Control Room Communications Vienna – 2013/12/10

Social Media

Impact on Control Rooms

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

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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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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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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Real Emergency Cases

Uttoya / Oslo, Norway several Tweets were available within minutes #Utoya, #Uttoya, #Oslo, #Norway, … Netherlands:

first: then:

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Citizen‘s expectations:

7 US Red Cross, 2010-08-05, “Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies”

Citizen‘s expectations:

8 US Red Cross, 2010-08-05, “Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies”

… and Control Rooms ?? Questionnaire sent to Control Room experts „Does your agency use / plan to use Social media?“

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Social Media – what for?

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Control Room preparedness

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Control Room problems:

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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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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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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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IT IS ALREADY HAPPENING !

Start now: PLANNING & IMPLEMENTING

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?? / !!

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