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The Importance of Analytics in Managing Different Tools and Information
On October 6, 2011,
in Social Media,
by Daniel Conway with SRA Touchstone
Technologies are significantly changing how governments and citizens communicate during emergencies, increasing the speed and amount of information shared and driving real-time decisions for governments at all levels. The transformation of this two-way citizen and government communication raises several questions on how citizens validate the alerts information they receive from governments and how governments validate the streams of information they receive by citizens. It is clear there are no one-size solutions for governments to alert the public or for citizens to decide how they wish to receive alerts messaging. Continue reading »
Tagged with: #SMEM • communications • fairfax • local • Mobile • Social Media • Social Networks • Twitter
Fairfax County reports on social media use during Hurricane Irene
On September 19, 2011,
in Social Media,
by Daniel Honker with SRA Touchstone
Fairfax County, Virginia, recently released an analysisof how the County’s information was published and shared online during the preparation, response and recovery timeframe of Hurricane Irene. This report was released by Fairfax’s Office of Public Affairs, which, in keeping with the County’s Emergency Operations Plan, coordinates and disseminates all information related to major incidents.
The report details how users interacted with information on the Fairfax Emergency Information Blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, mobile app, and other online platforms.
Key findings included the following:
- Fairfax launched an emergency information blog during the hurricane which received over 50,000 views (more than any other county web page during the same time period).
- Fairfax County’s Facebook page received 335,000 post views and was the primary way people received information from the county on Hurricane Irene.
- The county’s website saw a 3,000% increase in the number of views to select emergency web pages during the preparation, response, and recovery for Hurricane Irene.
- There were 289 downloads of the county’s iPhone app during the preparation, response, and recovery for Hurricane Irene (up from 75 during a similar time period).
The full report is available here.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Haole Punk.
What can go wrong in Social Media in Alerts and Warnings?
On September 7, 2011,
in Featured Posts, Social Media,
by Lloyd Colston with Altus Emergency Management
Social media is a great tool for the emergency manager, responder, public information officer, and the Citizen who wishes to engage the government that wants to serve them. While social media can be a benefit to help increase awareness in emergency situations at a rapid rate, there are some things that can go wrong with it.
Recently, the Social Media for Emergency Management group recently discussed this issue in a Twitter chat. Below are some issues that can arise, and possible solutions to some of the items that may result, if proper planning does not follow its use. Continue reading »
Tagged with: #SMEM • alerts and warnings • Mobile • smart phones • Social Media • Social Networks • Twitter • weather alerts
The Global Post’s recent article about the use of social media in devastated Japan, Japan tsunami disaster: As Japan scrambles, Twitter reigns, echoes the same sentiment I’ve had lately regarding social media:
It seems no natural disaster or revolt can pass without an examination of Twitter, the free internet social media service that lets users type out news, rants, epiphanies or cries for help in 140 characters or less.
Of course, some of this information isn’t exactly an examination or critique. If you Google “Twitter Japan Tsunami” you’ll have to wade through link after link about Hollywood celebrities tweeting about the recent events in Japan (yawn). However, if you know where to look, you can find some very interesting information about the use of social media in Japan right now. AWARE’s members have certainly had a lot to say about the value and use of social media in disasters lately. Apparently, so has the rest of the world.
Slate published an article titled, The Best-Laid Plans…. The story isn’t so much a critique of the use of social media since the disaster but more a snapshot of how the Kesennuma City Crisis Management Department worked to amass Twitter followers and keep them engaged in the topic of emergency preparedness well before the recent earthquake and tsunami events. Kesennuma City is in complete ruin, but the tweeting continues.
Ushahidi has, of course, deployed its services in Japan — it also has begun blogging about its work. A recent post shows a heat map of its deployment. It appears that well over half of Japan has been impacted by the earthquake and tsunami events.
(While you’re on Ushahidi’s blog, I encourage you to check out its series titled, “Recent Deployments and Lessons Learned Part 1 and Part 2.” More to come on this two-part series in another post!)
Even the media is using social media to cover the disaster…and of course they are writing about it, as evidenced by the BBC’s aptly titled article, Using Twitter to cover the Earthquake in Japan and USAToday’s Japan: Twitter earthquake and tsunami updates from the ground. In fact, Scientific American used the tweets and Facebook status updates of the local population to report on Japan’s “online panic” caused by the nuclear crisis. The media may be on to something here. As more reporters flee Japan due to fears of nuclear contamination, we may see them rely more heavily on first hand social media accounts in place of on-the-ground journalists to report the news.
I’m sure the coverage and critique of Japan’s use of social media during a disaster has only just begun, especially now that Japan’s Office of the Prime Minister launched its own Facebook page this week…in English.
Reports from CES and SMILE
On January 25, 2011,
in Featured Posts, General, Social Media,
by Adrienne Gizicki with SRA Touchstone
The AWARE team was lucky to attend two conferences in early January, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV and the Social Media the Internet and Law Enforcement (SMILE) Conference in Santa Monica, CA. CES focused more on emerging technology while SMILE focused primarily on strategy and policy.
During our time at CES, we attended sessions on social media, telecommunications policy, and technology trends, and we explored numerous vendor booths to find technologies with the potential to enhance the existing national alerts and warning framework.
As just a couple of the over 100,000 attendees at CES, we began to recognize a few major technology themes: the emphasis on 4G wireless technology, tablet computers, and Internet-enabled “smart” television sets. These three themes were on display at numerous vendor booths and a considerable amount of floor-space was devoted to each.
These technologies all emphasize ubiquitous access to the Internet, information, and computing. As these new technologies mature and become accepted in the marketplace, they may evolve to include CAP message compliance. The alert and warning architecture will need to account for these new dissemination pathways in order to maximize message reach.
During FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s keynote remarks, he emphasized a national imperative to deploy broadband to stimulate and support economic growth. He characterized spectrum as the “oxygen” that fuels mobile devices, and, unless we can tackle the “spectrum crunch”, our nation’s economic competitiveness will be at risk. Chairman Genachowski summarized the benefits of the digital television transition, and pointed to the “tidal wave” of investment and economic activity surrounding 4G wireless technology.
He also highlighted the FCC’s priorities for 2011: make 500 MHz of spectrum available to industry by 2020, employ innovative options and technology for spectrum sharing, empower consumers to access mobile broadband, and streamline policy to enhance the deployment of physical infrastructure.
As just a few of the approximately 100 law enforcement representatives at SMILE (what a change from CES!), we attended hoping to learn from the experts about how they effectively use social media in the law enforcement arena. Speakers included a mix of national and international thought leaders in this area, who addressed social media usage as community media, in emergency management, investigative techniques and cases studies, social media policy and strategy, legal issues, recruitment, and retention.
We found the discussion of social media policy and strategy very interesting, especially regarding its value to the alerts and warnings arena. Most agencies using social media do not have robust policies in place or have adopted only very high level policies. SMILE presenters recommended that when agencies create social media policies, they should refrain from making them too specific in order to ensure the policies can adapt and evolve with new technologies. The experts also recommended that public safety agencies should select social media leaders who are passionate about the agency’s mission, rather than just being tech savvy.
A comment we found interesting was now that first responders have the ability to alert the public via mobile devices and social media, the public expects first responders to use these tools – this seems to be consistent with Red Cross survey data we highlighted in a post last year.
There was a lot of talk about the obstacles agencies face when they trying to implement social media programs. Many SMILE attendees sited a lack of buy-in from city or agency administration and a reluctance from higher-ups to disseminate information to the public through social media. Participants also expressed concern about the lack of resources and staffing needed to engage the community and keep up with technology trends. Barring these obstacles, almost all of the attendees said they would have robust social media programs, including using social media to alert the public. Attendees’ wish lists included having trained and trusted supervisors to disseminate information and engage in a two-way dialogue with the public using a range of different technologies, including Twitter, Foursquare, and Nixle via iPads and other mobile devices.
All in all attending both of these conferences was very valuable. We had a chance to explore some of the emerging trends in both technology and policy. We heard from folks on the front lines of public safety and learned what they need to create and execute a successful alerts and warnings program. We also learned more about the public’s growing desire and expectation to receive emergency alerts on more devices and mediums at a faster pace.
