We used to be afraid of one Big Brother. Comedian Robin Williams observes (in his "Weapons of Self Destruction" show) that we actually should be afraid of "lots of little snitches" - those folks with cell phone cameras always on the look out for something to post on You-Tube, Flickr, or other websites for the world to see.
When I was the NFPA staff liaison to the NFPA Fire Service Training Committee, a committee member suggested that I search You-Tube for references to NFPA 1403 the national standard for live fire training. OMG (as Tweeters exclaim) - what I saw! Safety measures not even considered in video after video captured by (evidently) participating fire fighters and the public they serve! Shouldn't these examples hint as to the power of social media, particularly crowd sourcing for information? It sure gave the committee some insight for improving the standards.
Yet, it was not that long ago that a large federal agency rejected the use of social media - "we're not going there." - period. Thankfully, over the last couple of years, many public agencies have begun to track social media in regards to emergency incidents and intelligence. Local law enforcement agencies are monitoring social media for intimations of crime as well as the immediate posting of feeds during the initial stages of emergencies. Messages from neighbors about gang activities, tweets from occupants inside a building about hostage situations, and photos of accident scenes can all be captured and distributed to responding units adding to their "common operating picture" information.
The information from crowd sourcing/social media can be incorporated into GIS maps to provide increased situational awareness essential to first responders as well as mitigating potentially hazardous situations. Want to see an example? Check out this website as an example of a growing number of portals for citizen involvement in improving community life and safety.
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When I was the NFPA staff liaison to the NFPA Fire Service Training Committee, a committee member suggested that I search You-Tube for references to NFPA 1403 the national standard for live fire training. OMG (as Tweeters exclaim) - what I saw! Safety measures not even considered in video after video captured by (evidently) participating fire fighters and the public they serve! Shouldn't these examples hint as to the power of social media, particularly crowd sourcing for information? It sure gave the committee some insight for improving the standards.
Yet, it was not that long ago that a large federal agency rejected the use of social media - "we're not going there." - period. Thankfully, over the last couple of years, many public agencies have begun to track social media in regards to emergency incidents and intelligence. Local law enforcement agencies are monitoring social media for intimations of crime as well as the immediate posting of feeds during the initial stages of emergencies. Messages from neighbors about gang activities, tweets from occupants inside a building about hostage situations, and photos of accident scenes can all be captured and distributed to responding units adding to their "common operating picture" information.
The information from crowd sourcing/social media can be incorporated into GIS maps to provide increased situational awareness essential to first responders as well as mitigating potentially hazardous situations. Want to see an example? Check out this website as an example of a growing number of portals for citizen involvement in improving community life and safety.
