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.

1. Social Media +Open Data=Community ResilienceMaurits van der Vlugt – Bushfire Connect

2. Hurricane Irene Many Online Resources

3. Google Crisis Map Evacuation Routes (FEMA) Storm Surge (NOAA) Evacuation Zones (NYC.gov) 20 others Utilities Local Gov Fed Gov Weather.com

4. Tweak the Tweet Maps Real Time Tweets Citizen Reports Categorised

5. Irene Recovery Map Community Reports Tweets News Feeds People helping People

6. What do they have in Common? Non-Government Integrating Official & Citizen Sources Self-Reliance & Empowerment Social Media + Open Data

7. Social Media

10. Complementary Ecosystems

11. Timely and Reliable Timely Agencies Reliable Social Media

12. Open Data

13. Jan 2011: Floodmaps as PDFs

14. Publish Open Data! Machine Readable Free Open licensing (CC-By)

15. 7 Feb 2009 - Black Saturday Official Agencies & Emergency Services Slow & Overwhelmed 000 overloaded No alternative sources Rumours & Misinformation Evacuations: too late and misdirected.

16. Community Need Grass roots community reporting Fast, localised, community driven Integration with Official Sources Integrate with agency feeds Inform Emergency Services

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

18. Incident Reports SMS Web-Form Geo-RSS Emails Tweets

19. Incident Alerts – OPT IN SMS Email RSS…

20. 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

21. Long-haired hippie activists?Let’s hear from the Experts

22. ” Emerging and traditional communication tools should be used together to distribute information quickly and accurately Sir Ken Knight, UK Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser ”

23. ” FaceBookwas more useful than government websites and media reports during the cyclone Yasiemergency Dr. Deanne Bird ”

24. ” the only thing that saves people in extreme events is timely and accurate information Mark Crosweller, Commissioner ACT ESA ”

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

26. Social Media +Open Data=

27. That’s it… Thanks for listening Maurits.vandervlugt@mercuryps.com.au http://bushfireconnect.org Twitter: @bushfireconnect @mvandervlugt