As Hurricane Gustav begins to bear down on the Gulf Coast, bright social media experts are quickly creating social networks in order to provide information, organize volunteers and assist those displaced from the storm.
Andy Carvin, along with a team of volunteers, has created the social network the Gustav Information Center on Ning.
The network includes just about every piece of information and media needed to assist with the hurricane. Some of them are; blog entries, links to other resources, a google map of evacuation routes, craiglists lists of volunteers, a twitter feed of hurricane information, photographs and videos from the Gulf Coast, and so much more.
If you want better information that you will get from Mainstream Media, join the network and obtain a more accurate picture of the situation. And, better yet, volunteer.
If we had had such robust social media tools three years ago, would we have used them to this extent? Or was the primary lesson learned three years ago from Hurricane Katrina that we can not count on our government and instead ordinary citizens must organize disaster relief efforts? Hurricane Katrina kicked me in the face as to how apathetic our government is toward ordinary citizens and I am SO glad that creative people like Andy Carvin are providing the resources and information that people need in times of crisis.
While I’ve browsed through Ning in the past (and created a profile on there in the presumption I’d participate in some community), I don’t really know its power. I hear that Second Life is similar, right?
Thanks for this link!
Ari Herzogs last blog post – Do You, like LinkedIn, Frown at Frolleagues?
What I’m interested in hearing about is how many people actually used these networks?
Having them set up is all well and good, but who in an emergency situation is going to visit ning or log onto Twitter?
Scams last blog post – Breaking News : New Lifeform Discovered In Space
@Ari – Thanks for visiting again. The hurricane information center was a really good use of Ning. In the past though, I have had trouble with Ning. It can be slow to load and hard to search in order to find networks in which I might be interested. I think the best way to try using it is to create a network but I haven’t thought of one to make yet.
I am familiar with Second Life but have never used it so I don’t know what it is like.
@Scam – People who aren’t in an emergency situation are the ones using the networks. I believe their primary use is to organize volunteers and relief efforts.
People in the crisis usually still have access to SMS but you are right they aren’t going to be using Twitter or reading blogs. So, the organizers were trying to pass the word about this site http://gustavtracker.appspot.com/. This would allow someone to send an SMS message to Twitter asking for help or stating that they are ok and then Twitter users would pass the message down the line until assistance was found. Are you familiar with the story of the blogger who was jailed in Egypt, sent an SMS to twitter, and pressure from the users passing along the message assisted with freeing him?
I think the use of social networks for emergency planning and disaster relief is still in it’s infancy but has a high potential. Many of us in the US also don’t want to feel helpless as we did 3 years ago when our government basically let New Orleans drown. We feel the need to do something so things don’t get so out of hand.
Ahh, I see that social media could serve a purpose, but I don’t see anyone choosing it as a means of asking for help, at least no yet. After all, if you have a net connection then chances are that phones will be working and they are much more likely to be used I would have thought.
I’d not heard of the Egyptian case, I’ll read about it when I get a chance.
“Many of us in the US also don’t want to feel helpless as we did 3 years ago when our government basically let New Orleans drown.” – not being American I don’t fully understand what you mean by this?
Scams last blog post – Top 10s – August 2008
Scam – Here is the link for the Egyptian case – http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/
Hurricane Katrina occurred three years ago and New Orleans was devastated. The government was not prepared and had an extremely delayed response time. The photo of Bush and McCain in the article shows that they were celebrating McCain’s birthday while thousands of people were waiting to be rescued.
There’s a Wikipedia article about this issue at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
I also have family in New Orleans so it affected me more than natural disasters usually do.
Scam, suppose you are a student, teacher, or passer-by on a college campus when you hear a gun shot. What do you do? Call 911 on your phone which is relayed from one PD to another? Do you have a walking internet connection and what would that do? What if you dial a 5-digit number on your cellphone or PDA, type a short 140-character message into the phone, hit send, and then the power of twitter and your followers can do all the work.
And stories like that.
Also, one of the ways how social media works (for me) is by bringing people and organizations together. I presume you are branding your company but it would be nice if I could call you Tom, Dick, or Jane, and not Scam. Something to think about
Ari Herzogs last blog post – Do You, like LinkedIn, Frown at Frolleagues?
“Scam, suppose you are a student, teacher, or passer-by on a college campus when you hear a gun shot. What do you do? ”
Erm.. run? :D
Seriously though I think perhaps the cultural differences between the US and the UK make a difference – obviously there wouldn’t be the gunshot in the first place and, secondly, if there was and someone dialled 999 then tactical firearms officers would respond in an incredibly short time because it would be such an unusual event.
Also, in my social group at least, if someone relayed such a story via social media then it would not be taken seriously – everyone would think it was a hoax!
Tom, Dick and Janes last blog post – Medicaid Fraud
Umm … sorry. Apparently WordPress doesn’t like Tom, Dick and Jane and the comment has been sitting in spam for awhile. Glad I checked it before I deleted them.
“..but it would be nice if I could call you Tom, Dick, or Jane, and not Scam”
– sorry – warped sense of humor here! :D
Lees last blog post – Medicaid Fraud
Oh – I know that’s why you did it ;-)
Although Ari does have a point that names are better. I know your first name but not everyone else who comments does. Now wasn’t it easier when you were the only person who commented on this site ;-)
And your frequent name changes are making WordPress mark all your new comments as Spam. It’s a good thing I don’t get that much and it isn’t hard to weed through it and find the real comments.
It’s much better when there’s more people commenting, believe me.
And, you never know, I might be a spammer after all! :D
Lees last blog post – Medicaid Fraud
Oh – I meant it’s a good thing there isn’t a lot of spam. The elephant site gets tons. I love comments.