« Hmm. Could Iceland be ideal test for “Democratizing Data” concepts? | Home | UP bracelet: great Quantified Self device »
My FCW op-ed harping again on empowering public in disasters
By WDavidStephenson | July 10, 2011
Federal Computer Week has published an op-ed by me in which I once again get on DHS’s case for not making the public full partners in disaster and terrorism preparation and response because of the situational awareness that the combination of mobile devices (especially real-time smartphone video) and social media can present.
Yes, it’s nice that FEMA now uses Twitter and Facebook, but it seems they’re much more into using them as alternative broadcast media for agency announcements than as a way to actually gather information from us in a disaster.
I urged DHS to take two steps:
- provide formal public education on the kind of information (again, especially visual information using the power of mobile video) that they’d like to receive from us. Vacuous “If you see something, say something” PSAs just don’t cut the mustard: see what? We’re smart: we can report, but DHS must tell us what kind of information would be truly helpful. Otherwise, we’ll report every woman in a burqa, while ignoring the Timothy McVeigh-type who’s buying large quantities of fertilizer.
- provide a formal way to report that information. The National Weather Service does this with its #wxreport hashtag on Twitter, which it encourages amateur weatherspotters to use when posting information about local extreme weather conditions.
I’ve said it for years, and every disaster proves my point again: you and I can and will use the combination of mobile devices and social media when disaster strikes. If DHS starts to give that information a formal role in determining response needs, it can dramatically increase its effective eyes-and-ears on the ground. We’re ready to help: we just need guidance and an attentive audience in response.
End of sermon.
Topics: empowering public, technology, policy and politics, collaboration, e-gov transformation, networked security | |
