Emergency services need to exploit social media to help save lives and property in the event of a major disaster - or risk being left behind – recommends a report by NGIS Australia, which led a Government-funded investigation into the use of social media in emergency management.
Project leader Maurits van der Vlugt (http://twitter.com/Mvandervlugt) said social media and web 2.0 technologies have a pivotal role to play in future emergency information broadcasts to communities and rescue agencies, and should run in parallel with traditional channels provided by emergency services.
Messages of support from around the world were posted in near real time on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr in the aftermath of the Australian bushfires in Victoria last year, and more recently in the wake of the Haitian earthquake.
“With all that’s happening around Haiti right now, there is a rich pool of new media in action, with new technologies evolving and maturing at an astonishing rate – progress in the face of overwhelming loss and devastation,” Mr van der Vlugt said.
The Emergency 2.0 Australia Taskforce team found that social media and web 2.0 technologies offer a cost effective
mechanism to alert communities to time critical information through accessible and popular applications in every day use.
Mr van der Vlugt said the project team recommended establishing trials to exploit the full potential of C2A (Community to Agency) communication, using social network channels to crowd-source critical information from community sources.
The team also suggested future research and development initiatives should provide for an education and awareness programme on the role of social media in emergency management.
The project website at http://gov2em.net.au lists all the outcomes of the emergency project commissioned by the Government 2.0 Taskforce.