EDUCAUSE Live! May 3, 2007 1:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. CT, 11:00 a.m. MT, 10:00 a.m. PT); runs one hour

Emergency Notification Systems for a Mobile Community

Special Guests

Rodney J. Petersen
Government Relations Officer and Security Task Force Coordinator
EDUCAUSE

Rodney Petersen is a government relations officer with EDUCAUSE and the coordinator of the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force. He was formerly the director of IT policy and planning in the Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the University of Maryland, where he founded Project NEThics, a group charged with ensuring the responsible use of information technology through user education and enforcement of acceptable use guidelines. He writes and speaks regularly on topics related to higher education law and policy. Petersen is the coeditor of Computer and Network Security in Higher Education, volume 8 in the EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies series, and author of A Primer on Policy Development for Institutions of Higher Education and A Framework for IT Policy Development. He is also a founding member of the Association of College and University Policy Administrators. Petersen received his law degree from Wake Forest University and certification as an Advanced Graduate Specialist in Education Policy, Planning, and Administration from the University of Maryland.

Mark Katsouros
Director, Telecommunication and Network Services
The University of Iowa

Mark Katsouros is the director of telecommunication and network services for The University of Iowa. He previously worked at his alma mater, University of Maryland at College Park, in various IT development, research, and management capacities for over 20 years. His diverse background includes database systems, large-scale software design and development, networking, telecommunications, computer-telephony integration, interactive voice response, and voice over IP. In addition to winning UMCP’s prestigious Graduate Studies and Research Inventor of the Year Award, he has also licensed various software applications. Katsouros was selected by the Clinton administration to design, develop, and implement public opinion polling software for the White House. He is also a regular speaker at various IT conferences and recently served as chief technology officer and interim CEO for a Maryland dot-com startup specializing in patent-pending search technology. He received his bachelor’s in computer science from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Summary

Your host, Steve Worona, will be joined by Rodney Petersen and Mark Katsouros, and the topic will be "Emergency Notification Systems for a Mobile Community."

In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, colleges and universities across the country are reviewing their emergency preparedness plans and evaluating their ability to quickly notify constituents in crisis situations. Networked technologies (posting notices on Web sites, e-mailing information, and sending text messages to cell phones) are among the most promising solutions. As campuses explore options for their emergency communication plan, they must also consider infrastructure and policy and procedural components. This session will provide an overview of the strategies for emergency notifications of students, employees, and visitors, as well as a context and resources for campus emergency preparedness planning.

Related EDUCAUSE Resources

• Automating Paul Revere: Notification Systems Are Coming!
• Connecting Your Campus with SMS
• Learning the Hard Way
• Archives of past EDUCAUSE Live! seminars