Presented to Social Media in Times of Crisis Symposium 2011 Hosted by the Eidos Institute 4 April 2011, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Speaker: Eileen Culleton, Founder and CEO Emergency 2.0 Wiki (Voluntary).

1. Turning the vision into reality...
Social Media in Times of Crisis Symposium
Monday 4 April 2011
Eileen Culleton, Voluntary Project Leader

2. Cyclone Tracey struck Darwin
Christmas Eve 1974
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Image taken from: http://www.abc.net.au/aplacetothink/html/cyclone.htm

3. Australia’s most devastating cyclone
- on a human level
• 71 people killed
• Thousands injured
• 40,000 left homeless
• Destroyed the city
Image taken from Cyclone Tracey Newsreel 1974: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B89wBGydSvsT 3

4. For many hours – noone else knew
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Photo: Rick Stevens, taken from http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/mayor-governed-a-heap-of-rubble-20110202-1advy.html

5. Communications
infrastructure was
destroyed
Image taken from Cyclone Tracey Newsreel 1974: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B89wBGydSvsT 5

6. A long way from help
6

7. Amateur radio operator sent the call
Contacted Perth to let
the world know Darwin
needed help
Image taken from: http://www.hamradiotransceiver.co.uk/ham-radio-transreceivers-
information/ham-radio-transreceiver-remains-popular/ 7

8. First radio bulletin late Christmas Day
Image taken from Cyclone Tracey Newsreel 1974: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B89wBGydSvsT 8

9. For 5 days official communications was via
amateur radio aboard MV Nyanda
A
Image taken from: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy 9

10. The armed
forces were
deployed
Image taken from National Archives of Australia on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/6290869 10

11. But the city was was destroyed
But the city
destroyed
Image taken from Cyclone Tracey 1974 “Santa Never Made it Into Darwin” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0DRmWQ65Y
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12. 30,000
evacuated
in the
largest
airlift in
Australia’s
history
Image taken from: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy 12

13. Wacol Migrant
Centre, Brisbane
Image taken from: Ipswich Motorway Upgrade Fact Sheet at
http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au 13

14. My family at Wacol Migrant Centre. I’m the blonde child on the far right of the table. The Courier Mail Sat, Dec 28 1974, p2.

15. So how does this story link to
the vision of the wiki?
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16. Community + ICT + Networks
= Communication Lifeline
Image, Northern Territory Library http://hdl.handle.net/10070/49948
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17. Community + ICT + Networks
= Social Media
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18. Imagine
Image taken from: http://gov2em.net.au/futurescenario/
....if web 2.0 and social media was integrated
into mainstream emergency communications?
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19. Imagine...
Image taken from: Social Media helping Emergency Management Final Report to Gov2.0 Taskforce: http://gov2.net.au/projects/project-14/

20. Imagine...
Image taken from: http://gov2em.net.au/futurescenario/
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21. Imagine if it was two-way...
Image taken from: http://gov2em.net.au/futurescenario/
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22. Information is power...
Image taken from: http://gov2em.net.au/futurescenario/
...and information saves lives and property
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23. And information is critical
to community recovery...
“Key to disaster
recovery is an informed
community ...through
provision of timely and
accurate information”
Emergency Management Australia, Emergency Manual Series
– Community Development in Recovery from Disaster
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24. Used Social Media to provide
information lifeline to those
impacted by Cyclone Yasi
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25. Key to recovery is providing mechanisms to
empower the community to self mobilise...
“Disaster recovery is
most effective when
conducted with the
active participation of
the affected
community”
Emergency Management Australia, Emergency Manual Series
– Community Development in Recovery from Disaster
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26. Community Recovery
Empowering the community
• Used social media to galvanise and
mobilise the “Mud Armies”
• Facebook site also enabled direct
appeals and ‘active localism’
• Leveraged for “Clean up Australia”
• Building community resilience and
social capital
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27. EBCC – grass roots example
Community Centre used Facebook to:
• Share official information
• Rally and mobilise volunteers
• Call for donations
• Enable ‘active localism’
• Cross promote other agency activities
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28. http://www.qldreconstruction.org.au/
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29. Why do we need a Wiki?

30. Conferences – emergency 2.0
10 March 2011
Brisbane
4 April 2011
Brisbane
Australia 6-7 April 2011
Melbourne 10-12 April 2011
Canberra
Overseas
13-15 April 2011
24 March 2011 Mt Macedon Vic
Virginia, USA

31. Reports

32. Blogs
http://incaseofemergencyblog.com/2009/06/15/postcard-from-this-weekends-crisiscamp-no-swimming-hiking-or-smores-but-
progress-on-improving-emergency-preparednessresponseand-a-lot-of-fun-too/

33. http://incaseofemergencyblog.com/2009/06/15/postcard-from-this-weekends-crisiscamp-no-swimming-hiking-or-smores-but-
progress-on-improving-emergency-preparednessresponseand-a-lot-of-fun-too/ 33

34. Why do we need a Wiki?

35. Emergency 2.0 Wiki Working Group
Members volunteering their professional skills and time to turn
the vision into a reality. From the government, community,
education and business sectors.
Department of Community Safety
Department of Communities
Department of Local Government and Planning
Queensland Health

36. Vision
To empower the community with the
knowledge to utilise web2.0 and
social media in emergency
communications.
• Emergency agencies
• Government agencies and schools
• Community agencies and nonprofits
• Business
• Media and the Public
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37. Goal
To provide best practice guidelines
on how to utilise social media in all
phases of emergency management:
• Emergency preparation
• Emergency response
• Emergency recovery

38. A Wiki will enable the community:
• To access practical guidelines based on best
practice
• To save ‘reinventing the wheel’
• To mitigate risk
• To keep up with rapidly changing technology
and trends

39. What is a wiki?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
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40. Who will use it?
• Emergency agencies
• Government agencies
• Community eg community centres,
schools, non profits
• Business
• Media and the public
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41. What emergencies will it cover?
Natural Disasters
http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx? Chris Ison, The Morning Bulletin
http://www.terranean.com.au/news.htm id=562283&vId=
Manmade Health
emergencies Emergencies
http://themostimportantnews.com/arch
http://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/co http://www.photosfan.com/history/p ives/
ntent.php/645.html age2/

42. What information will it have?
Courtesy David Eade 42

43. Guidelines to include:
• Risk and Mitigation Checklist
• Moderator’s checklist
• Content management
• Stakeholder management
• Resourcing
• Staff policies
• Internal communication and channel integration
• Business continuity
• ICT requirements & security
• Record management and archiving
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44. Wiki Tips – Amplifying your message
• Find the popular hashtag # and add to your
message eg #flood
• Follow emergency agencies eg @QPSmedia
• Follow the media eg @abcradio
• Ask everyone to retweet your message – in
your message, “please RT”
• Keep your message to 100 characters so
people can add their message to the RT
• Put the link on your website home page!
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45. Wiki Tips – other topics
• Amplifying the message of official agencies
• Live monitoring of social media
• Crowdsourcing
• Using real time online maps

46. How?
• Driven from QLD
• Emergency 2.0 Wiki Working Group
• National Governance – to be representative of
emergency, government, community & business
• Alliances (to include)
• local – LGAQ, Volunteering QLD, EMPA, Rotary
Australia, Chamber of Commerce
• national – EMA, EMPA, Australian Red Cross, LGA,
Gov2.0 groups, AGIMO, Rotary
• international – NEMA, Crisis Commons, SMEM
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47. Project Approach
• Establish a framework – technology, content,
governance, stakeholder engagement, communications
• Establishing online presence – Twitter, LinkedIn, Ozloop
• Stakeholder Engagement & building networks
• Soft launch for collaborative input by stakeholders
• Consultation for public review
• Go live – ready for Cyclone, Flood, Bushfire Season
• Review – post implementation
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48. Stakeholder engagement & online presence

49. Key Stakeholders following us on Twitter
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50. How can I help?
• Help write content, or edit it
• Peer review and comment on discussions
around suggested content
• Help promote the Wiki to your networks
• Help us establish alliances
• Contribute to the forum, comment on the blog,
tweet!

51. Contact Us
LinkedIn: Government2.0 in Queensland
Twitter: @emergency20wiki
@gov2qld
Email: emergency20wiki@gmail.com
eileenculleton@gmail.com
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