by Eric Holdeman: Emergency management in the blogosphere
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Providing information to the public in the form of an interactive map that they too can post information to is what incorporating social media is all about. Known as the Canterbury Earthquake they have a general response page with information on water, fuel, supermarkets, and most importantly portaloos.
They also have an interactive earthquake map that is very intuitive to use and includes all the social media inputs from the region. This is a wonderful example of what can be done today to capture information from the public and also share disaster information.
Dave Nichols shared the links above.
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I've been a long time advocate of using social media in government in general and in emergency management in particular. I won't repeat all those arguments for its use here in this blog posting.
Instead I'd like to call your attention to a Public CIO Magazine article CIOs Struggle With Social Media Security's Risks It is a balanced piece that calls out some of the major components of risk--generally that is people using social media inadvertently or intentionally and doing harm to the organization.
One component that has been missing from many organizations is training on the use of social media. It is one thing to have them sign a confidentiality statement on the use of social media, but it is not the same as giving them examples of the pitfalls to avoid and have them interact with their peers and share their own lessons learned from using social media. One advantage of this type of training would be the mixing of generations and users with nonusers. Certainly it would be good for managers to understand how their employees are using, or would like to use social media. Putting them in a training session together would be a good blend and bring both sides of the equation together.
The article ends with the quote that follows. As emergency managers we are about risk management. When we got out of bed today and drove to work we took a risk with our lives. Not using social media at all is perhaps the greatest risk of all.
"In the end though, the greatest risk of social media technologies may not be a breach of security, data loss or a denial-of-service attack. Rather, the most significant threat is not using social media at all. "There's a huge risk if you're not active in social media channels," Ressler said. "For example, if your brand is being beaten up or if there's a great conversation going on and you're not a part of it." By banning social media outright, federal and state agencies risk frustrating their constituents, alienating potential recruits, and stepping away from an opportunity to set the record straight or better inform the general public. And that's a conversation worth having despite the security risks.¨
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What I like about social media that is being used by others than the public information officers is that you can start to have a "real" conversation with the general public and others. If you read the "official line" on the DHS 8th Anniversary you get the feeling that we are doing terrific at just about everything. It is like the family that gets together to brag about their kids, but no one mentions the cousin who committed a felony and is in prison.
While Khadafi has lost touch with reality, sometimes if we read our own propaganda on how well we are doing at our jobs we too can come off as everything is rosy and there are no problems with what we are doing and how we are doing it.
Elected Officials and those that serve them can have a difficult time "being real" about hazards, disaster preparedness and disaster response. Generally we talk about all that we are doing, not what remains to be done. The more we can deal directly with the facts and what is getting done and not getting done the better off we will be when disaster does strike our organizations and communities.
Yes DHS, you have come a long way from when you started and some project staff were operating without computers and office supplies. Progress has been made, but more needs to be done. When we compare our threats with our capabilities it is the stuff that keeps knowledgeable people awake at night worrying about what might happen.
Bill Cumming shared the link above.
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We just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Nisqually Earthquake. Instead of just blowing out the ten candles on the cake we could be doing something to become better prepared for the next "big one" when it strikes.
One such preparedness measure would be attending the ASA Workshop aimed at business CEOs and others who have the responsibility for improving the preparedness of their organizations.
Annie Searle is conducting the workshop and I know she will do an excellent job and attendance will be worth the price of admission.
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It is hard to believe that it was only 11 months ago that Apple introduced the iPad tablet computer. I held out for about five months and got mine in August and my life will never be the same. On a recent plane ride I saw just about everyone in the first class cabin with their iPad out working, watching a movie, reading or playing a game.
Now I see that Apple is about to launch it's next version of the iPad today. Thinner, faster and with a camera. It's what keeps us upgrading! They are on target to sell 30 million units in their first year of existence.
What tells me that touch is here to stay is the fact that now there are competitors in the marketplace using other software platforms like Android to power the devices. In fact there are now 102 versions of tablet computers either on sale or in development.
From later in the day, there is an update:
Here's the official announcement from Apple
As emergency managers we need to look at how we will integrate them into our daily activities and during disaster response and recovery. They provide the portability to make our lives so much easier and the speed of processing information and productivity quantitatively better. Switching to an all digital paperless environment is the next step in our functioning at the EOC. Information, maps, social media all at our fingertips--the future of emergency management is connected, digital, high definition and very portable!
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Mitigation has been one of my passions ever since FEMA's Project Impact got me hooked on the concept of trying to do something to eliminate or reduce the damages from any number of hazards.
If you have a passion for mitigation and want to live in California the position of Chief Mitigation Officer may be what you are looking for. They are doing an executive level recruitment for the position. You can check out what the California Earthquake Authority is all about. Craig Travis, Vice President, Recruiting & Employment Services at Sequence Staffing is handling the recruitment.
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One of the typical ways to try and engage citizens in the business of emergency management is to have representatives from the community at large involved with an advisory group. Many times this is associated with the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Generally there are only a couple of citizens involved with the committee with the majority of representatives coming from other government agencies and hazardous materials community.
The City of Arlington, VA has what I think is a fairly unique Citizen Advisory Commission This commission is made up of only civilians. Looking at the bios of the people involved it is not your typical group of interested bystanders. I think that comes from the D.C. impact of having so many movers and shakers living in the region.
Claire Rubin, a Recovery Diva serves on the commission and was wondering if there are similar organizations like theirs functioning across the world. What are the make-ups of these organizations and what are their activities. She would love to hear from you!
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You can follow worldwide events using maps like this Tripoli poster size satellite reference map "This poster size satellite overview map provides baseline geographic information over Tripoli, Libya. It is produced by UNITAR/UNOSAT in support of international humanitarian assistance to the people of Libya.The atlas is created to respond to the needs of UN agencies and their partners. It is intended to provide objective geographic information and has been designed for easy printing and readability for A0 and A1 posters."
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DHS is hosting a new webinar on March 23rd Protecting Our Food, Levees, and Ports: University Solutions
It is advertised as:
Don't miss this opportunity to learn about the latest initiatives, collaborative efforts, and homeland security university research projects relating to critical infrastructure protection. The Webinar will provide useful information on:
• How tools developed by DHS Centers of Excellence are used to enhance critical infrastructure protection
• The framework for expanding the deployment of Centers of Excellence enabling research and education
• DHS Centers of Excellence (research and education).
• The National Center for Food Protection and Defense - Risk Analysis Tools for Food Defense
• Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence - Risk Analysis Tools for Levee Systems
• National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events - Risk Analysis Tools for Port Operations
You can register here
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If you are using social media in emergency management today you are like Columbus sailing the ocean blue, headed west looking for India and not knowing exactly what you might find.
As we feel our way forward in using the new technology one of the best things we can do is examine how social media was used for an actual event. This was exactly what happened when people active in social media's use for emergency management got together for a chat. IDisaster 2.0 has a wonderful summary of that chat and the issues they discussed.
I'd like to comment on just a couple of those items:
- Reunification and missing persons. It was noted that most of this was done not by government, but others using social media. In my mind we need to leverage everyone possible so why not let a nonprofit do this work. I think it is in the American Red Cross' mission, so they would be a natural to do the work.
- The cellular infrastructure is becoming increasingly important. I can imagine some would argue that you should kick the social media types off of the airwaves in order to free it up for government use. I'd argue that we need those direct connections with people and between people. I've always said that once you take care of giving people water to drink, the next most important commodity they need is information for their survival. Yes--survival. Worry will hurt more than a hungry belly. We need to ensure people can connect with one another.
- The idea of having your social media infrastructure set up and operational before an event rings true to me. It is the concept of a Disaster Wiki that I keep talking about. We all know how preparedness pays off--so too with social media!
- Lastly, the thought of doing some social media drills. That does sound hard doesn't it! Evidently the Red Cross has some experience there and we should listen to them.
Be sure and read the full posting on the topic and they also have a link to the chat that was held on Twitter #SMEM last Friday. This would be a good place to dip your toes in social media and see what others are saying.
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