(cc) Shashi Bellamkonda www.shashi.name Social Media Swami Network Solutions
Back in August we hosted a summit to examine how we might use social and mobile tools to increase disaster response collaboration amongst aid agencies, government agencies, corporations, technologists, and citizen groups.
Our research suggests the public is increasingly relying on social and mobile tools in their daily lives and therefore also during emergencies. Specifically, we found that the public expects response organizations to take action on incoming social information about disasters.
The Summit attendees agreed that response organizations have an opportunity to use tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and SMS to inform and engage the public. In addition, we have an equally valuable opportunity to be informed and engaged by the public. If we can overcome issues such as workforce capacity, privacy, authentication, and identity, we can potentially harness the wisdom of the crowd to increase efficiency and impact in disaster response.
Now, we’d like to present the framework for a path forward. After reviewing the notes, speeches, and wiki feedback from the summit, we’ve outlined 5 areas where we can make headway over the next few months.
Before the summit, we published a white paper entitled The Case for Integrating Crisis Response with Social Media. Today, we are publishing a follow-up to this paper: The Path Forward
Soon, we’ll be inviting you to participate in one or more of the working groups:
- Public Awareness and Education
- Next Generation of Emergency Management Tools
- Collaboration, Processes, Governance
- Citizen Helping Citizen
- Overcoming Barriers to Access
In the meantime we hope you’ll join us in continuing the discussion at #crisisdata.
Resources