turn in their grades should chill and try later. You have paper if the site's not back up by Monday's deadline.” I really think it will be up sometime today, but wanted to give them some idea that they weren’t the only people in the world who noticed.

This is an example of why Web 2.0 is not just for entertainment. When there are multiple channels of communication that all sorts of people can access, having one method drop out is less of a tragedy. My university, like most, sees a locked-down system as more secure and thus better. It encourages faculty, staff, and students to use Bearmail as their primary if not only mode of official communication. I agree that I want my university email to be secure, but think that having email as the only official information-giver is short-sighted and assumes top-down communication--you know, those emails that say don’t reply to this address. Well, sometimes people need to reply. Communication that assumes multiple entry points and more than one speaker gives the duplication that is needed to ensure a message gets through and gets through quickly.

Recently, Missouri State tried out a texting system for emergency situations. I know they were thinking of shootings or other disasters when they tried it, and the dry run was awful--six hours to reach everyone. Not acceptable, but still worth having as a duplicate communication channel for less life-threatening situations such as this one. In this case, I would like to know what the deal is with the site and I’d take a text message to find out, but think Twitter would be even better. If the university had a Twitter identity that people could follow, then students, faculty, and staff could still find out official information through text, but could also get it on the web or though a Twitter client such as Twitterific. I get campaign news updates from the LA Times this way, and found out that McCain would be on Saturday Night Live in time to see him actually be funny, a surprising development that had to be seen to be believed. Anyway, my point is that there are people who never added a text plan or who turn off their phone at times (or go cell-less!), so, once again, relying on a single channel of communication, even texting, is not the way things work today, at least, not the best way. Web 2.0--more than just funny clips on YouTube or a Facebook obsession--it’s efficient communication through multimodality.