WEBINAR: Practical Tools for Better Decision Making

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WEBINAR: Practical Tools for Better Decision Making

There are many different decision making tools available in the marketplace. These tools serve many purposes including information sharing, multi-criteria decision making and mapping.

On Wednesday, February 21, 2018, the National Information Sharing Consortium (NISC) is hosting a webinar that will provide an overview of several solutions G&H International (the company I work for) has developed to address specific client problems, which include:

  • Managing large-scale events;
  • Integrating data silos to enhance local decision-making; and
  • Developing a virtual exercise facilitation capability.

Here is the official blurb:

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Looking for My Virtual EM Conference Presentation?

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Looking for My Virtual EM Conference Presentation?

A couple weeks ago I informed you that I was participating in my first virtual conference. I am happy to report the conference was a resounding success and I had many people attend my session on data, technology and social media for disaster management.  

Unfortunately, I know many of you could not make it. Don't fret!  Check out the recorded video below...

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Information Requirements for Crisis Response – A Radio Perspective

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Information Requirements for Crisis Response – A Radio Perspective

I take the position that differing and contradictory viewpoints or perspectives help shed light on the many gaps and issues the industry faces. As such, I invited Terry Canning to provide a guest post in response to my recent post on redefining information requirements for disaster response. The views he expresses are his own. We welcome your thoughts in the comments below!

A couple of weeks ago Brandon wrote a thoughtful and thought-provoking blog describing how the information requirements for successful crisis response is being redefined.  He opened with “Developing information requirements for crisis response is a tedious and flawed process filled with many uncertainties…”  In a reply, I agreed with his postulation that it can be a tedious process (although I proposed fastidious rather than tedious) but disagreed that it is flawed.  Brandon then challenged me to write a response to fully explain my position on this issue – and I have accepted.

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Drone Feeds in Your Incident Management System?

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Drone Feeds in Your Incident Management System?

Drones are increasingly utilized for disaster response to support situational awareness. While they are a great tool, you must also properly integrate them into your operations, including your common operating picture or situational awareness/intelligence platform(s). Integrating drone feeds can present both operational and technical challenges. 

To address this, a NJ-based startup, Currant Inc., has developed a module that makes this integration easy with existing platforms. As an advisor to Currant, I am...

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UPCOMING: National Information Sharing Exercise

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UPCOMING: National Information Sharing Exercise

Information sharing exercises are rare and hard to put on, but are important to learning about how to improve information sharing in disasters. 

I am passing on this information about an upcoming information sharing exercise. Participation is open to many different organizations in the EM community and I encourage your to sign up and participate as soon as possible. The exercise will take place on May 11, 2016.

Below are the details that were provided to me:

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Building Better Disaster Response and Resilience with Information and Technology

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Building Better Disaster Response and Resilience with Information and Technology

For nearly five years I have been in higher education exploring how information and technology can improve disaster response and resilience. I have explored complex issues in great detail and I have learned a lot about the challenges and opportunities being faced by communities, organizations and people trying to leverage information and technology to better respond to disasters and build resilience.

But as I begin my transition back to the working world in the near future, I am forced to reflect on how I can apply this new knowledge to help address current problems while also preparing for an innovative future beyond what we can imagine today. I find myself writing about my philosophy on leveraging information and technology to improve disaster response and resilience...

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Feedback Needed on House Bill Proposing Social Media Research Project with Red Cross

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Feedback Needed on House Bill Proposing Social Media Research Project with Red Cross

Representative Thompson from Mississippi introduced a bill to the House of Representatives for the American Red Cross (ARC) to conduct a pilot research project to better leverage social media in disasters. The language in the bill is fairly vague, but I gather they want the ARC to implement something tangible and then evaluate its usefulness and performance. 

A study like this could be very useful to the wider social media in emergency management (SMEM) community. I particularly like how the bill incorporates the use of social media to help deliver response supplies to affected areas, a form of operational intelligence. And social media for operations and intelligence is the next frontier of social media research that will enable disaster decision makers to make better decisions faster and more accurately.  

I will be providing feedback on this bill and am curious about others' thoughts. What other components of SMEM should be researched? Will this be useful to you? How so?

You can track the bill here. Here are the quick and dirty details of the bill: 

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ISCRAM is Conducting Survey for Masters Degree on EM Information Systems

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ISCRAM is Conducting Survey for Masters Degree on EM Information Systems

ISCRAM, the international academic-practitioner group focused on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management is conducting a survey that may be of interest to many people. The survey is looking for input on a Master's level degree in EM with a concentration in information systems.  

I like ISCRAM's approach because it is not just about a particular type of technology such as GIS. Information systems for EM is sorely underrepresented in higher education and something I believe should be in included in every degree program.  This topic is also near and dear to my heart as I have not only written about information and technology in EM, but is also the subject of my research and future work. 

You need not be an expert in information systems, information, or technology to respond to this survey.  In fact a non-technical EM expert may provide some great feedback! 

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National Survey on R&D Priorities related to EOC Technology

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National Survey on R&D Priorities related to EOC Technology

I just came across this national survey on EOC technology.  The goal of the researcher is to establish research and development priorities.  I think this is a great idea and am glad to see it sponsored by some big names such as Harvard, AMTRAK, City of Los Angeles and the Department of Homeland Security.  The survey takes about 10 minutes.  Respond to the survey by clicking the button below or clicking this link.

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Are We Really Better Off with NY Offering a Free Common Disaster Platform?

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One of the glaring oversights in the pursuit of better interoperability and technology is the impact on market economics and innovation. NY just secured a contract with Buffalo Computer Graphics for its software to be freely available to NY counties in addition to it being used by NY State. But "free" isn't always best.  

When this occurs, companies like Buffalo Computer Graphics lack market incentive to continuously innovate because NY essentially "owns" or "runs" the market. As such, they do what NY tells them to do because the NY is their largest customer in the State. Additionally, NY State is now in a position to dominate user feedback to serve their own interests rather than locals. Simply said, incentives...

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Exercising Social Media - Review of and Q&A with EMSocialSimulation

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Exercising Social Media - Review of and Q&A with EMSocialSimulation

I was recently able to talk with both Corey Mulryan and Kyle McPhee from Hagerty Consulting, a well-known and fast growing emergency management consulting firm. Corey and Kyle have been leading an effort at Hagerty to develop a new social media exercise tool called EMSocialSimulation. This blog post contains a review of the tool as well as Hagerty's Q&A responses that provide additional information.  

EMSocialSimulation is a great social media simulation tool geared toward organizations and jurisdictions looking to train and exercise on beginner to intermediate social media capabilities at an affordable price. I was impressed...

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The Different Types of Technology for Disaster

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The Different Types of Technology for Disaster

A couple weeks ago I presented yet again on technology trends for disaster management. There seems to be a great demand to understand the technology landscape, namely what is out there.  I am glad to see this interest and want to share the work I have done.  

This week, I decided to create a dedicated webpage that will highlight the different technologies available.  I will continue to add new technologies as I come across them!  Feel free to send any leads you may have!

Also, check out the webinar I gave a couple weeks ago on Technology Trends in Disaster Management. Due to a technical glitch, the recording started a few minutes in...

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Disaster Technology is Built All Wrong

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Disaster Technology is Built All Wrong

Technology is a great asset for organizations. It facilitates communications and helps simplify complex tasks. This is great when you have complete or majority control of your operating environment, which is common in business and day-to-day operations.  

The problem in disaster response, though, is that unique and temporary organizational structures (e.g., ICS, JFO, ESF, etc.) form during a disaster that differ significantly from day-to-day operational structures. And roles within these temporary structures are filled by various people at different times, some professional and some volunteer.

For example,

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Talking Tech, #SMEM & Nepal with the Dukes of Hazards

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Talking Tech, #SMEM & Nepal with the Dukes of Hazards

On Tuesday, May 5th, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mitch and Andrew on their Dukes of Hazards Podcast. We talked about technology, social media, and the recent Nepal earthquake.  You can listen to the full Podcast here:

The Dukes of Hazards Podcast is put on by two very funny guys, Mitch Stripling and Andrew McMahan. Mitch is the Assistant Commissioner for Agency Preparedness & Response at the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene. Andrew is the Deputy Director of Emergency Operations Support for the NYC MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority).

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How Disaster "Mesh" Networks Provide Critical Value in Disasters [A Primer]

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How Disaster "Mesh" Networks Provide Critical Value in Disasters [A Primer]

Mesh networks have been around since the Department of Defense starting playing around with the idea of exchanging data and information in remote and infrastructure-compromised locations.  In recent years, mesh networks have been applied to disaster operations to enable the exchange of data and information regardless of Internet access.  

However, mesh networks are quite technical to setup and use.  A non-profit and open source technology called LDLN makes this a lot less technical so nearly anyone with some basic tech skills can set up and use a mesh network. Before I dive into how LDLN does this, I want to provide a primer on mesh networks, how they work, and the problems they solve.  

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