Bushfire Connect - Trust, Transparency & Timeliness

Trust, Transparency & Timeliness
Using social media to empower communities in the face of disaster
Maurits van der Vlugt

”
There is a need for change […]
Empower communities with Timely, Relevant and Tailored information
Craig Lapsley, VIC FSC
”

Photo: ieplexus.com

Bridging the Ecosystems

A2C Sample

Twitter Earthquake Detector (TED)
Filter Tweets for Earthquakes (place, time, keyword)
<60 sec detection
Contextual info (photos, narratives)
8

Social Media & Queensland Floods
Photo: Courier Mail

Agency to Community

Community Reporting 1

Harvesting Crowdsourced information

The Fear Factor

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
“Crisis Commons” worldwide community
Citizen reporting site up within hours
Using Ushahidi Platform (free & open source)
Hosted on the cloud
Hundreds of volunteers across the globe
Collect, validate & map citizen reports

http://www.sinsai.info/ushahidi

Black Saturday: Information Breakdown
Official Agencies & Emergency Services
Slow & Overwhelmed
000 Overloaded
Few Alternative Sources
Rumours & Misinformation
Confusion, Misdirection, …

Community Need
From Strathewen Recovery Committee:
Grassroots Community Reporting
Fast, localised, community driven
Self-help
Integration with Official Sources
Integrate with Agency Feeds
Inform Emergency Services (add to COP)
 Bushfire Connect initiative

Bushfire Connect
Community Powered
Community Resilience
Integrate Crowd Sourced and Official Information

Citizen Reports
SMS
Web form
Emails
Twitter
Smartphone

Incident Alerts – OPT IN
SMS
Email
RSS…

40+ reports submitted
700+ SMS alerts sent

http://bushfireconnect.orghttp://bushfireconect.org/admin

Where to from here?
Since May 2010
‘Live’ site up and running (launched 7 Feb)
Volunteer time & $2000 cash
Community Engagement (Trials: Eaglehawk, Flowerdale)
Very little fire activity!
Next steps
Get ready for 2011/12 Fire Season
Partners & Sponsors
All Hazards?

Recap
Timely
Near real time publishing of reports
Relevant
Combining official and community reports
Tailored
Alerts tailored to your needs

”
We can’t afford to keep working at the speed
of government
”
Los Angeles Fire Department

We are looking for partners!
http://bushfireconnect.org
Twitter: @bushfireconnect
info@bushfireconnect.org
Or email me: Maurits.vandervlugt@mercuryps.com.au

http://www.bushfireconnect.org	546
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Bushfire Connect - Trust, Transparency & Timeliness

by Maurits van der Vlugt on Mar 23, 2011

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Bushfire Connect - Trust, Transparency & Timeliness — Presentation Transcript