Potential Applications of Social Media and Social Networking in Local Disaster Response
Monday, October 22, 2007 at 03:43PM By Dennis D. McDonald
A .pdf version of this paper is available for download here: http://www.ddmcd.com/potential_applications.pdf
I’ve written before on the relevance of social media and social networking to emergency response communications. Partly I’m just reflecting what I’ve seen happening in emergencies as diverse as Katrina and Virginia Tech.
People use the tools available to them when a crisis hits. Increasingly these tools include blogs, text messaging, and social networking systems such as Facebook. The use of such communication tools in disaster and emergency situations is evidence of an obvious fact: the people most involved in an emergency are going to communicate about it. The question is, how can those in an official capacity take advantage of these communication channels?
Organizations such as the American Red Cross, with its blogs and its experiments with Twitter, certainly seem to be “getting the social media message.” Consultant W. David Stephenson has written about the need for a networked terrorism and disaster response strategy. Plus, we now have none other than Secretary Michael Chertoff blogging on a regular basis from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
All this seems to bode well for an embrace of social media into planning and delivery of emergency related services. Still, I’m finding that we still have a very long way to go before such methods become truly accepted. In my opinion, resistance by some to incorporating social media and social networking into emergency response communications is partly due to ignorance, partly due to a clash of management cultures, and partly due to a simple lack of understanding of the situations where social media do or don’t make sense.
To help explore the different situations where social media and social networking might make sense at the local level, I’ve examined a group of press releases published by FEMA via its RSS feed on October 22, 2007. Selected news releases are listed at the left of the table below. On the right I’ve listed possible examples of applications of social media and social networking. Examples of suggested applications include:
- Use blogs to rapidly publicize assistance grants.
- Create geo-tagged photo groups to document damage.
- Publicize volunteers willing to share recovery-relevant expertise.
- Use map based mashups to display relevant local information.
- Immediately share “lessons learned.”
- Integrate volunteer directories with social networks to simplify information sharing.
- Distribute weather information via methods that support geographic targeting.
- Encourage sharing of resource information among corporations that will most likely be involved in recovery work.
- Use assistance application process as basis for voluntary sharing of information among affected populations.
I’ve created most of these examples to stimulate discussion. If you have comments or suggestions about these ideas, please leave a comment below the table or send me an email at ddmcd@yahoo.com. Thanks!
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FEMA NEWS ITEM |
POTENTIAL SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATIONS |
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Three Counties Added for Public Assistance. ROCKFORD, Ill. — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced on Oct. 19 that it is providing assistance to Cook, Knox and Warren counties to help pay for emergency services and to repair or replace public facilities damaged by the Aug. 20-31 severe storms and flooding. |
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Don’t Delay! One Week Left To Register With FEMA & THE SBA. WACO, Texas — Only one week remains to register for assistance for Texans affected by severe storms and flooding, June 16-August 3. Recovery officials urge homeowners, renters, business owners, and private non-profits who sustained losses to register for assistance now, if they have not already done so. |
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Volunteering. Volunteering through an organization provides a better chance of insurance and liability protection. There are many tasks to do after a disaster - cleaning up and rebuilding are two of the biggest. Both voluntary agencies and the local government may be aware of opportunities for volunteer labor in the long and difficult recovery phase. |
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Garvin County Added to Presidential Disaster Declaration for Oklahoma. OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that Garvin county has been approved for public disaster assistance. The Presidential Disaster Declaration is the result of damages from the severe storms, flooding, and tornadoes that occurred May 24 thru June 1. |
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$1.6 Million in Disaster Aid Helping Vermont Communities. BERLIN, Vt. — Since the August 3rd federal disaster declaration that Vermont received in response to the July 9-11th storm, a total of $1.6Million has been obligated by FEMA to fund more than 200 Public Assistance projects so far… |
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Protect Your Family in the Event of Dangerous Weather. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is closely monitoring a line of severe storms that are tracking eastward across the United States. FEMA continues to coordinate with state and local governments and stand ready to support if needed. |
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FEMA Mitigation Experts Moving Locations in Bexar County. WACO, Texas — Mitigation experts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) relocated from the Home Depot at 527 Fair Ave. in San Antonio to the Wal-Mart at 8923 W. Military Dr. in San Antonio yesterday, Oct. 17 to provide information about disaster-resistant building practices. Information provided by FEMA’s mitigation experts will include: |
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Mobile Disaster Recovery Center Returns To Taylor County. Waco, Texas — The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Texas Governor’s Division of Emergency Management (GDEM) announced that a Mobile Disaster Recovery Center (MDRC) will return to Taylor County from Friday, October 19 through Monday, October 22 in an ongoing effort to serve those affected by Tropical Storm Erin, August 14-20. |
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Reader Comments (13)
http://www.centernetworks.com/california-fires-social-media
One of my takeaways from the VaTech tragedy was that people were using tools that they were already familiar with--Facebook, MySpace--and not turning to the creation of a new network. Ultimately, when you have a technology innovator like Microsoft who would rather buy (at an absurd cost!) than create it's own social network platform (outbidding another tech innovator by the name of Google for Facebook), I question the strategy of our government going where the giants fear to tread.
Not that I disagree with your concept I think that what we really need is to tap into these existing networks and models and make information available. The reverse 911 system that San Diego used is a great example of using technology smartly to support disaster preparation, notification and recovery.Keep thinking about this!
Thanks for the comment.
I sent you an email as a follow up.
Dennis
Do not infer from what I wrote that I am recommending Federal management and operation of all such systems. Emergency managers need to learn how to use and integrate with existing systems so that, when the need arises, good uses are made.
That requires planning. It also means that government officials need to pay attention to how to interact in situations where control and influence are fragmented and decentralized.
As far as blogs are concerned, what has always impressed me about blogs is the publishing power they put directly into the hands of the citizen. Some web sites are so complex and convoluted they need trained I.T. staff to operate and maintain. Obviously there are situations where that makes perfect sense. But in other situations, ease of use and speed can be more important to getting useful information out and to getting feedback from people quickly and directly. In a crisis situation where speed is essential such features make a lot of sense.
And, thank you for your thoughtful comments!
Dennis McDonald
http://www.ddmcd.com
Lee, Thanks for the comment. You're right - starting these after the fact is not optimal. But all around us we are seeing examples of spontaneous applications being developed by those close to an emergency. That's a feature of "web 2.0" technologies and public acceptance that we need to build on. But we need to plan on how to work with these technologies, too.
- Dennis
1 - using a blog as a publishing platform is in many cases more advanced than the older solutions many agencies now employ.
2 - going with a browser-based interface means more capacity for the agents in the field to add relevant data when it matters most.
3 - RSS. You don't have to jerry-rig RSS on a blog, but you do for a number of "enterprise-level" federal sites.
4 - Social mediability. You want people to share the information to extend the reach of your messaging. Doing so within the look and feel of what people are used to seeing has its benefits.
5 - Search. Having it in a format that is link and SEO friendly makes it more likely people will find the information you have when they need it.
Cheers Gavin
http://www.rediguana.co.nz/gav/2007/10/30/social-networking-and-disaster-response/