Recent events have brought attention to the way schools communicate emergencies in a timely manner. This topic has been discussed heavily on university web developer mailing lists, as utilizing the web and the Internet is important when communicating instant information.
Enter the UNL Alert system, which will allow users to be notified within 30 seconds of campus emergencies.

The system uses two parts, an entry interface for police dispatchers to enter information, and a client which monitors a feed of the alerts. The entry interface creates a XML file using the Common Alerting Protocol schema. This format is used by various government agencies to communicate alert information between various systems. The client is a desktop application which monitors a CAP XML file for alert information. When the campus police enter alert information, the clients will notify the user with information on the alert.

I built this system in 2005 and released it in November . At that time, upper administration had some concerns with the system and didn’t get behind the implementation. One year and tragic events later the alerting system is sounding like a good idea, so the project has been re-ignited.

Last week the media got wind of the system which created a little media noise for the university. Three news stations and the World Herald did a piece on the system and the project is moving full steam ahead now.

The server side uses PHP, PEAR, MySQL and exports CAP alert XML files. The original client I built used Konfabulator as the engine, but Andrew with the New Media Center built another client using Macromedia Director. The Konfabulator client source is available within the widget download.

The server side code may be released as open source if there is enough interest in doing so.

Here’s to making the campus a safer place!