Social Media and DisastersTom Erickson

Adam Crowe

Objectives & Topics

• Identify systems and strategies to improve public safety operational considerations

• Consider the impact of citizens and their role in response

• Consider the implementation of social media usage into formalized response systems

• Citizen Journalism• Responsible Uses• Social Media Policy

Elements• Monitoring and Aggregation• Integration with response

systems• Mobility and Warning• Geospatial Systems• Other systems

Numbers

7166

4,000+5,106

600,000,000750,000,000

200,000,000

11,689,056 35

Citizen Journalism

• Self Reporting Phenomenon

• Self Correcting• Acceptance by Public• Acceptance by Media• Impact to Situational

Awareness

“The testimony of the independent, well-informed eyewitness is more vital than ever in our interconnected world…[but] how this can still be achieved when the technology and business of journalism is being transformed out of all recognition?”

~Garton Ash, Author of Facts are Subversive

Self Reporting Phenomenon

Acceptance by Citizens

Self-Produced

• Every mobile phone has cameras

• Most smartphones have video capability

• Mobile Apps shorten production window

• Quality is reduced

Live Streaming

• No production cost or time

• Poor production quality

• High reporting quality• Location-based

capability

The New “Enemy”

Self Correcting

• Major principle of social media systems

• Ensures bias is no more or less than traditional systems

• Wikipedia concept• Virginia Tech

Shooting

Acceptance by Traditional Media

• Grainy Pictures and Videos

• Source Challenges• Microblogs replacing

newsfeeds• Increased speed of news

cycle• Mergers of traditional

outlets with online outlets (Newsweek/Daily Beast)

Kris Ketz, KMBC-9, @KrisKetz

Death to Print MediaCourtesy of graphicdesignr.net/papercuts/

2007 2008

2009 2010

Citizen Responsibility

Utah Man

• 36 Year Old Man• Utah Police attempt to serve

bench warrant• Potential hostage• Facebook contact with

friends• More than 100 total comments

• 16 hour standoff• Shot himself as Police

entered room

Citizen Responsibility

• Don’t put yourself in danger

• Don’t put first responders in danger

• Don’t redistribute unconfirmed information

• Don’t post emergency information on unwatched sites

Responsibility of Responders

• Report hours of operation

• Protection of limited release information

• Confirm before redistribution

• Acknowledge source materials

Appropriate Levels of Engagement

• Active• Passive• Stationary• Organizational

investment• Leadership support

Social Media Policy – Essential Elements

• Employee Access• Account Management• Acceptable Use• Employee Conduct• Content• Legal Issues• Citizen Conduct

Employee Conduct

• Johnson Co. (KS) Community College

• Senior Nursing Student• Picture of Placenta on

Facebook• Supervisor observed,

condoned, then changed• Student ultimately

dismissed from program

Definition of Content

Acceptable Use

Acceptable

• Conversation• Response• Engagement• Record retention

statement

Not-Acceptable

• Argumentative• Ignoring questions• Personal messages,

content, information• Sharing of privileged

information

Aggregation & Monitoring

“Social awareness has three levels: when everyone knows something, when everybody knows that everybody knows, and when everybody knows that everybody knows that everybody knows.”

~Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

Monitoring

Real-time Searching

• Monitter• Topsy• Kurrently• Social Mention• TrendsMap• Google Realtime• Open Facebook• HyperAlerts

Dragnet Searching

• Google Alerts• Yahoo Alerts• TweetDeck• HootSuite• Google Blog Search• Twitter Advanced

Search

Measurement/Influence

• Google Analytics• Tweetstats• Trendpedia• Klout

Monitoring

Mayor of Newark

• Mayor Cory Booker• Used Twitter during 2010

Snowpocalypse• Responded to requests for

help• Personal and professional

responses

Aggregation

Considerations:• Role in JIC• Social News• Theory of Social Validation• Integration with 311

Tools:

• RSS Feeds/Readers• Facebook Platform• Social Stream• Yahoo Pipes• Paper.li• Twittersheep• Reddit• StumbleUpon• Digg• Newsvine• Twitter• ShareThis/AddThis• Google Disaster Aggregator

Vacouver Riots

Integration with National Response Systems

• What is NIMS?• Benefits to

Integration Challenges to Social Media Usage

• Exercises and Testing• Elephant in the JIC

Information Pacing

Communication Style

Trust Level

Mobility & Warning

• Traditional Warning Strategies

• Modern Warning Strategies

• Rise of Mobile Internet• Types of Mobile

Interface

“I guarantee that five years from now TV as we know it will be gone…It will have been a 60-year-old experiment that will be followed by something else.”

~Doc Searls, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University

Traditional Warning Strategies

• Outdoor warning sirens• All-hazard Alert Radios• Blast email/fax• Press Releases• Websites – Static

Content

Modern Warning Strategies

• Text Notification• GPS System• IPAWS• Road Sign Messages• Website Scrollers• Widgets• Smart (NGen) 911

Rise of Mobile Internet

“Every two days the world creates as much information as it did from the beginning of civilization up to 2003.”

~Eric Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman and

former CEO

• DARPA created internet in 1966

• World Wide Web was invented in 1990

• Mosaic web browser invented in 1993

• By 2015 mobile internet traffic will surpass traditional internet traffic

Rise of Mobile Internet

• By the end of 2009, there were more than 4.6 billion cell phone subscriptions throughout the world

• Estimated that more than 50% of Americans will have smartphones by end of 2011

• More than 10 Billion Apps have been sold in the iTunes store

• Mobile Applications• Safety Systems• Health and Safety• Preparedness

Modern and Effective

Disaster Uses of Mobile Apps

• Queensland Flooding (2011)

• Disaster Mitigation and Recovery Kit (DMARK)

• Iceland Volcano Eruption• “I have, I need”• Pittsburgh EMS “Field

Partner”

Other Mobile Applications

• Augmented Reality• Geospatial Systems• Location-based Social

Networking• Citizen Journalism

Location-based Social Networking

• FourSquare• GoWalla• Google Latitude• Facebook Places

Emergency Uses

• Field Accountability• Search & Rescue• Damage Assessment• Population

Monitoring• Debris Management

Volunteer & Donations Management

Volunteerism 2.0• Change in source of request• Mirror/Magnify Callouts• Not always physical work• Positive correlation with

social media usage

Donations Management 2.0• Mobile Giving• Magnification of advocacy• Transcends geography

proximity

Examples of Volunteerism 2.0

• Toomers for Tuscaloosa• Fargo Flooding• University of Canterbury

Volunteer Army• CrisisCommons• Mission 4636

Examples of Donations Management 2.0

• American Red Cross• Salvation Army• Check-ins for Charity• Facebook Causes• Integration with Google

Checkout & PayPal• Upselling on Social

Gaming

Crowdsourcing & Geospatial Systems

• Definitions• Common Examples• Benefits to Public

Safety & Emergency Management

Crowdsourcing – What is it?

VS.

Crowdsourcing Examples

Crowdsourcing Examples

Additional Examples

• iStockPhoto• Challenges.gov• P2P Sharing• Wikipedia

Additional Considerations• Four Models

• Collective wisdom• Crowd creation• Crowd voting• Crowdfunding

• What are the incentives?• Not used to replace professional

processes• The crowd will filter• The crowd is always right• Crowdfeeding

Crowdsourcing Disaster Examples

• Power of Ushahidi• Haiti• New Zealand• BP/Bucket Brigade• Alabama Tornadoes• Japan Earthquake &

Tsunami• Snowmaggeden

• CrisisCamps• Hashtags

Geospatial Systems

• Geospatial Mapping• Location-based Social

Networking• QR Codes• Augmented Reality

Geospatial Mapping

Video Systems

• Video Storage• Video Streaming• Video Calling

YouTube & Vimeo

• Online storage of videos

• Unique Channels• Embeddable linkage• Comments, feedback,

and cross-promotion• Uses:• Situational Awareness• Public Education• Public Promotion

Streaming Video

• Video stream to channel• Embeddable links• Integration into other

social media systems• Uses• Event spotting• Feedback mechanism to

operations centers• Media engagement• Virtual trainings

Video Calling

• Skype & ooVoo• Video calling between

individuals in different locations

• Uses:• Media interviews• Situational Awareness• Remote meetings

Additional Systems

• Social Bookmarking• Bulk Storage &

Sharing• Collaborative Editing