Presentation at the "Control Room Communications" Conference (#ControlRoomComms" in Vienna, 10.-11. Dec 2013

1. Social Media
Impact on Control Rooms
Control Room Communications
Vienna – 2013/12/10

2. Manfred BLAHA,
Brigadier-General
Ministry of the Interior
Technology Advisor for National Crisis
and Disaster Prevention Management
manfred.blaha@bmi.gv.at
www.bmi.gv.at
www.psc-europe.eu

3. Thesis:
Facebook and Twitter Their implications on communications between
Citizens and Public Safety Organisations
in case of emergency
Manfred Blaha, 2011
University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Austria
http://mblaha.jimdo.com/my-files/meine-bachelor-thesen-my-bacc-thesis/
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4. Social Networks
1 billion users worldwide
400+ million tweets daily
Mobility, Smart Phones and Social Media Apps lead to „Always-On“ Society
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5. Real Emergency Cases
 Hudson River, NYC, USA
First photo available on Twitter 6 min. after landing
First report on CNN: 18 min. after landing
Public Safety got photo info only from public media
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6. Real Emergency Cases
 Uttoya / Oslo, Norway
several Tweets were available within minutes
#Utoya, #Uttoya, #Oslo, #Norway, …
 Netherlands:
first:
then:
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7. Citizen‘s expectations:
US Red Cross, 2010-08-05, “Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies”
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8. Citizen‘s expectations:
US Red Cross, 2010-08-05, “Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies”
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9. … and Control Rooms ??
Questionnaire sent to Control Room experts
„Does your agency use / plan to use Social media?“
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10. Social Media – what for?
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11. Control Room preparedness
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12. Control Room problems:
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13. Challenges
 Legal / political support
 Trust into received messages – useful vs. spam?
 Trust into emergency services – credibility (trust - truth)
 24/7 observation (…in the Control Room ?? )
 Policy of what / whom / … to follow
 24/7 active presence to build credibility (…NOT in the Control Room !)
 Outbound - official language regime
 Workload / human resources – full time responsibility
 For the Control Room
 For the PR (Media) Department
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14. To Do‘s
 Establish Emergency Communication‘s Social Media presence
 Copy and paste – the good ideas are here already!
 Plan what – how – who
 Train Control Room and Media Dpt. staff
 Inform and Educate Citizens
 Communicate actively
 Listen and react / answer
 Build credibility
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15. Summary:
 There is demand for Emergency Communications via Social Media
 Only few Control Rooms use Social Media for Emergency
Communications
 Most are not ready for it
 Legal and Operational background is not given, nor Human Resources
 Communicate the truth, build credibility
 Follow language regimes
 Involve official media department
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16. IT IS ALREADY HAPPENING !
Start now:
PLANNING & IMPLEMENTING
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17. ?? / !!
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