Twitter in an Emergency - more from Elsua

This is amazing!  Watch it now.   Got this from Elsua who I follow on Twitter.  Go read his entire post.  He says:

Check out New on YouTube: Use Twitter in Emergencies! by David Stephenson (Over at Stephenson Strategies), where you would be able to find a very helpful vodcast from David where he is clearly demonstrating how micro-blogging applications like Twitter could be used, specially, in emergencies, and not just to carry on with that declarative living we all seem to enjoy quite a bit. Here you have some of the reasons David gets to mention that should really be an eye opener to most folks who may not see just yet the clear perks of making use of such online presence tools:

• "it demonstrates that a Web 2.0 application that’s in wide use, so many people are already familiar with it and wouldn’t have to learn it in a disaster, can easily switch to serving a totally different function in an emergency
• it solves a serious problem in a simple way
• it harnesses the power of existing social networks during a disaster.
• a few smart municipal agencies and relief agencies "get it", and are already capitalizing on Twitter for emergency communication
• even if other government agencies don’t catch on, we the people can use it ourselves, without permission or government support"

Here's more on the role of Social Media in an emergency by Dennis McDonald.

Update from Gregg Swanson:

We're pretty much overwhelmed with all the things going on related to overseas emergencies, so we're not tracking the developments that apply to U.S. disasters.  Is Twitter in wide use overseas, and if so, mainly in Europe, Japan, and major cities? If you know of someone who keeps a summary or survey Web site of U.S.-oriented or Web 2.0 tools that apply in emergencies, we would love to link to it!

I wrote about some of the limitations for those outside the us or uk to use twitter for an emergency earlier, still chewing on that.

Robert Scoble shares his techniques for following over 6,000 friends on Twitter.  I hope he makes a screencast.

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Here's more on the role of Social Media in an emergency by Dennis McDonald.

Update from Gregg Swanson:

We're pretty much overwhelmed with all the things going on related to overseas emergencies, so we're not tracking the developments that apply to U.S. disasters.  Is Twitter in wide use overseas, and if so, mainly in Europe, Japan, and major cities? If you know of someone who keeps a summary or survey Web site of U.S.-oriented or Web 2.0 tools that apply in emergencies, we would love to link to it!

I wrote about some of the limitations for those outside the us or uk to use twitter for an emergency earlier, still chewing on that.

Comments

[Luis Suarez]

Hi Beth! Thanks a lot for linking back to my blog post helping spread the word around on David's great piece of work. It's amazing this thing called blogosphere, eh? In no time we got a bunch of links coming from all over the place on something that can have an immediate impact in our personal lives for the better and the fact that it is so easy to make that happen makes it incredibly powerful as well.

That, to me, is the whole power behind social software, when it goes beyond your immediate work environment and touches you and those around you in order to make your life better. It cannot get better than this. Thus appreciated the link love and spreading the word around!

Oh, and in your note on making use of Twitter outside of the UK and the US, I would love to read some more on your thoughts, but so far I am not too bother about it. What's perhaps a Euro or two in sending a message to just tell your folks you are doing fine. That, to me, is priceless :-)

[W David Stephenson]

Thanks, Beth (and Luis) for the nice comments. It's important to remember that the Web 2.0 technologies are only part of their effectiveness in disasters: the other half is that, by capitalizing on existing social networks, they increase the chance of "emergent behavior," in which groups working collaboratively are able to produce a higher level of thought and action than could have been predicted from the abilities of the individual members: the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts!
-- David Stephenson

[Wendy]

Thanks to David for explaining the Red Cross Twitter channels! While they've yet to be used in a time of emergency, we're hoping they will prove to be a valuable communication tool.