Enough already! Almost all of PEI has been out of power for a few hours and we are hanging on by a thread. We are having a foretaste of the kind of events that will become more common as global warming affects our weather.
As in war - the most important thing is to know what is going on. For those who have to help to now and for the rest of us poor folks who are in the dark, under water, coming down with bird flu etc.
It is now possible for all of us to know a lot - if we understand the new media. It's possible to be able to know a lot very quickly and for very little cost. We could have a great system up and running in 2 days.
Hope is not a plan and the key is to be able to keep everyone in the loop. Here is a list of things that have been proved to work.
Key Assumption - Assume very little power available and that phones can be lost too - most people have cell phones. The cell phone in the developing world is THE link. So any plan has to put the cell phone in the centre of the mix. But how do you reach thousands of people using text messaging on their phones
Key Assumption - PEI has one of the highest uses of Facebook in the world - Facebook can be set up to message the members of groups - set up a PEI EMS Facebook Group and encourage people to join - make it socially competitive - the power outage now will help - the kids will get their parents and grandparents on.
Key Asumption - Broadcasting on the radio every 30 minutes reaches not many. KPBS used Twitter during the California fires and were updating every few minutes. Twitter can use sms and hence is very robust and it is two way -so the Wisdom of Crowds can be leveraged.
Key Assumption - Use the wisdom of crowds - Members can not only receive but contribute on Facebook and also using Google Maps as KPBS harnessed in the Fires last summer in California. Google Maps are the ideal vehicle for bringing it all into a coherent picture. The KPBS map became the resource for all involved.
Key Assumption - Link your services into the same system. The San Diego FD was interlocked into the KPBS system. The LAFD has been using Twitter and Google maps for nearly a year now
Key Assumption - Every other community in North America faces the same kind of risk - Learning from each other and being able to lend help will be essential. As ME is finding, its crews are going to run out of gas soon. As in war, you can be sure that you have to have a strategic reserve of knowledge and resources - this can only come from outside and you can only access this if you have the relationship's already established - remember when PEI went to Toronto to help with the snow? Social Media can help form these links.
Key Assumption - Let's get on with it and pull this together!!!!!
See follow on for examples in full - None of this costs real money - it just takes will
If you live where I do 3,000 miles away from the fires, maybe pictures of the fires and interviews with people who have lost their homes might be interesting. BUT what if you live where the fires are? Surely then I would want to know in real time EXACTLY what was going on.
KPBS - a public TV Station is
providing this service using Google Maps, Twitter & Flickr. They
are also broadcasting on air and on the web! They have all the bases
covered. I have suggested to some PBS/NPR stations that they should
create an Emergency Plan - they have pushed back saying that they don’t
do “News”. Here is a joint license showing that covering emergency well
is surely one of the key “Public” tasks of such a station - showing
also how by using social media - they can do this really well by
accessing their community
Here is the Google Map - all the key detail is there - what is going
on and where and when (875,000 views and counting this morning)
Here is the Twitter feed - note that the feed is operating on a minute by minute basis
Here is the link to Flickr
They are using the Comments Section on a blog as a tool to allow people to make local reports - see how it works here
They have got the full suite all cleverly applied
Update - In this kind of emergency - Mobile Phones are now the main link - here is a great post by Debi Jones on how this is playing out:
The disastrous fires burning in San Diego have initiated a service used by the city and county government to inform and update residents. Mandatory evacuation orders have been communicated via reverse 911 on both landline phones and mobile phones. The messages are prerecorded and as I’ve said, three messages have been received on my phone. The first was an evacuation order. The next message was a notice that San Diego schools are closed until further notice along with the instruction to keep children inside and restrict their activity levels (smoke and ash is so thick in the air that keeping it out of your house is impossible during large fires). The third message was information on evacuation centers that were still open as several are already full.
Regulation in the US for Enhanced 911 or emergency service which incorporates location data has resulted in a number of emergency related services that are unique to the US market when compared to other geographical regions like Western Europe or Asia. The reverse 911 system isn’t specifically a mobile service, but that it does include mobile phones is impressive and to see this system work in the case of a disaster saving time and lives is an important development. To this point, 262,000 households have received reverse 911 calls.
It is likely in a very bad situation that cell phone networks will get jammed - what we are learning though is that SMS tends to get through - so Twitter as a feed may be the core of a good plan
Advisories have been announced on CNN and local San Diego TV stations asking people to limit their mobile phone use as the networks are saturated. This is a common problem during emergencies as we’ve seen over and over. The one component that continued to provide communication during the London bombings, post Katrina flooding in New Orleans and now in San Diego is text messaging. Twice today my mobile calls have been rejected with the network reporting, “all circuits are busy”. And yet, I’ve continued to be able to send out SMS.
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LAFD - Social Media and Emergency - Twitter
This is surely the future
The Los Angeles Fire Department has been the toast of the blogosphere in recent weeks after its efforts at using the micro-blogging site Twitter came to light.
Twitter allows users to post short (140 characters or less) notes. The fire department uses Twitter to post information about fires or other emergencies that it is responding to. These messages are then sent to users signed up to receive the information on their mobile devices.
During the May fires in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, for example, the LAFD received press inquiries from the BBC and from news media in Prague, the Czech Republic, by way of Twitter, said Brian Humphrey, the LAFD's public information officer. Humphrey maintains the Web 2.0 technology with another department spokesman, Ron Myers. The pair work 12-hour shifts to update the blog, send out twitters and other duties.
Government agencies are not usually known using cutting-edge technology, but the LAFD has immersed itself in various Web 2.0 projects, including a blog, a real-time alert service, a Flickr photo site and a live Internet radio show.
For all of you who are struggling with whether or how to do this - here is how the guys at LAFD justified taking this route
Humphrey said the department began looking at Web 2.0 technologies after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. While those stranded at the Louisian Superdome in New Orleans were certainly hungry and thirsty, "they were dying a little bit at a time from a lack of information," he said. "They thought they were on their own Gilligan's Island."
The LAFD uses four attributes to characterize the success of Web 2.0 tools: desirable, beneficial, justifiable and sustainable.
"We can no longer afford to work at the speed of government," he said. "We have responsibilities to the public to move the information as quickly as possible ... so that they can make key decisions."
Interest in the LAFD's effort has grown; its blog just logged its 1 millionth visitor this year, and photos on its Flickr account have been viewed 500,000 times in the past year, Humphrey said. The department has made widgets available with content it produces and uses RSS to allow more users to subscribe to updates.
But the most popular effort has been the Twitter account, which now has about 190 followers who can receive Twitter updates from a mobile device. For example, a Twitter will report that a structural fire is being battled by 30 firefighters, or that a car accident has occurred. It reads like a dispatch log of sorts from the calls the department receives and answers.
"The idea for us is that not everyone who is in need of information in times of distress will be sitting in front of a computer," Humphrey said.
While no funds have been earmarked for these projects, and Humphrey and Myers spend time on and off the clock working on them, the LAFD has more than 80 Web 2.0 projects in the pipeline that it is testing.
Humphrey advises other government agencies testing the waters of Web 2.0 not to fall into a common misconception about the technology: That it will allow an organization's voice to be heard louder, more clearly and over a greater distance.
Instead, "having this Web 2.0 presence ... allows us to listen more clearly and more accurately over a greater area," he said. "It is all about getting much more feedback [from the public]."
But, the department's journey to the Web has not been without its challenges. As Humphrey, a 22-year veteran of the department who has a propeller placed under his fire helmet in his office likes to note, "I don't have a problem running into a burning building ... but stepping out into the Internet was very intimidating."
