Having to sit around with other people and devise reaction scenarios for our campus web site for when an emergency alert has to go out (i.e., when there's a shooting).

The two most recent college shootings have bumped up such projects to first priority.

Of course it's not the work to do this, but the simple fact that it has to be done at all.


So, we study what other places are doing about this, and what VA Tech and NIU went through, and how they managed to keep their web sites up under extremely heavy and unusual loads, plus get timely information out, and keep it all updated and running smoothly.

It's true that such planning would be good for other reasons - like natural disasters or a building fire, or some situation beyond shootings - but it's the gunmen who've made this such a pressing matter, and it's gloomy to contemplate the reasons really driving all the work.