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CONTENTS

Task Force for a Resilient America

I. Our National Narrative ............................................................................................5II. 21st Century National Security: The Value of Resilience ........................................9

III. Understanding the Values of a Networked World .................................................11IV. Connecting Citizens in Times of Crisis .................................................................13V. Raising Awareness .................................................................................................19

VI. Taking Action ........................................................................................................22VII. Conclusion .............................................................................................................26Task Force Members

Acknowledgements

References


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Task Force for a Resilient America

The objective of the Center for National Policys Task Force for a Resilient America has been to

bring together leaders in the fields of social networking, security, emergency response, advertis-ing, public relations, public opinion polling, market research, as well as screenwriters, producers,

media executives, and academics, to analyze methods of promoting cultural resilience. The Task

Force has explored which tools, and in particular those made available through developments in

social networking, are the most effective in empowering our fellow citizens to embrace resilience

in the face of natural or man-made disasters. Task Force members were gathered in small and

informal groups to offer their insights on understanding how to strengthen cultural resilience.

Two specific goals of each of the Task Force meetings were: (1) understanding the public mood

and developing the most effective messages to promote resilience as an individual and societal

value, and (2) to explore which tools, in particular those made available through developments insocial networking, can be harnessed to most effectively empower Americans to have the ability

to withstand, nimbly respond and recover, and adapt to the risks and disruptions that might occur

in their daily life due to natural or manmade disasters.

The Task Force for a Resilient America was a national project, with meetings held over the

spring and summer of 2011 in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, DC.

The first Task Force meeting took place on April 25th with the collaboration of University of

Southern Californias Annenberg School and was hosted by the TakePart division of Participant

Media (the Hollywood production studio for Al GoresInconvenient Truth and David Guggen-

heims Waiting for Superman).

The second Task Force meeting was held on June 16th at the Center for National Policy in Wash-

ington, DC.

The third Task Force meeting met on June 21st and was graciously hosted by HBO at their Head-

quarters in New York City.

The content of this report is reflective of the authors opinions and does not necessarily reflect the policies or

views of Task Force members.


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I. Our National Narrative

At the dawn of the 21st century, the United

States of America was the most prosperousand secure nation in the history of the world.

At home, a record economic expansion had

produced twenty million new jobs in the

1990s alone, the financial sector was boom-

ing and the federal budget was in surplus

with debt being paid down for the first time

in memory. Overseas, the existential threat

of the Cold War was over, freedom was on

the march across the globe and the war in

Kosovo demonstrated American militarysupremacy and diplomatic mastery unrivaled

since the days of Rome. America was a na-

tion secure in its prosperity and looking

forward to the possibilities of the future.

The 9/11 Decade

On September 11, 2001 the sense of security

present for most in American society was

shaken to its core and a decade opened that

has tested the fortitude of all of our citizens.

Even as smoke circled above Manhattan, the

American people were poised to become

actively engaged in the defense of their na-

tion against a foe unlike any they had ever

faced before. Across the nation, United

We Stand was the watchword of a people

shocked by loss, alert to threats previouslyunknown and sobered by the new reality of a

long struggle ahead. In the wake of the at-

tacks of September 11th, the possibility for a

renewed sense of community and citizen

engagement toward the achievement of pub-

lic good was on full display.

Yet the American people were told to revert

to the usual and carry on with their lives as

if nothing had changed, when in fact every-

thing had changed. A failure of imagination

and leadership led to a missed opportunity to

tap into the energy of the American people

and their desire to build a better and safer

nation. Official Washington turned not to

the American people for the source of our

response to 9/11 but to a professional pro-

tector class that had risen in response to the

Cold War and been in place inside the Belt-

way for decades.

This rise of the professional protector class

was a consequence of the awesome power

unleashed by nuclear weapons, which led to

an accretion of power in the hands of a few

experts. The very complexity of the weap-

ons involved and the calculations necessary

to ensure that catastrophic miscalculations

were not made that might trigger their re-

lease, led to the creation of a new priesthood

entrusted with the power of life or death on

a global scale. A new class of professionalsschooled in game theory and throw weights

soon came to be seen as having the ultimate

power to protect and defend the United

States. And so the national response to 9/11

was placed in the hands of these experts.

The American tradition of citizen militias

of community mobilization in times of dis-

aster seemed quaint at best, and danger-

ously inadequate and inappropriate at worst,in an era of fail-safe and mutually assured

destruction. But if the threat to Americas

security in the 21st Century was to be found

in asymmetric warfare, then the best re-

sponse to protect against such a threat was

most certainly to better prepare Americans


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at the individual and community level to be

able to prepare for, respond to and recover

from those very kinds of attacks. However,

the traditional national security establish-

ment did not value, and was not organized to

encourage the kind of citizen engagement

and community action, necessary to prepare

communities for a new reality in national

security. It was perhaps too much to ask

professionals whose entire careers were

predicated on using the tools of state power

to protect America from any and all threats

to adjust their thinking, change their strategy

and shift their resources to reflect a new

threat environment that would require citi-zen engagement and participation on a level

not seen since the Second World War. It

was impossible to expect such a change

when the national security establishment

was called upon to respond to the attacks of

September 11th.

The result was a seemingly unending and

open ended War on Terror characterized

by electronic eavesdropping, detention andrendition, debates on the efficacy of torture

and an inability to end the threat of Al

Qaeda to the American Homeland. Citizens

were told to carry on as usual and leave the

war on terror to the experts.

Two inconclusive and costly wars fed the

discontent and led to political division at

home and fractured alliances abroad. For

such a seemingly powerful nation, Americaseemed unable to ensure its own security

and unable to effectively shape events in the

world beyond our shores.

At home, Hurricane Katrina exposed incom-

petence and ineffectiveness at all levels of

government in planning for and responding

to a very predictable natural disaster. Amer-

icans watched in shock as a great American

city drowned and thousands were left

stranded. Once again, American power

seemed useless in the face of crisis. As the

decade staggered to a close, the great banks

and insurance companies of the financial

sector collapsed into turmoil in the fall of

2008, the auto industry went bankrupt and

the economy fell into the Great Recession.

At a time when the nation yearned for unity

and a sense of purpose to overcome these

great challenges, instead citizens were of-

fered increasingly vitriolic politics from

both the left and the right. As the 9/11 Dec-

ade comes to a close, Americas political

system political polarization rather than a

sense of unity or shared responsibility is

the order of the day. After a decade of being

battered by bad news, the attitudes of the

American public reflect an increasing sense

of helplessness and despair in the face of

crisis. According to public opinion research,the vast majorities of Americans feel power-

less in the wake of this turbulence and be-

lieve that tomorrow will not be better than

today for themselves or their children; in

essence acknowledging the end of the

American Dream.

The Promise of Community

There is another story that began to emerge

during the 9/11 Decade. While the institu-

tions of government, finance and corporate

America seemed unable to respond effec-

tively to meet the needs of the nation in

times of crisis, individual Americans began


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to take it upon themselves to link up, be-

come connected, form new communities and

take action to make a difference where they

could.

In the minutes and hours after the attacks ofSeptember 11th, Americans instinctively

rushed forward to be part of the solution.

Across the nation millions pledged time and

resources for relief efforts and hundreds of

thousands lined up to offer blood. In the

rubble of the Pentagon, office workers and

first responders worked day and night to

provide aid. In New York, a rescue armada

of civilian craft, that included motorboats,

yachts, tug boats and ferries, carried over

500,000 people to safety while smoke

shrouded Manhattan Island. And at Ground

Zero, police and firefighters rushed into

harms way and paid the ultimate sacrifice

to save those they did not even know.

Even after being told after 9/11 to simply go

about their business, this instinct for mean-

ingful civic engagement, for connection,

remained within the American people.

While official Washington seemed unable or

unwilling to foster this new patriotism, citi-

zens across the nation would soon find tools

available to them that would place in their

own hands the ability to affiliate, organize

and take action without waiting for direc-

tion.

While the 9/11 Decade was characterized by

mass disruptions that called into question the

optimism found at the birth of the new Mil-

lennium, the means for empowering citizens

to meet and master the turbulence of modern

life could be found in the rise of social net-

working. The same decade that produced

9/11, Katrina and the Great Recession also

gave birth to the greatest revolution in

communications and citizen empowerment

since the rise of print. Social networking

technologies allowed for not just the con-

veyance of information via broadcast, but

also for connection between individuals in a

way like no other. Individuals could build

their own affinity groups across all tradi-

tional boundaries, share information and

opinions; become their own broadcasters,

their own organizers.

A Brief History of a Social Revolution

The story of the rise of social media is a sto-

ry that has taken place in the 9/11 Decade.

In 2002, the website Friendster.com became

one of the first sites to encourage online

connection between real-world friends.

Friendster grew to 3 million users in about

three months, with a peak of 115 million

users in 2008.

1

Myspace.com, hoping toemulate Friendster, was created in 2003.

While it was the most popular social net-

working site in the world for several years,

its popularity eventually waned and was

surpassed in 2008 by Facebook.com.2

Facebook was launched in 2004 and is cur-

rently the most popular social networking

site in the world, with 750 million members

across the globe. Facebook is now the se-cond most visited site on the internet after

Google.com. The pace of innovation in the

social media space quickly accelerated with

the creation of the video sharing website

YouTube in 2005, which allows individuals

to upload, share and view videos.


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Twitter, an online social networking and mi-

cro-blogging service, was launched in 2006.

Twitter gained rapid popularity with its abil-

ity to allow users to send and resend text

based posts of up to 140 characters, infor-

mally known as tweets. At the time of the

writing of this report Twitter has over 200

million users globally.3 The newest social

networking site on the scene is Google+,

which launched in June 2011. While it took

both Facebook and Twitter over 800 days

after their creation to reach an audience of

10 million users, Google+ matched this feat

in just over two weeks.4

The advent of social networking via social

media like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and

Google+ allowed for the creation of trusted

communities outside official channels. Pos-

sibilities for social action became realities.

Citizens previously without a voice were

able to be heard. People without a formal

organization were able to find a way to

make an impact.

As the 9/11 Decade lurched toward its end,

the transformative power of social media in

daily life became more apparent. Social me-

dia has become an integrated aspect of daily

life for most Americans. At least 52% of

Americans engage in social media and ap-

proximately 46 million check sites like Fa-

cebook and Twitter multiple times each day.

5 6 Over half of all Americans over twelve

years of age use Facebook. In 2011, the av-erage person has double the amount of

online friends than actual physical friends

whom they see on a regular basis.7

No longer seen as an outpost of the young or

trendy, social media became not just main-

stream, but an essential part of daily life.Increasingly, most Americans are using so-

cial media tools to interact not only with

friends but with government as well. Two

thirds of American adults use the internet to

look up information or complete a transac-

tion on a government website and almost a

third of online adults have used social tools

such as blogs, social networking sites and

online video as well as e-mail and text alerts

to keep informed about government activi-

ties.8

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approached,

the social media revolution was in full

swing. Social media firms like Facebook,

LinkedIn and those relying on social media

like Google and Apple were worth hundreds

of billions of dollars, employing tens of

thousands and surging in terms of market

capitalization. In the Middle East, the tools

of social media fostered a real revolution in

political affairs and the ushering in of demo-

cratic movements into power. At home the

possibilities for social and political change

were just as profound if only seemingly less

dramatic. A nation that was told after the

attacks of September 11th to carry on as usu-

al had in its hands the tools to build a more

resilient nation.


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II. 21st Century National Security:

The Value of Resilience

The medium is not always the message. So-cial media devoid of purpose and content is

merely for entertainment and amusement.

For the power of social media to be used to

better prepare the American people to be

able to respond, recover and adapt in the

face of disasters, to build more resilient

communities, citizens must be willing to

meaningfully participate in assuring safety

for themselves, their neighbors, and the na-

tion. There is strong evidence that, if asked,

many are willing to do so.

The first reaction of the American people to

the attacks of September 11th was found in

the spirit of first responders rushing into

harms way to save neighbors they did not

know. It was seen in the rescue armada of

civilian ships that boatlifted stranded citi-

zens to safety. The essence of the American

peoples response to September 11th was

made manifest by the hundreds of thousands

who offered their own blood to save their

fellow citizens and by the thousands who

broke through the rubble of Ground Zero in

rescue and recovery attempts. The spirit

most appropriate and most necessary to meet

the challenge of Al Qaeda was that found in

the passengers of Flight 93, who on that

bright September morning understood thethreat to their nation, and organized and took

action. On that September day, it was eve-

ryday people who took the most effective

action to preserve, protect and defend the

nation. It was the professional protector

class that found itself impotent in the face of

a new threat. The national security commu-

nity was largely powerless and ineffectual in

the face of the unfolding threat.

Sadly, despite the demonstrated capabilities

and willingness by Americans in the imme-diate aftermath of 9/11 to help, Washington

never made the ask. Instead the national

security community was mobilized to wage

a war on terrorism beyond U.S. shores.

Over the course of the 9/11 Decade, the De-

fense budget was doubled, new federal

agencies were created, surveillance was ex-

panded, wars were launched, and a trillion

dollars were spent on projecting power into

the heart of the Middle East.

Resilience: The Best Defense

Yet the very nature of terrorism and the

asymmetric warfare favored by Americas

non-state enemies renders traditional notions

of deterrence, diplomacy and force projec-

tion increasingly obsolete. It has becomeclear that the investment that has been made

in attempting to eliminate the Al Qaeda

threat to American security has been ex-

tremely costly both in terms of national

treasure and lives and has led to a trans-

formation of that threat, rather than having

eliminated it. One constant that remains is

that Al Qaeda continues to pursue Osama

Bin Ladens stated goal of bleeding the

United States of resources by using methodsof asymmetric warfare to prompt military

overstretch abroad and the costly and disrup-

tive efforts to bolster protective measures at

home in response to attacks or near-misses.


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To meet the national security threat most

likely to affect Americans in the decades to

come, our best defense is one based on the

greatest traditions of our nation and one

suited for the times. Americas best defense

is to return to citizen engagement with our

security. Building more resilient communi-

ties can best prepare Americans to meet the

most likely threats to their safety and pros-

perity in the years to come; such as the natu-

ral disasters and terrorist threats.

Resilience is the ability to better anticipate,

withstand, respond, adapt to and recover

from major disruptions and dislocations. It

is the communities, the companies and the

countries that are most resilient that will best

be prepared for systemic shocks. These re-

silient communities will thrive in the 21st

Century, because people will invest and live

in places that can manage risk well and

maintain continuity of services. They will

leave those that do not meet the challenge

that comes with mitigating risk and building

resilience. Thinking of resilience as both acompetitiveness and security issue is a way

to broaden the base for citizen engagement.

Resilient communities and a resilient Amer-

ica would best be characterized as being

prepared for and able to withstand, and nim-

bly recover from setbacks, while maintain-

ing the ability to learn, adapt and move for-

ward. While it is a straight forward concept

to understand, it will require determined

leadership at the local, state, and national

levels to actively enlist the American people

to take greater ownership of their personal

and community security. For too long, pub-

lic safety and security have been seen as in-

herently governmental functions that should

be left to the professionals. However, meet-

ing the challenges posed by asymmetric

threats will mean using a much more collab-

orative, inclusive and de-centralized process,

which includes individuals, civil society and

government at many levels. The capabilitiesand values of social media seem perfectly

suited for this challenge.

To ensure that efforts to build resilient

communities become sustainable, it will be

necessary to go beyond pointing out the se-

curity and competitiveness advantages

alone. It will be necessary to move from the

message of resilience to building a move-

ment that will empower individuals andcommunities across the United States to

connect with their neighbors, community

organizations and governments. Social me-

dia holds tremendous promise for better

connecting and supporting Americans in

building more resilient communities.


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III. Understanding the Values of a

Networked World

To be able to tap into the power of socialnetworking for the purposes of building re-

silient communities it is essential to under-

stand the opportunities associated with our

increasingly networked world. At the dawn

of the 9/11 Decade, there was no Facebook,

no Twitter, no real way for individuals to

link up into virtual communities across great

distances that could provide support in a

time of crisis, react in real time and mobilize

for action. In the minutes when it became

clear that war had come to Americas

shores, cell phone networks crashed because

millions of us instinctively reached out to

friends, neighbors and loved ones in a time

of crisis. The social media revolution that

has swept the world now places in the hands

of most Americans the ability to make those

connections in times of crisis, to mobilize

for action and to respond and recover in away that can save lives and rebuild commu-

nities.

The scope and scale of the social networking

revolution are unprecedented when consid-

ering the explosion of venues through which

people receive information and connect with

one another. Social media gives individuals

the unprecedented ability to broadcast and

exchange views with one another. Facebookstarted in 2004 and today almost half of the

American people are using that social media

tool. Over 100 million Americans watch

YouTube and tens of millions share split

second impressions and information globally

via Twitter. Social media is here to stay and

its relevance on daily life is growing by the

day.

When it comes to widely and instantaneous-

ly disseminating information, increasingly

social media is cutting out the middlemen ofthe traditional news networks and public in-

formation officers of governmental agen-

cies. Long gone are the days of Walter

Cronkite and the three networks being arbi-

ters of what news is deemed important

enough for public review. Today, individu-

als are increasingly creating their own ways

of gaining information from a fragmented

media marketplace. They are building their

own social media communities based on

common affiliation. As a result, it is now a

virtual impossibility to command the atten-

tion of the American public at any one time

on any one issue. Social media holds the

key to both being able to deliver a message

and build communities for taking common

action. The opportunity with social media is

for a more decentralized, democratized en-

gagement in supporting collective action.For example: people can identify safety

needs and risks in their community and then

take actions on their own or form groups to

respond to the challenge of building more

resilient communities.

Certain values are emerging from these first

days of the social media revolution as being

particularly prized and essential for those

who wish to effectively use social media tobuild communities with a purpose. June

Cohen of TED says that there are three ways

in which our expectations as citizens and

individuals have changed due to the ubiquity

of social media. When an individual is in-

teracting with an organization, there is a new


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expectation of transparency, responsiveness

and participation.

When engaging with an institution, citizens

want to know its mission, and for it to be

open on questions regarding its operations.Due to the new patterns of communication

in social media, there is an expectation of

responsiveness and an expectation that indi-

viduals should be afforded the opportunity

to participate in the actions and decisions of

groups.

These values of transparency, responsive-

ness and participation are the hallmarks of

what is a new social compact between thoseengaged with one another in social network-

ing through the tools of social media. Any

effort to engage citizens using the tools of

social media will have to incorporate these

values in its operation at every level. When

thinking of using social media to build resil-

ient communities, embracing these values

will be essential to getting the kind of citizen

engagement and commitment that will be

necessary for successful efforts with broad

appeal. Traditional public safety and emer-

gency management agencies will need to

practice these values in their interactions if

they hope to enlist support from individuals

and communities.

Social media has hastened the need for or-

ganizations that are hoping to engage the

public to move from a hierarchical, top-

down structure to that of a network. Rather

than wait for official organizations to re-

spond to the social media revolution, indi-

viduals at home and across the world have

taken the initiative to use the tools of social

media to respond, recover and adapt in times

of crisis. There are many recent instances of

how the power of social media is being har-

nessed during major disasters. These ex-

amples can illustrate how social media tools

can build more resilient communities in the

21st Century.


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IV. Connecting Citizens in Times

of Crisis

As citizens became more accustomed to us-ing social media to build their own networks

for friendship and business and community

action, it has become more natural for many

to turn to these tools in times of crisis. In

just the past two years, average citizens have

made clear that they will not passively

standby for official agencies to take action

or come to their relief in times of crisis. In-

stead, people are using the tools of social

media to stay informed, react, respond, re-

cover and adapt when disasters strike their

communities. From the Gulf Coast to Japan,

from the crowded neighborhoods of Port-au-

Prince to the quiet streets of Joplin, Mis-

souri, people are embracing social media in

novel ways in times of crisis.

The Haitian Earthquake

In the early hours of January 12, 2010, Haiti

was rocked by an earthquake that leveled

whole sections of its impoverished capital of

Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands were

killed or injured and much of its traditional

communications infrastructure was disrupt-

ed. With official lines of communication

down, user-generated content played an im-

portant role in spreading news about theHaitian earthquake. Social media helped to

make up for the lack of information from the

affected area and was able to convey the

scale of the catastrophe and describe what

relief was most needed.

Twitter emerged as the fastest, most time

sensitive vehicle through which to report on

the catastrophe. Photos taken on mobile

phones by journalists, relief workers and

victims helped to provide a glimpse into the

devastation and Twitter users shared those

pictures through Twitpic, resulting in tens of

thousands of views and countless retweets.

Facebook was full of shared details and

comments on the disaster, spread by French,

Creole and English speaking Caribbean res-

idents.9 Within hours of the earthquake, a

Facebook group called Earthquake Haiti

had already added over 14,000 members.10

The group was used for people to show sup-

port and trade information, and some users

posted critical information including pleas

for assistance from injured Haitians.

Regional bloggers soon followed with more

detailed posts, the most compelling coming

from within the island. In years gone by, if

a disaster was in a far away land and unseen,

the public awareness necessary for massive

relief mobilization from the outside world

might not have materialized. In the instance

of the Haitian earthquake, the global com-

munity was transfixed by the stories and im-

ages being sent via social media from the

shattered island to the outside world.

On the ground in Haiti, technology called

Ushahidi was utilized extensively in the

wake of the initial earthquake. The Ushahi-

di program allowed those in Haiti, which

included citizens, relief workers and mem-

bers of the international community, to use

their mobile phones and the web to report on

weakened infrastructure, lack of food and

water, and missing persons. Ushahidi made


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an agreement with local mobile phone oper-

ator Digicel and created a short code to

which people could send their messages.

Situation rooms were set up in Boston,

Washington and Geneva to help provide 24-

hour coverage of received messages.11 In

the immediate aftermath of the earthquake,

more than 10,000 Haitians volunteered to

translate received messages from Creole to

English, while other volunteers worked to

verify the information and integrate it into

the map.

In the midst of the disaster, millions were

disconnected from one another; hundreds of

thousands unaccounted for and waves of

fear flowed from the uncertain status of fam-

ily, friends and loved ones. Such uncertain-

ty led, in a practical sense, to misallocation

of precious resources. In response to theHaitian earthquake, Google developers cre-

ated Googles Person Finder which provided

a registry and message board for survivors,

family and loved ones affected by disaster to

post and search for information about each

others status and whereabouts.

The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Just one year after the earthquake in impov-

erished Haiti, a massive earthquake and a

tsunami struck one of the most advanced

nations in the world. The Tohoku earth-quake, with an epicenter off Japans north-

eastern coast, shook the island of Honshu

with a magnitude 9.0 quake and triggered a

tsunami wave that was reported to have

reached a height of twenty feet which trav-

elled up to six miles inland.12

As a result of the quake and tsunami, over

fifteen thousand people were killed and

thousands more injured and missing. Atleast 125,000 buildings and critical infra-

structure sites were damaged or destroyed.13

To add to the difficulties in responding to

such an extensive disaster, the Fukushima

Daini Nuclear Power Plant faced multiple

meltdowns accompanied by high radiation

Ushahidi, meaning testimony or witness in

Swahili is a nonprofit company that develops free

and open source software for information collec-

tion, visualization and interactive mapping. The

organizations software programs utilize the con-

cept of crowd sourcing, allowing local observers

to report an incident using mobile devices or the

Internet, while simultaneously having the report

appear on a map based view for others to see.

Ushahidi was initially created by an ad hoc group

of volunteers to map reports of violence in the

aftermath of the 2007 Kenyan elections. The or-

ganizations software has since been used to track

anti-immigrant violence in South Africa and pro-

vide humanitarian relief following earthquakes inChile and New Zealand. The technology is cur-

rently available to monitor incidents during

anydisaster or emergency.!

Google Person Finder is an open source web

application that provides a registry and messageboard for survivors, family, and loved ones af-

fected by a natural disaster to post and search for

information about each other's status and wherea-

bouts. Googles Person Finder application was

created by volunteer Google engineers in re-

sponse to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Googles

application combines missing-persons infor-

mation that is often stored in separate databases

by multiple government organizations, to create a

single hub for all of the information. People

Finder was up and running roughly an hour afterthe earthquake in Japan in March 2011.

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level leaks released into an already dis-

tressed area, thus further complicating relief

efforts and causing widespread public uncer-

tainty and distress.14 With so many wide-

spread issues demanding immediate atten-

tion, social media provided the public with

the capability to monitor the effects of the

disaster, to determine the status of missing

loved ones and to coordinate and mobilize

disaster relief to the region.

In the wake of the disaster, telephone lines

were down and cell phone networks were

damaged and overwhelmed. In some areas,

only Internet access remained. In the first

hour of the disaster over one thousand

tweets were coming out of Tokyo each mi-

nute. A few hours later, hashtags (symbol-

ized by the # symbol and followed by a

keyword, ex. #japantsunami, make it easier

to search for key terms) were being tweeted

thousands of times per second. TEPCO, the

company operating the Fukushima power

plant, created a Twitter account to keep the

public informed. This Twitter accountgained 190,000 followers in less than a day

as individuals throughout the world began to

monitor the deteriorating condition of the

nuclear power plant.15

Twitter proved to be an especially useful

means of communication in terms of reach,

immediacy and connectivity, with one in ten

Japanese citizens using Twitter prior to the

earthquake. Over the course of the disaster,as more information was increasingly shared

using Twitter, many more citizens began

monitoring the website for disaster news.

Additionally, Twitter set up a dedicated

page advising users how to use hashtags to

request aid in the aftermath of the earth-

quake.16

Building on the experience from its use in

the aftermath of the 2010 earthquakes in

Haiti and New Zealand, Googles PersonFinder provided a registry and message

board for survivors, family, loved ones and

rescuers to post and search for information

about each others status and whereabouts.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo encouraged

Americans living in Japan to register on the

site to simplify the communication process

with family and friends in the United States.

This database now contains 306,000 names.

The site also posted important resource in-

formation, maps and other related infor-

mation. 17 In reaction to the success of

Googles efforts, YouTube launched a Miss-

ing Person Finder channel featuring video

messages from various shelters and those

affected by the earthquake and tsunami.18

Social media also provided creative outlets

for people across the globe to provide im-

mediate support while the shock of the dis-

aster was still present. For thousands of

people relief assistance took shape in the

form of donations. Ten dollars could be do-

nated by an individual through the Red

Cross simply through text messaging.19 So-

cial media sites with game applications

prompted players with instructions on how

to donate.20 Within the first four days of set-

ting up their donation system, the AmericanRed Cross raised $19 million for disaster

relief in Japan.21 Uses of social media tools

continued to evolve in helping to encourage

global awareness and response in times of

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The Joplin Tornado

On May 22, 2011 a tornado ripped through

the heart of the quiet town of Joplin, Mis-

souri, destroying whole city blocks, ripping

out telephone lines and killing scores ofpeople in that small community. With the

disaster physically overwhelming the re-

maining phone lines and with transportation

disrupted, social media became a primary

method of contact for survivors. Building

upon the lessons learned and tools utilized in

the Haiti and Japan disasters, those in Joplin

with access to social media quickly began to

utilize its power for information and connec-

tivity.

Twitpic was used to upload pictures of the

disaster to Twitter and other services. Oth-

ers uploaded videos of the tornado and re-

sulting devastation to YouTube. Flickr be-

came a popular site for sharing pictures tak-

en on the ground post tornado and family

members and friends checked in on the well

being of their loved ones by monitoring the

update status of their Facebook pages.

For those who were not able to find their

loved ones immediately, the American Red

Cross set up a Safe and Well website.22

First utilized in response to Hurricane Katri-

na in 2005, the Red Cross website enables

people in affected areas to register them-

selves as safe, providing family members

the ability to search through the registry for

the status of loved ones. This information

was also widely circulated through social

media sites, therefore maximizing the

chances of connecting with those missing in

the aftermath of the disaster. One Facebook

page, Joplin Tornado Citizen Checks was

created less than 24 hours after the storm to

assist in the location of missing persons.23

The page allowed individuals to post identi-

fying information about missing persons and

included an updated list of hospitals that had

taken patients from the evacuated St. Johns

Hospital and those injured in the tornado.

As in the disaster situation in Haiti and Ja-

pan, a crowd sourced map using the Ushahi-

di platform was created to visualize the tor-

nados destructive path. It was also used to

assist in the location of aid stations, recovery

effort locations and upcoming events.

Deepwater Horizon: Gulf Coast Disaster

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon

drilling rig on April 20, 2010 and the subse-

quent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, led to

massive environmental degradation and

widespread regional disruption of economic

activity that lead to the consequent loss of

jobs for thousands of workers and their fam-ilies in the American Gulf Coast region that

was just beginning to recover from Hurri-

cane Katrina. It is estimated that the spill

released nearly five million barrels of oil

over the course of three months; becoming

the largest accidental marine oil spill in the

history of the petroleum industry.24

Citizens calling themselves the Louisiana

Bucket Brigade created the Oil Spill Crisis Map. The Oil Spill Crisis Map used the

Ushahidi mapping program and allowed lo-

cal observers to report the effects of the dis-

aster using mobile devices or the Internet,

while simultaneously having the aggregate

reports appear on a single map based view


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for all to see. This shared information pro-

vided as close to a real time map of the crisis

as was possible for the benefit of officials,

those fighting the spill, businesses on the

coast preparing for impact, and the general

public.

As media coverage surrounding the unfold-

ing disaster intensified, the public flocked to

social media sites to learn more about the

emerging details of the crisis as well as vent

their frustrations with the lack of intensity in

the response from BP and the government.

The lack of initial social media engagement

with the public by BP is an object lesson in

how an organization can fall hopelessly be-

hind the curve when dealing with the public

in a time of crisis. Prior to the disaster BP

had no dedicated social media staff. By the

height of the incident, BP had as many as

fifty people working to counter inaccurate

information being posted on Facebook and

Twitter.25 BP was forced to quickly upgrade

their social media campaign and set up a

Twitter account and YouTube channel thatincluded detailed technical briefings to assist

the public in understanding the problems the

company was facing.

A collaborative multi-media website Gulf of

Mexico-Deepwater Horizon Incidentwas

also launched. The site is maintained by BP,

Transocean, the United States Coast Guard,

the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Ad-

ministration, the U.S. Department of Home-land Security and the U.S. Department of

Interior. The website features slideshows,

news items, links to a Twitter account, its

YouTube Channel and Facebook page.

San Bruno Pipeline Explosion

On the evening of September 9 th, 2010, a gas

pipeline exploded in the San Francisco sub-

urb of San Bruno, California. The blast

killed eight people, injured sixty and de-stroyed over forty homes. The explosion

was so loud that many on the ground be-

lieved a major earthquake had occurred or

that a plane had crashed. These misimpres-

sions were corrected quickly with the use of

social media.26 In the San Bruno disaster;

social media provided critical aid to re-

sponders struggling to assess the damage

and information to a community desperate

for answers.

Photos taken onsite and shared via social

media tools played a major role in the re-

sponse and recovery of this explosion.

Blogs continuously updated pictures taken

by neighbors and news agencies to convey

the seriousness of the situation. 27 The

Google Earth program was used for apply-

ing aerial shots to produce shocking before

and after pictures which were used to gain a

clearer picture of the disaster scene.28 Per-

haps most important was the geospatial

mapping of photos and other relevant data to

interactive Google Maps. While emergency

responders used these maps to track the

spread of the fire, the community used the

maps to monitor the proximity of the fire to

their property, as well as to find safe shelter

away from potentially hazardous areas. Theedited maps, with tags noting houses with

fatalities removed, were also distributed to

news organizations to keep the public in-

formed.29


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Other social media sites proved useful over

the course of the incident. Craig Fugate,

Administrator of FEMA, used Twitter to

monitor the situation while he waited for

official updates. This helped him determine

that the incident was, fortunately, local-

ized.30 A journalist on the East Coast heard

about the explosion on Twitter, used

Googles Maps program to view the blast

site, and determined that his sister-in-laws

home was outside the blast radius, all before

he was actually able to get in contact with

her. 31 The National Transportation Safety

Board (NTSB) used Twitter and YouTube to

inform the public of relevant press briefings;

to allow the chairman to speak to the com-

munity directly; and to forward along im-portant information to the public in real

time.32 PG&E, the company responsible for

the pipeline, utilized Twitter to announce

their establishment of a $100 million victim

relief fund.33


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V. Raising Awareness

The Message of Resilience

While social media can encourage citizens

to embrace resilience as a civic value, gov-

ernment officials and bureaucracies at all

levels of government must make clear that

they are receptive and supportive of individ-

uals playing a greater role in preparing for

and managing risk. Relegating citizens to

the role of passive bystanders is both coun-

terproductive and reckless.

There is much work to be done. While there

is ample evidence that the desire to help is

strong after disasters happen, the record of

individual preparedness in advance of an

event is sobering. In World War II some

40% of the American people took part in

Red Cross first aid and emergency prepar-

edness training. Today, that figure of partic-

ipation is less than one percent.

To further the message of resilience, Wash-

ington must abandon its longstanding top-

down public information campaigns. This

Task Force engaged in wide-ranging discus-

sion with leaders in emergency manage-

ment, the media, public opinion research,

advertising, business, government and

community groups. One point of over-

whelming consensus was agreement on the

need for outreach to a wide cross-section ofthe American society. Four areas should be

emphasized in pursuing this goal:

How can we effectively communicate the

message of resilience to the American

People?

1. Resilience as a Social NormBuilding more resilient communities and a

more secure America can only take place if

the vast majority of individuals commit

themselves to taking the actions necessary to

help themselves and others in a time of cri-

sis. Pursuing this cultural shift at a time of

national economic distress may seem diffi-

cult. However, it is precisely because so

many Americans are facing so much uncer-

tainty that they are likely to be receptive to

the case for resilience.

Through a combination of public awarenesscampaigns, corporate support and limited

governmental action, long held habits have

been shown to change as new social norms

have come into acceptance. For example:

individual attitudes toward littering, smok-

ing, recycling, the use of baby car seats and

attitudes toward different groups in society

have altered dramatically and for the better,

often in the span of a decade or less.

A primary goal of those working on building

a more resilient America should be to devel-

op strategies and support actions that make

resilience a social norm. It should become

an accepted and widespread social norm that

it is fundamental to be prepared and ready to

offer assistance to those who cannot help

themselves in the first few days of a crisis.

Ideally, a negative connotation would be

attached to anyone not prepared for a crisis

since their lack of preparedness might cause

harm to others.

Creating resilience as a social norm should

therefore be central to any efforts at the


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community and national level to build sus-

tainable levels of resilience in American so-

ciety. Social media can play a central role in

disseminating and reinforcing these messag-

es.

2. Risk LiteracyIn just the span of one generation, individu-

als have gone from two or three trusted and

consistent sources of information on any one

topic, to hundreds if not thousands. From

cable TV to innumerable Internet sites and

shared e-mails, information is provided dailyon a myriad of topics, including potential

risks. A danger with being connected with-

out having a deeper education on a topic is

the phenomenon of social amplification.

For example: if images of a freak lightning

strike are featured over and over in the me-

dia, it is likely that people will begin to be-

lieve that their chances of being struck by

lightning are quite high. The consequences

of receiving information without education

can be overreaction, misallocation of re-

sources relative to risk or even inaction born

of a feeling of being overwhelmed and not

being provided the tools to respond.

Any campaign to further resilience as a val-

ue will require providing detailed and accu-

rate information to individuals so that they

are informed and empowered to take indi-vidual and collective action in the face of

risk. Risk literacy can help individuals and

communities calibrate their responses to risk

in a measured and intelligent manner, best

using the time and talents of citizens in a

sustainable way. Social media can play an

important role in promoting risk literary.

Integrating risk literacy into existing class-

room curriculum should be a high priority

for any community wishing to promote resil-

ience.

3. Trusted NetworksThe proliferation of media and information

sources in 21st Century America, coupled

with the diversity of our population, political

polarization and loss of faith in governmen-

tal institutions, has made it nearly impossi-

ble to disseminate messages by public offi-cials which are accepted and serve as moti-

vators for action. When thinking about how

to best engage the American people on ac-

cepting and acting on the idea of becoming

more resilient, a much more nuanced, crea-

tive and complex approach must be under-

taken.

Social media provides an ideal way to over-

come these obstacles, for the rise of socialmedia has clearly demonstrated that individ-

uals gravitate to trusted networks to receive

information, take advice and undertake so-

cial action. The narrowcasting and self-

selection that are possible through social

media are likely to be the most effective

ways to promote social change in American

society for years to come. Reaching out to

find community leaders who may not have

official titles but have the respect of fellow

citizens is a most effective way to access

these trusted networks of information that

are able to cut through the haze of modern

media. Who is telling the story, delivering a


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message or issuing a call to action is im-

portant.

4. Alignment of MessagesThe diversity of trusted networks and com-

munity leaders able to influence opinion,

change behaviors and activate social action

is large in any community. There will need

to be different messages for different net-

works. While tempting to believe that a sin-

gle phrase or a cleverly designed public rela-

tions campaign can spark the national

movement necessary to build resilience into

a social norm, the reality is more challeng-ing.

There should be an alignment of messages

and information going out over trusted net-

works, but not the same message. Groups

working to promote resilience will need to

work with community leaders to customize

messages for trusted networks linked by so-

cial media. What may be lost in having uni-

ty in the messaging can be compensated for

by aligning messages to be getting different

populations to the same place by different

paths. For example: appeals to invoke the

selfless spirit that prevailed in America dur-

ing the Second World War may help engage

senior citizens, while young environmental-

ist activists may be most interested in build-

ing resilient communities that can stave off

or mitigate environmental disasters.

While a multiplicity of networks and mes-

saging strategies will be necessary to pro-mote resilience as a social norm and cause

individuals to take action, fortunately social

media provides the ready-made avenues

through which this can occur. While Amer-

icans in their interests and backgrounds are

diverse, the means to reach them exist via

social media.


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VI. Taking Action

After discussing the question How can we

effectively communicate the message of re-silience to the American public? we under-

stood the centrality of social media as the

most important answer to that question. The

Task Force then moved to developing an-

swers to the question:

How can we use social media tools to

empower people to act on the message of

resilience and take a more active role in

preparedness, response and recovery?

The enduring answers to this question will

be provided by the American people them-

selves, using social media in the cause of

resilience. However, the Task Force did

develop some ideas to strengthen the emerg-

ing networks of those using social media to

further the cause of building a more resilient

America.

1. National Campaign for a ResilientAmerica

It is true that social media has helped ideas

spread and movements build with lightning

speed, unleashing change that can change

policies, behaviors and even governments.

It is also true that there is always a need for

a group of people committed to a cause, fo-cused on its mission and dedicated daily to

its implementation that is required to create

and sustain such movements. Social media,

with its embrace of the values of transparen-

cy, responsiveness and participation, and de-

centralized structure, is ideally suited to fa-

cilitate the development of a national

movement to build more resilient communi-

ties across the United States and beyond.

Yet a committed individuals and organiza-

tions, with a primary focus on fostering this

movement, will be needed to raise the pro-

file and relevance of the resilience issue in a

world in which many issues and ideas com-

pete for the attention of the American peo-

ple.

An example of how a national resilience

campaign can get its start can be found in

the 9/11 Tenth Anniversary Summit: Re-

membrance, Renewal, Resilience. For the

better part of a year, three non-profit organi-

zations, the Center for National Policy,

Voices of September 11th and the Communi-

ty and Regional Resilience Institute (CAR-

RI), focused on hosting an event to highlight

the role of resilience and its relevance in

American life in the 9/11 Decade.

As part of the Summit, these organizations

commissioned several short-form documen-

taries to tell stories of resilience, and with

the goal of sharing these stories with the

American people, have built a social media

platform Road2Resilience.org. In less than

one month following the 9/11 Tenth Anni-

versary Summit, Boatlift (one of the fea-

tured documentaries commissioned by the

organizers of the Summit and featured on

Road2Resilience.org) had over 2.5 million

views on YouTube.

The desire on the part of the public to build

a more resilient America is clear. The

commitment of groups and individuals to

build a national campaign for a more resili-

ent America is already being demonstrated,


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and the tools of social media are the best

way to build such a movement. Resources

will be needed to scale up these efforts and

build a sustainable movement.

2. Social Media SummitOne of the overarching values shared by

those in the creative world of social media is

that of empowerment of the individual. The

innovations brought to the marketplace by

those in the social media industry have

brought about a revolution in communica-

tions that is transforming the world. Those

who seek to promote resilience in American

life must also count on empowering citizens

to be better prepared to respond, recover and

adapt in times of crisis. They will need the

tools of social media to bring about a more

resilient America, and they will need full

partnership with the social media industry.

The full time job of those in social media is

not to think about building more resilient

communities, and those in emergency man-

agement are not always preoccupied with

keeping current with the products and trends

in social media. By having leaders in the

social media industry meet on a regular ba-

sis with those in emergency management,

there is the possibility of needs finding solu-

tions. Having the leaders of Google, Face-

book, Twitter come together to focus on the

issue of resilience on an annual basis woulddo much to focus attention and produce

practical benefits. In what is a very compet-

itive industry, having thought leaders come

together to offer practical solutions for po-

tentially life threatening situations and work

in concert on strengthening the broader

community can have only upsides for all

involved.

3.

New Emergency Broadcast SystemBorn in the Golden Age of television and

the early days of the Cold War, the piercing

ring of the Emergency Broadcast System

became familiar to generations of Ameri-

cans who were told to stay tuned for fur-

ther information on whatever disaster might

be coming their way. The Emergency

Broadcast System was thus the embodiment

the way in which Americas professional

protector class chose to interact with the

American people in years gone by.

At any one time in todays America, more

people are engaged with social media then

they are watching the evening television

network news. Already more than one in six

Americans affected have used social media

to get information about an emergency.34

The Department of Homeland Security

should work with the National Association

of Broadcasters, social media companies and

local and state emergency management offi-

cials to update the Emergency Broadcast

System in ways that better engage the citi-

zenry in response and recovery efforts.

4. Family Re-unificationSocial media has been increasingly used to

aid citizens trying to find loved ones in a

disaster situation. Gathering, centralizing

and updating this information helps ease

anxiety in a trying time but just as im-

portantly can prevent the misallocation of


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resources used in searches that occur for

those whose status has already been deter-

mined. Since the attacks of September 11th

social media has been used extensively to

aid in family reunification efforts. Accord-

ing to a recent survey, 45% of Americans

sampled said that they would rely on social

media to let loved ones know they are safe

in a disaster situation.35

Privacy laws often prevent government from

releasing information on the status of indi-

viduals in a disaster zone, however the effi-

cacy of maintaining a centralized point of

information seems clear for purposes of in-forming loved ones and aiding rescue deci-

sions by emergency responders. Systematic

efforts should be made by federal emergen-

cy management officials to work with social

media firms in developing a capacity for

families and emergency responders to access

a unified list of information about the status

of individuals in a disaster zone.

5. Social Media Emergency OperationsCenters

Every state and many localities across the

nation maintain Emergency Management

Operations Centers, which are activated in

times of crisis, and often maintained in an-

ticipation of incidents. The purpose of these

centers is to monitor developments in a cri-

sis situation, coordinate efforts of official

agencies and deliver periodic messages to

the public in the form of either warnings or

updates.

All emergency management agencies and

Operations Centers should be staffed with

personnel who can monitor social media at

all times for the purposes of gaining rapid

on-site updates which enhance situational

awareness and to better engage the public on

response and recovery efforts. Examples

abound of how citizens posting on Facebook

and broadcasting on Twitter have been able

to provide real time information, pictures,

and updates that can aid in response and re-

covery operations. But some Emergency

Operations Centers lack high bandwidth In-

ternet, technical and collaborative skills and

have stringent security policies blocking

their workforce from using social media for

operational purposes.36

There is great potential for emergency man-

agement officials to better engage the public

before during and after a crisis using social

media. By making policy changes, upgrad-

ing equipment and dedicating staff for this

purpose, either paid or volunteer, on a full

time basis, citizens will be meaningfully

connected to emergency management offi-

cials and officials will gain greater situation-al awareness and be aided in their opera-

tions.

6. Critical Networks NotificationIn times of crisis and in a void of infor-

mation, confusion often reigns. In a time of

crisis, however, a first order of business is to

maintain the continuity of systems essential

for response, and recovery. For example: in

the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, it

is necessary for the thousands of employees

of a vital port to know the status of their op-

erations and what they should do next. Dur-


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ing an act of terrorism in a downtown area,

it is important for employees of hospitals,

airports and mass transit systems to know if

and when they should report to work and

how they should best get there.

Social media, especially in the form of Twit-

ter and SMS updates can provide this essen-

tial information and provide a two way

channel of communication that can cut

through the confusion and clutter of misin-

formation during a crisis. Engaging and in-

forming personnel in critical networks in

this way can help restore and maintain con-

tinuity of function critical to response and

speedy recovery efforts. The result would

be to strengthen resilience across vital sec-

tors.


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VII. Conclusion

Over the course of this year the Task Force

for a Resilient America has worked to an-swer the question, How can we effectively

communicate the message of resilience to

the American people? In the course of our

work it became clear that supporting the

spread of the core values of resilience such

as citizen engagement and participation

could best be accomplished through the use

of social media, which thrives on these val-

ues.

The Task Force then turned to examining

the question How can we use social media

tools to empower people to act on the mes-

sage of resilience and take an active role in

preparedness, response and recovery? Our

recommendations provide some operational

suggestions such as an updated Emergency

Broadcast System, maintaining Social Me-

dia Emergency Operations Centers, and

Critical Network Notifications that can be

quickly accomplished if resources are ap-

plied and political will exists. However, to

foster the resurgence of the spirit of resili-

ence that we believe necessary to build a

safer and more vital nation, community

leaders, government officials and media en-

trepreneurs must build alliances to provide

the structure and foster the focus and com-

mitment required to renew a nation. Our

recommendations for launching a nationalresilience movement that includes a social

media summit are, we believe, first steps

that can help unleash a virtuous cycle of ac-

tions that will empower citizens and

strengthen America for decades to come.


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Task Force for a Resilient America Members

Carole Artigiani, Global Kids Inc.

Omid Ashtari, Twitter

Scott Bates, Center for National Policy

Luke Beckman, National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue

Tom Blim, Group SJR

Jenna Briand, TakePart

Peter Boynton, Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security

Harold Brooks, American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter

Sean Burke, Center for National Policy

Elise Carlson Lewis, Center for National Policy

Rear Admiral Joseph Castillo, United States Coast Guard

Allison L. C. de Cerreo, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

June Cohen, TED

Ann K. Farrar, Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI)

Mary Fetchet, Voices of September 11th

Stephen Flynn, Center for National Policy

John Franklin, Abernathy MacGregor

Eric Frost,San Diego State University

Chris Gebhardt, TakePart

Daniel Glassman, Center for National Policy

Scott Graham, Greater New York American Red Cross

Chief Mike Grossman, LA Sheriffs Department

Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, Monument Policy Group

Lyndsay C. Howard, Pangaeia Group

Richard John, University of Southern California

Alex Jutkowitz, Group SJR

General Ronald Keys, Bipartisan Policy Center

Rachel Kleinfeld, Truman National Security Project

Josh Koster, Chong + Koster

Chris Lapetina, FOCUS Consulting

Mark Latonero, University of Southern California

Jay Lavender, NSPYR

Meredith Lavender, writer/producer


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Andrew Lavigne, Center for National Policy

Amy Levner, AARP

Anil Mammen, Mammen Group

Leonard Marcus, Harvard School of Public Health

Gloria Mark, University of California, Irvine

Scott McCallum, Aidmatrix

Bear McConnell, NORAD-NORTHCOM

Michelle Menchin, IBM

Betsy Morgan, The Blaze

Dickie Morris, just a little ditty / NSPYR

Rear Admiral Peter Neffenger, United States Coast Guard

Carter Page, Center for National Policy / Global Energy Capital

Al Puchala, Signal Equity Partners

Mark Putnam, Putnam Partners

William Raisch, New York University

Celina Realuyo, National Defense University

Jim Reeder, Fox Cable Networks

Jordan Robinson, Threshhold Group

Chuck Rocha, Solidarity Strategies

Adam Rose, University of Southern California

Heather Rosoff, University of Southern California

Stephanie Schipper, TakePart

Jennifer Scott, Ogilvy

Rachelle Spero, Brunswick Group

Al Terriego, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Trent Thompson, NORAD-NORTHCOM

Marcie Ulin, writer/producer

Kevin Walsh, writer/producerSimon Wilkie, University of Southern California

Ernest James Wilson III,University of Southern California

Philip de Vellis, Putnam Partners

Michael Ventura, Sub Rosa

Daya Wolterstorff, TakePart


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Acknowledgements

Research Support provided byAndrew Lavigne, Research Associate, Center for National Policy,andLaura Buchanan, Intern, Center for National Policy.

Editorial Support provided byDaniel Glassman, Research Associate, Center for National Policy.

Design Support provided by Willis Bretz, New Media Specialist, Center for National Policy.


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References

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 http://images.friendster.com/images/Friendster_At_A_Glance_September_2008.pdf2 ODell, Jolie. The History of Social Media [Infographic]. Mashable.com. January 24, 2011.3 Shiels, Maggie. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey Rejoins Company. BBC News, Silicon Valley. 28 March 2011.4 Schroeder, Stan. Google+ About to Hit 10 Million Users. Mashable.com. 12 July 2011.5 Webster, Tom. The Social Habit 2011. Edison Research. 29 May 2011.6 Ibid.7 Quinn, Ben. Social Network Users Have Twice As Many Friends Online as in Real Life. The Guardian. 8 May2011.8 American Red Cross. White Paper: The Case for Integrating Crisis Response With Social Media. Emergency So-cial Data Summit. 30 July 2010.9 http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake/10 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=25298867571711 How Does Haiti Communicate After the Earthquake? BBC News. 20 January 2010.12 Tsunami Information (Estimated Tsunami Arrival Time and Height). Japan Meteorological Agency. 11 March2011.13 Damage Situation and Police Countermeasures associated with 2011 Tohoku district - off the Pacific Ocean

Earthquake. National Police Agency of Japan. 15 August 2011.14 CNN Wire Staff. Japan: 3 Nuclear Reactors Melted Down. KTVZ.com. 6 June 2011.15 Banks, Emily. Japanese Power Company Creates Twitter Account for Nuclear Plant Updates. Mashable. 18March 2011.16 Japan Earthquake: Tsunami Hits North-East. BBC News. 11 March 2011.17 Schroeder, Stan. Google Responds to the Japan Earthquake With and Online Crisis Center. Mashable. 11March 2011.18 Warren, Christina. YouTube Launches Channel to Help Japan Quake Victims Communicate. Mashable. 18March 2011.19 Japan Tweets Its Way Out of Disaster. The Wrap. 14 March 2011.20 Green, Spencer. Japan, and the Critical Three Ways Social Media Plays During a Crisis. PR Newswire. 31March 2011.21 Dickler, Jessica. Earthquake aid totals $25 million far less than Haiti. CNN Money. 15 March 2011.22

https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php23 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joplin-Tornado-Citizen-Checks-neighbors-helping-neighbors/17348613937621024 BP leak the world's worst accidental oil spill". Telegraph. 3 August 201025 Earl, Steve. Deepwater Horizon: Inside the Vicious Media War. An interview with BP chief executive TonyHayward. Speedcommunications.com. 16 June 2011.26 Daley, Haven; Marshall, John S.; & Thanawala, Sudhin. Federal regulators say California gas pipeline in deadlyblast was ranked high risk. Associated Press. 11 September 2010.27 Rose, Adam J. San Bruno Explosion: Photos Of The Fires Aftermath Paint A Bigger Picture. Huffington Post.12 September 2010.28 Franzen, Carl. Before-and-After Views of San Bruno Blast. AolNews. 13 September 2010.29San Bruno Fire Technical Debrief. Carnegie Mellon University Disaster Management Initiative. 5 November2010.30 Spellman, Jim. Heading off disaster, one tweet at a time. CNN. com. 22 September 2010.31 Amarante, Joe. Just the facts, maam: Why Twitter rules the roost. New Haven Register. 1 May 2011.32 Wilson, Benet. Safety Board Embraces Social Media With Twitter, YouTube Accounts. Aviation Daily. 14

February 2011.33 Paine, Katie. Target Is Anything But On, While Post-Explosion, PG&E Does Its Best. PR News. 20 September2010.34 Menn, Joseph and Tim Bradshaw. Smartphone Tweets Drive Twitter Surge. Financial Times. 1 June 2011.35 Labbe-DeBose, Theola. 911 Systems Slow to Make Shift to Text Messaging. Washington Post. 23 April 2011.36 Smith, Aaron. Government Online. Pew Internet & American Life Project. 27 April 2010.


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