Virginia Tech Launches Archival Web Site

In the days following the Virginia Tech campus shootings, technology continues to play an important role in the healing process. Virginia Tech launched a new web site, The April 16 Archive, that encourages participants to share their electronic memories, thoughts, and observations.

The site, created and administered by Virginia Tech's Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, seeks first hand accounts and reactions to the shootings. According to a message on the site, the creators hope that this archive will "assist artists, humanists, social scientists, and all other scholars who seek, today and in the future, to develop a better understanding of the violent events of April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech." Since the site launched 24 hours ago, there have been about 50 comments, mostly in the form of photos taken in the days following the shootings.

It's been widely discussed that technology, especially social networking, has played a greater role in the Virginia Tech shootings than in other recent national tragedies. By April 18^th, two days after the shootings, there were 500 new groups formed on Facebook with the words "Virginia Tech" in the title, mostly comments from other students at colleges and high schools voicing their support and offering their condolences. USA Today reported that technology was a coping mechanism helping students grieve. Many student Facebook profiles displayed the VT logo shrouded in a black ribbon as a form of solidarity. Educators have also been actively discussing and debating the pros and cons of this electronic collective mourning.

Social networks and collective virtual mourning are not the only way that technology figures into the post-Virginia Tech world. Campuses all over the country are debating whether to deploy on-campus emergency SMS/text messaging systems that would be able to notify students more quickly in the event of an emergency. Purdue University announced plans to use Facebook as part of the student notification program. An Illinois senator has introduced legislation to mandate stronger campus emergency notification systems. And campuses throughout the country are rolling out cell phone-based messaging systems, recognizing that cell phones are the one piece of technology most students are likely to have with them at all times.