Latest crisis communications and message mapping presentations

My co-author Barry Radford and i (PTSC-Online project) recently gave a session on crisis communications at Ryerson University to a class of PR students. It was another great opportunity to impart knowledge and share our enthusiasm about the use of social media during emergencies.

Barry and I are both champions of the crisis mapping technique and we devoted the whole second part of our lecture to that.

Here's an overview of the presentation:

1. social media revolution ... setting the stage
2. social media in emergencies 

This part can be found here on Prezi.com

Part three was a powerpoint on the key aspects of preparing and delivering a message map.

and can be found (with videos) on slideshare.

Hope you find these useful

Red Cross mobilizing in New Zealand

Never forget the huge contribution of NGOs during disaster periods.

Amplify’d from wellington.scoop.co.nz

Red Cross activates national emergency centre in Wellington February 22, 2011Business, PressRelease0 comments Press Release – NZ Red Cross After the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the Canterbury area today, New Zealand Red Cross has activated the national emergency operations centre (NEOC) at the national office in Wellington and the Christchurch response team. Red Cross has on stand-by emergency response teams from Blenheim, Nelson, Timaru and Dunedin. Red Cross has offered MCDEM (Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management) and other agencies our resources and response teams as required. For any offers of goods, services, personal offers are to be forwarded to the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) in Wellington. The email is operations@ncmc.govt.nz. We are assessing the situation closely and will make a decision on an appeal and donations tomorrow morning. Advice from the Ministry of Civil Defence is that people in Canterbury should: * Expect aftershocks. Each time one is felt, drop, cover, and hold on. * Check yourself first for injuries and get first aid if necessary before helping injured or trapped persons. * Assess your home or workplace for damage. If the building appears unsafe get everyone out. Use the stairs, not an elevator and when outside, watch out for fallen power lines or broken gas lines. Stay out of damaged areas. * Look for and extinguish small fires if it is safe to do so. Fire is a significant hazard following earthquakes. * Listen to the radio for updated emergency information and instructions. * Do not overload phone lines with non-emergency calls. * Help people who require special assistance – infants, elderly people, those without transportation, families who may need additional help, people with disabilities, and the people who care for them. Read more at wellington.scoop.co.nz

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/brdej

Critical Infrastructure ... maintenance... well, critical

How many bridges, dams, roads and other key elements of our infrastructure are in dire needs of repair?

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. — Frank Brassell, owner of Nelda’s Diner in this town wedged between the slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada, knows his fate should Lake Isabella Dam, a mile up the road, suddenly fail when the lake is full. Multimedia Graphic A Looming Threat RSS Feed Get Science News From The New York Times » Enlarge This Image Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times “I work here,” Mr. Brassell said, looking around the brightly lighted diner. “And I live right over there,” he added, pointing across the town’s main street. “The water would all come down here and it would try to take a right turn and go under the freeway, and it wouldn’t all go,” he said. “So I’m dead.”

LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. — Frank Brassell, owner of Nelda’s Diner in this town wedged between the slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada, knows his fate should Lake Isabella Dam, a mile up the road, suddenly fail when the lake is full.

“I work here,” Mr. Brassell said, looking around the brightly lighted diner. “And I live right over there,” he added, pointing across the town’s main street.

“The water would all come down here and it would try to take a right turn and go under the freeway, and it wouldn’t all go,” he said.

“So I’m dead.” Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/brd7v

Resilience in action

It's in all of us ... the more prepared we are ... the more resilient we will be!

Amplify’d from news.msn.co.nz

Kiwi’s show strength on country’s “darkest day” By Kate O'Brien, MSN NZ Wed Feb 23 2011 06:00:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)   Share Related articles Stay out of city, says mayor 'I know I'm bleeding' CTV building on fire Christchurch shop collapse caught on camera Person Finder service launched after Christchurch earthquake ALSO IN NEWS: 2011-02-22T16:00:00.0000000Christchurch shop collapse caught on cameraVideo of a shop front collapsing and crushing a car during a devastating earthquake in Christchurch has emerged. 2011-02-22T16:00:00.0000000Person Finder service launched after Christchurch earthquakeA Person Finder has been launched to help people locate their loved-ones after the Christchurch earthquake. 2011-02-22T15:00:00.0000000Hundreds trapped in ChristchurchA woman has been rescued from the roof of a collapsed building after a devastating earthquake left many dead and scores trapped in Christchurch. 2011-02-22T13:30:00.0000000‘We will do all we can’Deputy Prime Minister Bill English told reporters the Government will do every single thing it can to help the people of Canterbury following today’s devastating earthquake. 2011-02-22T13:30:00.0000000Bodies found in Christchurch youth hostelWitnesses have seen bodies being taken out of the damaged YHA hostel in central city following today’s earthquake. The country may have faced its “darkest day”, but New Zealanders have shown a strength and spirit that will help them endure the difficult days ahead in the wake of the Canterbury earthquake. Emergency personnel weren’t the only people risking their lives to help others in Christchurch – residents and workers who were caught up in the disaster showed their bravery by assisting those around them. One man who spent the night helping where he could with two friends said the city is like a war zone. “We’ve seen dead bodies on the street.” A Civil Defence volunteer, he plans to spend today doing whatever is asked of him. As the scenes unfolded on TV we witnessed people being carried out of buildings on make-shift stretchers, over shoulders and by piggy back. When overstretched ambulance workers were unable to meet demands, residents shuttled the injured by car. When people were unable to offer physical help they gave words of support. As the buildings collapsed around them the pictures showed people hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm making sure others got to safety. In their greatest time of need they held on to each other for mutual support and it is this spirit of togetherness and strength that Kiwis around the country and the world are showing for each other today. Mayor Bob Parker has been inundated with offers of help. There will be plenty for people to do in the days and weeks to come, he says, but right now people need to look after their own families and neighbours. “Look after each other. Take the time to focus on people in your community.” Read more at news.msn.co.nz

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/brd6y

Untitled

Amplify’d from crisiscommscp.blogspot.com

A great collaboration: CrisisCamp Toronto We had a great learning experience yesterday (Sat. Feb. 19) in Toronto. Crisis mapping experts, IT developers, social media practitioners and emergency managers got together to exchange ideas and view and look at opportunities to make CrisisCommons, a group of dedicated "digital volunteers", a valuable tool for emergencies, here in this province, and across the world. I learned a great deal about the value of crisis mapping. It's a perfect illustration of the value that two-way social media conversations can improve situational awareness for emergency managers. Here are couple of pix: A highlight of the day, was the skype chat we had with a key developer of the USHADIDI crisis mapping technology who's currently helping in Haiti. One things come out of this very clearly. Contrary to what many people believe, those who are immersed in the online world, so-called IT geeks, are more likely to become engaged and volunteer. CrisisCommons Toronto and all the other chapters of that organizations are a fantastic resource that should top of mind of emergency managers worldwide. Read more at crisiscommscp.blogspot.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/br537

A great collaboration: CrisisCamp Toronto

We had a great learning experience yesterday (Sat. Feb. 19) in Toronto. Crisis mapping experts, IT developers, social media practitioners and emergency managers got together to exchange ideas and view and look at opportunities to make CrisisCommons, a group of dedicated "digital volunteers", a valuable tool for emergencies, here in this province, and across the world.

I learned a great deal about the value of crisis mapping. It's a perfect illustration of the value that two-way social media conversations can improve situational awareness for emergency managers.

Here are couple of pix:

A highlight of the day, was the skype chat we had with a key developer of the USHADIDI crisis mapping technology who's currently helping in Haiti.

One things come out of this very clearly. Contrary to what many people believe, those who are immersed in the online world, so-called IT geeks, are more likely to become engaged and volunteer.
CrisisCommons Toronto and all the other chapters of that organizations are a fantastic resource that should top of mind of emergency managers worldwide.

Here's a short video of the day's deliberation ... taken when we were skyping with Haiti.

We also conducted a very useful chat on the use of social media during emergencies ... take a read here on Twitter at #csmemchat.

All in all ... a great day

Social media during emergencies: what's happening now and are we ready?

There was a pretty good post recently by Eric Holderman on the social media tsunami that's coming.
My contention is that there are already quite a few people in the emergency management world who are already surfing the SM wave.

In fact, as I stated in a previous post, we have reached critical mass and organizations of all types, but especially first responders and emergency management agencies, that don't involve themselves in social media are doomed to fail.

The amazingly fast pace of technological evolution, and most importantly, its acceptance by a growing number of people, the omnipresence of social media in more and more people's lives and, surprisingly for some, the increasing engagement by ordinary people who volunteer their time and expertise during a disaster, all mean were are at a major convergence point. Let me explain.

1. technology ... meaning mobile devices really, GIS-based web and mobile apps, GPS and crisis mapping ... can't forget to mention cameras and videos ... hundreds of millions of people walking around ... being news gatherers and providers of information ... that you can instantly map ... here's our first convergence vector 
2. social media ... platforms such as Twitter and Facebook ... but also SMS and other forms of "burst communications" allow people to share the info they've gathered "out there" ... geo-tagged for more relevance and use ... these channels are increasingly working both ways ... obviously more emergency management agencies use SM to inform their audiences of incidents and disasters ... but more and more ... these agencies are "mining" the the data provided by tweets and twitpics and all that ... to improve their situational awareness picture ...think of the United States Geological Survey using Twitter to complement its array of seismographs ...
3. Many thought that the "connected age" would mean that a lot of people would become e-recluse and avoid real world contacts and be very unsociable and not participative ... in fact, studies indicate that people who collaborate online, form or join groups on Facebook or LinkedIn, or chat on twitter ... are MORE likely to repeat that behaviour in the real world when a crisis or disaster occurs ... that explains the phenomenal work done by the IT and GIS people behind the crisismapping phenomenon ... from USHADIDI to CrisisCommons ... they are now a very valuable info and situational awareness tool.

Many examples prove the point: the standard-setting work of the Queensland Police Service during the Australian floods, to CrisisCommons work after the Haiti earthquake, to the essential role and community-based impact of social media in the Boulder Fire,. Things have changed forever.

Not so long ago, the emergency management tent was pretty much the exclusive domain of first responders and emergency managers. Then came the private sector (utilities in particular). The next wave were the NGOs who play a big role on scene now, feeding responders, doing first aid and fulfilling other support functions. Now, it's time to recognize the essential contribution of the next wave of volunteers: the tech savvy, those spurred by social media interaction ... who have the ability, expertise and willingness to help.

From having volunteers perform social media monitoring in your EOC or JIC, to helping post information on your SM accounts or crisis maps, to having the crisis mapping experts help your own GIS technicians, the possibilities are endless.

That's the power of social media ... it brings a certain democratization of emergency management and is certainly a powerful mobilization tool ... look at the situation in Egypt ... The unassuming hero of the Egyptian Revolution, Wahel Ghonim, said it best on a 60 minutes interview:

Why wouldn't you use this mobilization tool to engage your community before, during and after a disaster?

Are there risks? Yes. Some will make mistakes ... but you know what? So do the so-called experts ...

To me, it seems to be a win win situation ... find a way to capture this enthusiasm to your benefit and your response will be improved.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Training on Saturday ... Social Media, IT, crowdmapping and emergency management folks getting together

We are meeting in Toronto to further our collaboration with the CrisisCommons Toronto group, This collective of volunteers represents a fantastic resource during emergencies both for helping to provide situational awareness and to help disseminate emergency information.

During the course of the day, we'll be having a chat to try to involve more people. I enjoin you to participate! 

The CrisisCamp Toronto team will host a skype conference and #CSMEMchat for Social Media in Canada on Saturday, February 19, 2011. It will be from 14:00 - 15:00. The idea is to get a group of folks talking about this from a Canadian context.

Draft wiki page - Feel free to edit and share

http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/CSMEM_Initiative_(Canada)

Emergency Management Ontario and the new E-learning for IMS-100

Emergency Management Ontario has put a new learning tool on its website and it's a great one!

Since the emergency management family is expending, we need to ensure that everyone who now gets to sit at the table can speak a "common language" and have similar understanding of key concepts.

Therefore, I think it's very important, not only for first responders or those involved in emergency management, but also those who work with NGO's, municipal services such as public works, social services and others, to get that basic IMS training.

Here's the link to it the IMS-100 training on EMO's website.

Key observations following a presentation on social media and crisis communications

I finally had the occasion today to present a variation of my talk on the impact of social media on crisis communications planning to the people I work with everyday. As is often the case is our busy existence, I had not had time until now, to address this key audience.

I'm glad I was able to share a few observations with colleagues and I hope that my enthusiasm was contagious.

Here's the link to the actual presentation.

As I always try not to give the same exact presentation and continuously update my talk whether it's about social media in emergency management, law enforcement or crisis communications, preparation is the key and also a good occasion to take a step back and confirm, or challenge, my assumptions.

A few notes then:

1. don't confuse the tool for the objective or strategy: yes, social media is a great crisis communications tool ... but that's exactly what it is ... a channel, a way to a means ... a fantastic option to communicate effectively.
2. Social media allows you to respond immediately and very efficiently if it's part of your overall crisis communications plan and not just a spur of the moment thing.
3. To achieve this ... social media must be integrated in all components of your plan:
• Policies/Procedures: who does what, who can post on your SM accounts? when ?
• People: are they trained? Do they know how to best use and monitor SM?
• Preparation: are your key messages social media friendly? how can you adapt them for twitter use for example? 
• Practice: do you have confidence that the people implementing the plan can use SM effectively? Well, there are services now that allow you to tweet and post on facebook as if it were real ... although no one can see these trials ...
• What this means ... there's now a fifth P ...as in platform for social media platform.
4. For effective use of social media in emergency management and crisis communications, you must focus on listening, adopting the right tone. You need a broad social monitoring program that allows you to respond quickly to false rumours, questions from stakeholders and your audiences and generally engage in real conversations that allow you to be heard over the din.
5. In addition, SM is proving to be more and more of a valuable tool for emergency managers and authorities as people contribute valuable emergency information through Twitter, YouTube or Facebook ... Crisis mapping being a very good example.

I focused on these various topics and I think my colleagues liked what they heard. Keeping the attention and interest of such a group of professionals is always a challenge ... so I consider it a success because they kept interrupting me with questions throughout !