by Heather Blanchard: Emerging technologies, digital engagement and the rise of digital humanitarians.
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Heather Blanchard is currently conducting research for a book at the American University in Paris where she is finishing her Master of Arts in Global Communications. Prior to her sojourn in France, Heather was a co-founder for CrisisCommons a community of volunteers who use technology to support crisis management and international humanitarian relief efforts. She served the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. in various roles including serving the Office of the Secretary's Private Sector Office as a Business Liaison Director for Technology and Telecommunications and the Office of Public Affairs as Deputy Director of the Ready Campaign. She began the first eight years of her career in the private sector working for the Marasco Newton Group.
In May 2011 Heather testified before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Social Media and Disasters. In March 2012, Government Technology named Heather one of the Top 25 Dreamers and Doers in the public sector.
Heather received her Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Radford University in 1995. Representing Homeland Security, she participated in Harvard University's Leading in a Crisis program and Oxford University's Comparative Law and Policy's Summer Institute on Global Media and Technology Policy.
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I-5 Bridge Collapse Again Provides Lessons in Public InformationNot sure if you caught the article, "Will Twitter put the UN out of the disaster business?" the other day as a result of the #commisaid event in London. Just the title alone will get folks talking. It's a silly title really. Of course that would never happen. I'm sure Twitter likes its business just fine.
Why that title is interesting is what is represents or perhaps reinforces an identity that large institutions and agencies have an inability to innovate or desire to do new things. From what I have seen from the last few years this is not true. Not in the least bit. There are many in institutions who are slogging it out everyday and doing more with less. Some are doing amazing things. Just take the American Red Cross and their new digital operations center. Times are tough for government budgets -- really anyone's budgets. It's hard to innovate when every year there is less and more to do. Change happens with small wins.
I'm a hybrid kind of blogger. I understand what its like to be in a large institution (i.e. Homeland Security) but I can also understand the agility and possibility of those who are not encumbered with institutional challenges (resources, authorities and expertise). Both have challenges equally.
From my perspective, I would offer that what is happening today in organizations large and small, public and private sector, non-profit and academia is a fundamental shift of how society operates. No one knows where this all will go, not even the technology companies. They have a pipeline of products for the next five years but who knows what will happen in the future. Just putting it out there. The world is shifting. So much is happening. It hard for everyone to keep up.
Just to scope out #disasterbytes, maybe we'll start with four areas. First, I'd like to explore how crisis management can move beyond the conversation of "if we should do something" to sharing what actually works. If you have something that works in your organization, let me know, I'm happy to share that broadly. Maybe we can do a little video series?
The second area that might be interesting for #disasterbytes to look at is the inclusion of technology and telecommunications considerations (including technical expertise, donation management, volunteer and data coordination) in its doctrine and public policy. For example, what are the major changes with the new field of frameworks and how will they support greater use of technology and increase digital literacy of practitioners and volunteers. As of the end of February, FEMA posted the draft policy documents and have been open for comment. Public input closes on April 2, 2012. If you didn't catch that -- almost all of the US crisis management policy is up for comment! Comment today!
The third area that I'd like to look at is how online communities engage with institutions. For example, how are (or not) technology volunteers (donated skills and resources -- including the private sector in a philanthropy) connected with official response systems? How can local response systems request federal technology and telecommunications mission support (i.e. imagery, visualization, data coordination)?
Finally, I'd like to share what's happening as #heardonthestreet. For example, how does Justin Bieber's prank the other day when he purposefully tweeted a phone number missing a number and some people in Texas received a deluge of phone calls. Today there is a legal action pending. Why should crisis management care about it? Well, what happens when you put a false piece of information (or information that is old) out there and people react to it and its implications? How can that situation of information and deluge matter to crisis management?
So there you go. Another blog is born (like we need anything else to read!). I'm totally into getting your feedback on what #disasterbytes should be about. Let's start a sub-hashtag of #smem while we are at it. Feel free to tag ideas, thoughts and diatribes to #disasterbytes. Don't forget to follow #smem - that's where all the cool kids are. I'll be following both.
While I might be in Paris physically, I'm online most of the day. Yes, even in my classes. Puts a new spin on passing notes in class. You can find me on Twitter @poplifegirl pretty easily. You can always LinkedIn and Facebook. If you want to see my slides from past presentations you can check out Slideshare and of course if you want to see what kind of terrible music I listen to you can follow me @rdio. I also am very much interested in music and technology. You can check out my blogs on #midem here. Yeah, and good old fashioned email works too at heather@newcicada.com
About Heather Blanchard
Heather Blanchard is currently conducting research for a book at the American University in Paris where she is finishing her Master of Arts in Global Communications. Prior to her sojourn in France, Heather was a co-founder for CrisisCommons a community of volunteers who use technology to support crisis management and international humanitarian relief efforts. She served the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. in various roles including serving the Office of the Secretary's Private Sector Office as a Business Liaison Director for Technology and Telecommunications and the Office of Public Affairs as Deputy Director of the Ready Campaign. She began the first eight years of her career in the private sector working for the Marasco Newton Group.
In May 2011 Heather testified before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Social Media and Disasters. In March 2012, Government Technology named Heather one of the Top 25 Dreamers and Doers in the public sector.
Heather received her Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Radford University in 1995. Representing Homeland Security, she participated in Harvard University’s Leading in a Crisis program and Oxford University’s Comparative Law and Policy’s Summer Institute on Global Media and Technology Policy.
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Lots going on via #SMEM. Patrice Cloutier (@patricecloutier) organized a Social Media in Emergency Management event (#smemto) in Toronto, Canada today. The interwebs were a flurry with @smackenz reporting that a total of 1,100 tweets were generated to provide 2,487,984 impressions which reached an audience of 180,433 followers today through the #smemto hashtag. Makes you think that maybe next time you have a meeting, open Wi-Fi is perhaps a critical element of the discussion not only in the room but by those who want to participate outside of it.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch the whole event, so @patricecloutier if you want to post and update, happy reblog it. What I did sense was that Toronto Police Service Deputy Chief Peter Sloly @DeputySloly stole the show. @berettamae exclaimed that “@DeputySloly <---- amazing man to #follow! #smemto”
Lots of folks participating but @HeatherLeson, Ushahidi's Community Leader perhaps said it best in her tweet: Let it be known that @patricecloutier changed emergency management in Canada today.
Well said. So here are a few highlights of #smemto as seen on Twitter:
@johnverdon: #smemto emergency management in digital environment involves not just dealing with the situation But how we 'appear' to be dealing with it
@nellleo Emergency mgmt involves quite a bit of community mgmt bc you're organizing and using community volunteers go help
@ayoudo: Most people using social media to seek info, it's time to start using social media to request/offer help.
@DaniGirl: Good point from @Kim26stephens at #smemto - providing "info" not enough in a crisis. Must be relevant, meaningful, HELPFUL
@smackenz: Steady, constant, open communication wins the race.
@DaniGirl: 'If you think your primary audience in a crisis is the media you're dead in the water. ' sez Patrice @ #smemto
@johnverdon: #smemto when authority doesn't know answer but responds to question with that answer - people feel they have been heard - eases minds
@ayoudo: Most people using social media to seek info, it's time to start using social media to request/offer help. #smemto
@yling: Says @kim26stephens Continued support following disaster, facebook pages live well after event = town hall & support #smemto
RT @memci: RT @nellleo: We are not in an era of message control. If you think your primary audience in a crisis is the media, you're entirely irrelevant.
@memci: Heather Leason #smemto - need to communicate a new way of working
@nelllio: "if it's true, it can go (online)" - @Kim26stephens on how Queensland empowered officers to tweet as they go
@nellleo: What happens right after a disaster? People start to help. They do communicate official info through their own channels
@nellleo: Users are content creators.If there's a situation in their communities, they'll talk about it.Monitor+reach out -> avoid blowout
@fantoniTO: Social media rule: Tell the truth. If you don't, you'll get caught + lose credibility, says @patricecloutier #smemto
@johnverdon: #smemto content creation for the Internet is a new literacy - that can only grow until it is expected as a ubiquitous act of citizenry
@nellleo: Citizens (on SM/the online community) = filters & amplifiers of official info for those are impacted - @Kim26stephens
@HeatherLeson: This is a great 1st step #smemto. Tx to all who organized. Stage 2: an unconference: tap into the community brain trust + officials
@TantoniTO: Community pages = information aid. Opportunity to engage broader audiences and partner to get official messages out
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While there is Pinterest, which basically pins pictures and is more visual, there is Instapaper which allows you to keep a running list of what you might be interested in reading.
Here are a few clips worth reading.
[Facebook] LA Times: Mark Zuckerberg Meets with the Japanese Prime Minister
"Zuckerberg told Noda that the tsunami that struck the nation inspired him to find ways that the social network can help people in natural disasters. Last month, Facebook rolled out a "Disaster Message Board" in Japan to help people find each other during emergencies.
For years Facebook lagged behind other social networks in Japan. But it doubled its users after last year's tsunami and jumped into the No. 1 position ahead of Twitter and domestic competitor Mixi."
“In the same way that past Federal investments in information-technology R&D led to dramatic advances in supercomputing and the creation of the Internet, the initiative we are launching today promises to transform our ability to use Big Data for scientific discovery, environmental and biomedical research, education, and national security,” said Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a prepared statement.
“IBM views Big Data as organizations’ most valuable natural resource, and the ability to use technology to understand it holds enormous promise for society at large,” said David McQueeney, vice president of software, IBM Research, in a statement. “The Administration’s work to advance research and funding of big data projects, in partnership with the private sector, will help federal agencies accelerate innovations in science, engineering, education, business and government.”
Notable from WH FAQ: The Center of Excellence on Visualization and Data Analytics (CVADA), a collaboration among researchers at Rutgers University and Purdue University (with three additional partner universities each) leads research efforts on large, heterogeneous data that First Responders could use to address issues ranging from manmade or natural disasters to terrorist incidents; law enforcement to border security concerns; and explosives to cyber threats.
[Geospatial] Guardian: OpenStreetMap verse Google Maps
The stark difference between these two images of Sarajevo really brought home the impressive coverage of OpenStreetMap and more importantly it really shows the power of open data, open software and communities of people driven to solve problems.
[REPORT] From UK: Riots Communities and Victims Panel
The Independent Riots Communities and Victims Panel was set up to examine and understand why the August 2011 riots took place. The Riots Communities and Victims Panel’s final report has now been published. This sets out our final findings and recommendations for action to help prevent future riots.
[Fireside Read] Smithsonian Magazine: Richard Clarke on Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack
America's longtime counterterrorism czar warns that the cyberwars have already begun--and we might be losing.
[Lighter Fare] WSJ: Drowning in Files? Hoarding Goes Digital
"Digital hoarding is a huge problem. There is so much available storage, we don't have to make decisions anymore," says David D. Nowell, a neuropsychologist specializing in attention issues in Worcester, Mass. "The problem isn't that it slows down your computer—it slows down your brain," he warns, since each of those photos, links and folders demands some mental energy.
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Experts in emergency management say Albert Ashwood’s long experience and innovative thinking have helped ease those recoveries.
Students at the Oklahoma State University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering designed preliminary storm drones that could someday gather data that saves lives.
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