Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Unfortunately, the number of users (particularly media) of these alternative systems
pales in comparison to Twitter, and therefore is highly unlikely to be an impactful
tool to emergency management even though it allows for verifiable accounts.
Nixle is just one of many social media systems that have been specifically built
to draw in people for specific purposes—often related to emergency management
and preparedness. For instance, in early 2009, Microsoft announced the creation
of Vine, a social media system intended to serve as an emergency notification and
monitoring system by friends and family. However, by September 2010, Microsoft
announced the discontinuation of this system.
5
Citizens were not finding Vine ben-
eficial presumably because people were not actively engaged on that network—
especially as compared to Facebook and Twitter. Based on the statistics already
mentioned, Facebook and Twitter have established their supremacy and should be
treated as such by emergency management. Emergency management must be care-
ful to distribute their messages where local citizens are spending time, not where
they want them to be, to avoid repeating the mistakes already established through
traditional outreach approaches.
This premise is also true in how people seek out information through the
Internet. According to one major technology publication, the Web (as local govern-
ments have utilized for the last decade) is dead. Citizen activity has moved away
from static browsing for information toward applications and mobile browsing.
6
Additional studies have indicated that mobile browsing will overtake traditional
browsing by 2015.
7
In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) and the National Weather Service have both implemented new
mobile and/or application-based outreach.
8,9
The impact of this mobile browsing
and notification has had exponential growth due to the ability of many jurisdic-
tions to automate emergency alert messages to established social media outlets such
as Facebook and Twitter.
10
Interestingly, the availability of practical emergency preparedness mobile
applications is not limited to formal offerings from governmental and quasigov-
ernmental sources. There are a variety of apps offered for free or minimal fees
including step-by-step guides for first aid, CPR, pet preparedness, and personal
allergies
11
as well as function-based software including flashlights12
12
and emergency
dispatch feeds.
13
This type of information continues to carry common messages
expressed by emergency managers and/or creates a transparency toward activities
and direction.
Leveling the Playing Field
As outreach philosophies are beginning to change in the emergency management
field, the benefits of such a change have to be understood. These benefits are broad
and multifaceted, affecting components ranging from public education to pub-
lic communications to response tools. Moreover, traditional approaches to project
