social media, open data & community resilience

Social Media

+ Open Data

=Community Resilience

Maurits van der Vlugt – Bushfire Connect

Hurricane Irene

Many Online Resources

Google Crisis Map• Evacuation

Routes (FEMA)• Storm Surge

(NOAA)• Evacuation

Zones (NYC.gov)

• 20 others– Utilities– Local Gov– Fed Gov– Weather.com

Tweak the Tweet• Maps Real

Time Tweets• Citizen

Reports• Categorised

Irene Recovery Map

• Community Reports

• Tweets• News Feeds• People

helping People

What do they have in Common?

• Non-Government• Integrating Official &

Citizen Sources• Self-Reliance &

Empowerment

• Social Media + Open Data

Social Media

Complementary Ecosystems

Map Services

Satellite Hotspots

Field Reports

Command Centre - COP

Community:Tweets

Mash-upsBlogsMapsEtc.

Weather

FeedsWebsite

A2C· Additional Alert

Channels· Scalable

Infrastructure

C2ACrowdsourced

“Human Intelligence”

Agencies

Relia

ble Tim

elySocial

Media

Timely and Reliable

Open Data

Jan 2011: Floodmaps as PDFs

Publish Open Data!

• Machine Readable

• Free• Open licensing

(CC-By)

7 Feb 2009 - Black Saturday

• Official Agencies & Emergency Services– Slow & Overwhelmed– 000 overloaded

• No alternative sources– Rumours & Misinformation

• Evacuations: too late and misdirected.

Community Need

• Grass roots community reporting– Fast, localised, community driven

• Integration with Official Sources– Integrate with agency feeds– Inform Emergency Services

Bushfire Connect

• Community Powered

• Community Resilience

• Integrate Crowd Sourced and Official Information

Incident Reports

• SMS• Web-Form• Geo-RSS• Emails• Tweets

Incident Alerts – OPT IN

• SMS• Email• RSS…

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

Long-haired hippie activists?

Let’s hear from the Experts

Emerging and traditional

communication tools should be used

together to distribute information quickly and

accuratelySir Ken Knight, UK

Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser

”

”

FaceBook was more useful than government

websites and media reports during the

cyclone Yasi emergency

Dr. Deanne Bird”

”

There is a need for change […]

Empower communities with Timely, Relevant

and Tailored information

Craig Lapsley, VIC FSC

”

”

Social Media

+ Open Data

=

That’s it… Thanks for listening

• Maurits.vandervlugt@mercuryps.com.au

• http://bushfireconnect.org

• Twitter: @bushfireconnect @mvandervlugt