« Jim Rapoza does Homeland Security 2.0 podcast with me | Home | What National Journal said about my “21st-century tips” »
New feature: YouTube versions of my disaster tips!
By WDavidStephenson | August 22, 2007
You may notice something different about this page today: that guy in the YouTube video in the sidebar is none other than your genial host!
Here’s why…
I got a lot of favorable response a year ago when I created a series of “10 21st-century disaster tips you won’t hear from officials” (more about that “you won’t hear from officials” part below).
Today, trying to practice what I preach about how we need to use a wide range of Web 2.0 apps to spread information regarding disasters (because you won’t know in advance which ones will actually be operable during a disaster), I’m launching a series of YouTube videos that should make the tips more compelling because of the addition of a variety of graphics that show how they might be used in a disaster.
The first two introduce the series and provide details on two tips:
- how to use the free mesh networking software from CUWiN to create an instant neighborhood network when you can’t get internet access.
- how a wiki can help share information before and after a disaster because it allows anyone with a small piece of information about what happened or how to respond, or with a question, to post, and anyone else to provide answers (it also suggests that communities prepare an on-the-shelf disaster wiki that can be dusted off quickly before an on-coming storm so that local folks won’t have to re-invent the wheel).
Over time, all my other tips will be in video form, such as using Twitter to communicate instantly with your family and friends in a disaster, subscribing to the National Hurricane Center’s RSS feeds, or even using cheap walkie-talkies for a neighborhood network if all else fails.
I produced them in association with Jason Daniels and his staff at Medfield TV (”It’s all about access”) –don’t forget that community access TV can be another important way of getting information to your community (especially the elderly and shut-ins) in a disaster.
Here’s what I hope you’ll do, because the effectiveness of these networking tips depends on — guess what? — networking:
- watch the videos
- if you like them, please rate them (in area below where the video streams)
- also if you like them, use the radio button that comes up after the video has streamed to pass the word to your friends and associates, so that they will also pass the word (or you can use the forward button at the bottom of this post).
I hope you will enjoy the tips and find them helpful. Have tips of your own? Send ‘em along: I’m always open to great ideas and give credit where credit is due!
PS: that maddening squint you’ll see from time to time on the videos from yours truly when I’m smiling? It’s something I inherited from my late mum (used to drive her crazy, especially when I pointed out she did it..). I’ll try to be on my best behavior in the future and try to minimize it…
Oh. About that phrase “tips you won’t hear from officials. In part it’s because most officials still don’t understand the power that networked personal communication devices and apps give the people to contribute to homeland security and disaster response (Exhibit A: the failure of almost all of them — my friends at Pennyslvania Terrorism and Protection excepted — and even they don’t have a simple way and instructions on how to provide information to officials). Hope that will change over time (hey, I’m for hire to execute these ideas, not just think them up!) , and someday I can retitle this as just “21st-century disaster tips.”However, it’s also in recognition that at least some of these tips are best executed on an ad hoc basis by neighborhood groups, families and friends.
Technorati tags:
homeland security Katrina Hurricane Katrina DHS FEMA Department of Homeland Security Florida floods hurricanes tornadoes earthquakes tsunamis typhoons Gulf Coast Louisiana New Orleans War on Terror terrorism antiterrorism e-democracy crowd-sourcing crowdsourcing smart mobs swarm intelligence emergent behavior networked homeland security government IT collaboration mesh network location-based services geo-spatial web web 2.0 homeland security 2.0 disaster management 2.0 disaster management YouTube business continuity disaster planning disaster planning 2.0 mesh
Topics: empowering public, technology, profitable corporate preparedness, policy and politics, e-gov transformation, collaboration, networked security | |
