covers ways to use web apps, smart phones and free disaster management software like Sahana Eden, which offer agencies free and open source tools to customize and build situational awareness for their own agency or organizational needs.

1. #EMAG2012
Web 2.0 Technology
Building Situational Awareness:
Free and Open Source Tools of the Trade
Presentation on Slideshare
http://slideshare.com/conniewhite
n n ie
Dr . Co
e

2. Decision Support

3. “An emergency manager consistently struggles
with real time incident assessment,
particularly if the event is extensive
and requires a multidisciplinary response.”
“The goal of real time situational information
assessment is to create a
Common Operating Picture
across the entire area of impact.” Westbrook, et al. 2012
A Holistic Approach to Evaluating Social Media’s Successful Implementation into Emergency Management Operations – R

4. April 27, 2011 Catoosa County
“After the tornado, the survivors did send
messages, but they went to relatives via
social media because there was not an
established method of communications with
emergency managers.”
Official Response Efforts – 3 hours
A Faster Response Possible?

6. Online Interactive Mapping
Use the Public?
“What if these survivors had an established
communication method to send real time
messages to emergency managers and first
responders?”

7. 4 Si t u a t i on s t o
Con s i d e r
Local Emergency Management
Using
Social Media
People
Engaging Data Points &
I Information
Not Another way to
II
I Broadcast
Engaging Information

8. http://www.livestream.com/techstate/video?clipId=pla_a1cef922-7b17-400b-b67c-a21cb877b1f9 GoTo 52:40 - 58:40

9. How Accurate is the Data?

10. Collaboration

11. Who's using Social Media for Situational Awareness?
Robby Westbrook, Cherokee County Georgia

12. What Free and Open Source Tools are Available?

15. FEMA Grant funding your Disaster
Management Software?
Over Reliance on funding
Under Reliance: The Power of the People

16. Free vs
Free & Open Source Software
SM Free but not Open Source
Foursquare
Ushahidi
Mapping
WikiMapia
Open Street Maps
Google Maps
Google Earth
WebEOC $$$$$$

17. The Sahana Software Foundation is
dedicated to the mission of saving lives by
providing information management solutions
that enable organizations and communities
to better prepare for and respond to
disasters.

18. Sahana Active Deployments
2005 - the Phillipines, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
2006 - Indonesia (2006)
2007 - Peru and Bangladesh
2008 - China, Myanmar and India
2009 - Indonesia and Sri Lanka
2010 - Venezuela, Mexico, Pakistan, Chile, and
Haiti
2011 - Japan and Columbia
Now - NYC, LA, Chicago

19. Guest Speaker
Fran Boon

48. Ho w?
Tr y t h e D e mo :
h t t p : / / d e mo. e d e n. s ah an af o u n d at i o n. o r g
D o wn l o ad & i n s t al l o n yo u r PC
Yo u r Ch oi c e :
Yo u r o wn Te c h n i c al Re s o u r c e s
Pr o f e s s i o n al S u p p o r t
Em genc y M
er anagement As s oc i at i on of Geor gi a 48

49. Build SM Communities
Through Exercise
Small local scale, group of 5, Roles, Social Media
university course, EM professionals, virtual
How to create online scenarios?
How to implement?
Who's responsible for what, when?
How to aggregate information?

50. Making Sense of the Info Flood
A Social Media Exercise System
http://dfmerrick.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/making-sense-of-the-info-flood-a-social-media-exercise-system/
17 Participants
Disaster Systems Course
To support about 90 minutes of play time,
approximately 500 tweets were created, as
well as four online news stories at both the
local and national level, and dozens of 911
reports that would be fed to the exercise
system. In addition the the pre-planned inject
packages, controllers were able to create
injects on the fly, working off on information
overheard in the room.

51. As the exercise wore on, several things became clear to the controllers and
participants:
One map isn’t really sufficient. You need a map (such as Ushahidi) for initial
assessment of incoming info; a sandbox, and a ‘final’ map that contains only
what has been assessed as valid. Two Ushahidi instances may be the way
to go, we aren’t entirely certain yet.
Filtering capability of reports and tweets needs to include time range searches.
For example, participants needed the ability to show all tweets received
between 1800 and 1820, and that capability did not exist.
Simulating social media requires a lot of data to be created.
The simulation cell needs custom built tools to effectively manage the inject of
information to the exercise.
While the type of information received never called for emergency managers to
allocate resources, it was very helpful for gaining a complete understanding
of the event.
News article comments are a valuable source of data, and key areas to monitor
for rumor and incorrect information.

52. Publish
Lessons
Learned

53. “Exercise X24”
24-25 September 2010
http://vizcenter.net/x24/more.html
Over 12,500 people from 79 nations and 90
U.S. government, non-government
organizations, and public/private partners in a
collaborative environment using
crowdsourcing, social media, and cloud
computing applications.

54. Issues to Consider – Global X24
Open Invitation to Formal and Informal Networks
Schedule of Events
Rules of Engagement
Notice and Consent

55. nd
2 Exercise X24 Europe
March 28-31, 2011
X24 Europe transcended all expectations in its
ability to form a collaborative bridge between
individuals, communities, and nations with over
49,000 participants from 92 nations that
included two ambassadors, a US major
general, as well as representatives from US
European Command (EUCOM), US Northern
Command, US Transportation Command,
Office of Navy Research, STAR-TIDES at the
Center for Technology and National Security
Policy from National Defense University, and
many others.

56. X24 México
rd
3 iteration of a primarily virtual, open-invitation,
humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
(HADR) exercise with real-world functional
components....more to come.

57. Participants include DHS/Office of Health Affairs,
NORAD-NORTHCOM, US Customs and Border
Protection/Global Borders College, Mexican
Army and Navy, Mexico Federal Police, Ministry
of Defense from Vietnam, India National
Disaster Management Agency, World Shipping
Council, Red Cross, Pacific Disaster Center,
NYK Logistics, National defense University, and
growing.

59. Where
does
Georgia
go from
here?
Q&A