Map of every shelter we’ve opened since January 1, 2011:

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:

1. Public Awareness and Education
2. Next Generation of Emergency Management Tools
3. Collaboration, Processes, Governance
4. Citizen Helping Citizen
5. Overcoming Barriers to Access

In the meantime we hope you’ll join us in continuing the discussion at #crisisdata.

Resources

• Research
• White Paper
• The Path Forward
• Wiki
• #crisisdata discussion
• CSPAN coverage of the summit
• Summary Bullet points on Emergency Social Data Summit
• American Red Cross article
• Huffington Post article
• NTEN blog

The Path Forward – ARC Crisis Data Summit Wrap-Up

Nielson Wire issued a report recently unveiling a startling statistic:

On average American teens send or receive 3,339 texts a month. That’s more than six per every hour they’re awake.

So, this morning we dived into a couple of our own stats for comparison.

If $1 was donated for every text made in a month by American teens, we could provide clean-up and comfort supplies for 100 families of 4.

These supplies are stored and ready for distribution in multiple locations nationwide. Each clean-up kit include a sectional handle with mop, broom, squeegee and push broom heads, pail, scrub brush, sponge, disinfectant, detergent/degreaser, bleach, trash bags, gloves and dust mask. Each comfort kit contains deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, facial tissues, wash cloth, shampoo, liquid soap, lotion, comb, razor and shaving cream.

We sheltered a touch more than 3,339 people during the floods in Georgia in September 2009, and just under 3,339 people during the New Jersey floods in March 2010.

>> Remember you can text REDCROSS to 90999 at any time to make a $10 donation to disaster relief.

I noticed this tweet about an hour ago and thought,

“Neither can I, I don’t think,” and then immediately, “but technology allows us to see danger in revolutionary ways.”

The evidence is all around us:
Nicholas Christakis did a TED Talk called How Social Networks predict epidemics.

Penn State Public Broadcasting is showing the Geospatial Revolution.

The Boulder community has visualized a number of resources and information such as Four Mile Fire Help and Boulder Fire mapping from Epic Colorado.

If we can see this sort of information and begin to share it with one another, won’t we all be better equipped to react to it and to make informed decisions about staying safe? We’re working here at the Red Cross on how we might use technology and social communities to help you be better prepared.

It’s warm in Topeka today but super hot along the east coast. You might even say it’s Hot in Here or It’s Too Darn Hot.

Here’s how to stay cool:

Heat Wave Safety Tips

But…

Today we launched our much anticipated (internally anyway) shelter feed! It’s a Google map that is automatically updated every 30 minutes with shelter location and population information from our chapters.

This means you can search for the nearest shelter if you’re in an emergency:

To clarify, we have thousands of possible shelter locations around the country. This map reflects shelters that are currently OPEN because of an emergency situation.

Stay updated on how the American Red Cross is providing relief to survivors in Haiti and Chile.

As we close down the year (and some say the decade) we are eagerly anticipating the future and all the ways technology will enhance our ability to fulfill the mission of the American Red Cross.

But…

Tradition tells us we should reflect a bit on our past, so here are the 10 blog posts from this humble site that you all visited the most this year:

1. Fort Hood Shootings: The tragic events of this day led many of you to this post. We wanted to make sure you had the most updated information about where to donate blood and how to use our Safe & Well site and you all made the post a community of sharing.
2. Holiday Mail for Heroes: Well, we’ve heard you loud and clear. You really like this program where you can send holiday cards directly to service members, their families, and veterans. We love being able to connect you all together in this way and we’re looking for more ways to do it even better in the future.
3. Target’s Bullseye Gives Facebook Contest: Thank you for visiting this post in droves and activating your networks to vote for us on Facebook. Your kind votes won $792,000 for our mission.
4. Bites for Blood: Fans of True Blood got together to create this site. HBO found it and pledged $10,000 if you all got 500,000 virtual bites from True Blood characters. And you did it.
5. CPR LOLs: You can’t get enough of the LOLCat CPR.
6. American Samoa Relief Efforts: The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Samoa earlier this year had you all clicking to find out how you can help. You are extraordinary in times of disaster.
7. 6 Degrees of Red Cross: We played a little of the Kevin Bacon inspired game with you all. Actually, we’re always playing this game, so click through and let us know your connection.
8. I Saved a Whole Cat: This triple blood donor did some feline math to measure his contributions this year – and you guys loved it.
9. Vaccine Questions? We’ve Got Answers: H1N1 (swine flu) was a big topic this year and we’re so thankful that you all trusted us and our Chief Nurse Sharron Stanley to guide you through the sometimes confusing pandemic.
10. Home Fires Map: The daily work of the American Red Cross is astounding. We respond to an average of 200 home fires every single day across the country. So we mapped all of them to give you an idea of their magnitude.

Honorable Mentions

• We are so thankful to Robin Parker from the Oregon Trail Chapter for her timely and informative Weekly Worldwide Wrap-up that has kept us in the know throughout 2009.
• We are proud to have launched Cross the Globe podcast headed up by our own Mat Morgan.
• We welcomed the insights of our President and CEO Gail McGovern to the blog.
• Twitter was a big part of our collective lives.

Thanks for reading in 2009 and let us know what you’d like to see in 2010!

View Home Fires in a larger map

This map illustrates the 63,111 home fires your American Red Cross chapters responded to in our Fiscal Year 2009. We’ve broken down the data by chapter, and it’s really quite stunning.

Thank you all for supporting your local chapters as they arrive on the scene, often in the middle of the night, to these silent events that affect thousands of families each year.

>> Take steps to prevent a fire in your home today