Posts Tagged: emergency

Emergency and Disaster Management 3.0

Over the past decade emergencies, disasters and catastrophic events have occurred with greater frequency. Meet Emergency and Disaster Management 3.0 and beyond! The DEMAND™ CARD System. Disaster Evacuation Mobile Access and Data Card – DEMAND™ CARD System In the United States: Every 4.7 seconds wildfires destroy an acre of forest Every 219 days a hurricaneRead… Read more »

#SMEMChat Fridays at 12:30 p.m. (ET)

Many of us in the #gov20 space are trying to sort through the conundrum of #crisisdata, the result of seemingly endless Facebook posts, tweets, videos, photos and more. There’s great work going on at Crisis Commons and they’ve literally helped people and save lives. For those of us in emergency operations centers and joint informationRead… Read more »

6am. No power. No social media and schools open

Today an explosion at the power plant took out power around 6 am. No phones, no lights, no internet, no tv, no tweets (my cell phone does not have internet access). Hearing “explosion at power plant” gave the impression of days, not hours of darkness. One long swath from Elizabeth N.C. through Chesapeake VA wasRead… Read more »

CB2: Facebook Amber Alerts, an Open Letter

Today’s CB2 is an open letter to Facebook’s Public Policy Communications Manager, Andrew Noyes as headlines such as ABC’s “Facebook to Issue Amber Alerts to Help in Locating Missing Kids” are being shared across the web. Dear Andrew, As a government and public safety technologist having devoted a lot of time and attention to massRead… Read more »

The Final Hoop – Big THANKS to HR Director, HR Analysts, & Other Local Government Reps

While I am on a major roll right now writing this dissertation, I did want to stop to say THANK YOU to every single local government representative I have spoken to. I have been so amazed and thankful for the warm welcome and kindness that I have received from each and every person I’ve spokenRead… Read more »

CB2: GroupMe Gets the Gov2.0 Treatment

It’s always great when you discover something that’s not only fun but can make your job easier. Recently I became aware of a service named GroupMe that enables you to instantly define a group of friends or co-workers and text them all at once with a single number. To give it a try, I setRead… Read more »

The Herriman Fire: Another Example of Social Media in an Emergency

Yesterday afternoon I noticed an extraordinary amount of smog in the air and suspected that there must be another wildfire in the western part of the county, not an unusual event during August and September. What did become extraordinary was the size of this fire and the proximity to Utah neighborhoods. The next twelve hoursRead… Read more »

CB2: Getting Emergency Notification Right

Mobile emergency notifications can save lives by getting important messages out to (or soliciting them from) the public quickly. Whether it’s a phone call delivering a tornado warning minutes before touchdown or a text message alerting students of a shooter on campus, there’s no doubt that it’s an invaluable service when done right. But whatRead… Read more »

Twitter’s Reliability An Issue For Government

SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter’s has had major reliability issues this week. The site was over capacity and displaying the “Fail Whale” image numerous times. The capacity issue resulted in site breakdowns, slowdowns, loss of tweets, and more. In fairness, Twitter has been transparent (in true social media culture fashion) about the scaling issues coming from exponentialRead… Read more »

Open Foreste Italiane is Gathering Momentum

Wow – there is a great new article on Ushahidi’s blog about an application I told you all about recently, which encourages crowdsourcing to stop Italian forest fires before they start. This has huge potential to increase community resilience and assist current firespotting efforts in a nonintrusive way. A lovely video by Elena Rapisardi, theRead… Read more »