social media, open data and bushfire connect
DESCRIPTION
The last year has seen a rapid take-up of social media, crowdsourcing and mapping tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Ushahidi in managing disasters in Queensland, Victoria, Christchurch and Japan.Now that the use of social media for emergency management is becoming more or less ‘established’ and even accepted in the Response and Recovery phases, the next question is how this can be extended into Planning and Preparation, to strengthen community resilience? Attendees will see actual examples from e.g. the RFS and community initiatives such as Random Hack of Kindness and BushfireConnect, and learn how to best harness the power of crowdsourced crisis information to empower both citizens and responders.TRANSCRIPT
Social Media
+ Open Data
=Community Resilience
Maurits van der Vlugt – Bushfire Connect
Hurricane Irene
Many Online Resources
Google Crisis Map• Evacuation
Routes (FEMA)• Storm Surge
(NOAA)• Evacuation
Zones (NYC.gov)
• 20 others– Utilities– Local Gov– Fed Gov– Weather.com
Tweak the Tweet• Maps Real
Time Tweets• Citizen
Reports• Categorised
Irene Recovery Map
• Community Reports
• Tweets• News Feeds• People
helping People
What do they have in Common?
• Non-Government• Integrating Official &
Citizen Sources• Self-Reliance &
Empowerment
• Social Media + Open Data
Social Media
Complementary Ecosystems
Map Services
Satellite Hotspots
Field Reports
Command Centre - COP
Community:Tweets
Mash-upsBlogsMapsEtc.
Weather
FeedsWebsite
A2C· Additional Alert
Channels· Scalable
Infrastructure
C2ACrowdsourced
“Human Intelligence”
Agencies
Relia
ble Tim
elySocial
Media
Timely and Reliable
Open Data
Jan 2011: Floodmaps as PDFs
Publish Open Data!
• Machine Readable
• Free• Open licensing
(CC-By)
7 Feb 2009 - Black Saturday
• Official Agencies & Emergency Services– Slow & Overwhelmed– 000 overloaded
• No alternative sources– Rumours & Misinformation
• Evacuations: too late and misdirected.
Community Need
• Grass roots community reporting– Fast, localised, community driven
• Integration with Official Sources– Integrate with agency feeds– Inform Emergency Services
Bushfire Connect
• Community Powered
• Community Resilience
• Integrate Crowd Sourced and Official Information
Incident Reports
• SMS• Web-Form• Geo-RSS• Emails• Tweets
Incident Alerts – OPT IN
• SMS• Email• RSS…
Where are we now?
• Since May 2010– ’Live’ site since Feb 2011 (http://bushfireconnect.org)– Small team of volunteers (up to 7 people)– $2000 cash
• Next steps (next season)– High performance server environment– Team of volunteer moderators– National Coverage – All Hazards
Long-haired hippie activists?
Let’s hear from the Experts
Emerging and traditional
communication tools should be used
together to distribute information quickly and
accuratelySir Ken Knight, UK
Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser
”
”
FaceBook was more useful than government
websites and media reports during the
cyclone Yasi emergency
Dr. Deanne Bird”
”
There is a need for change […]
Empower communities with Timely, Relevant
and Tailored information
Craig Lapsley, VIC FSC
”
”
Social Media
+ Open Data
=
That’s it… Thanks for listening
• http://bushfireconnect.org
• Twitter: @bushfireconnect @mvandervlugt