Developing Accurate, Complete and Current Information is a BAD Idea
This quote comes from a seasoned emergency manager in a recent Emergency Management Magazine article. Simply said, I don't agree with this key point. This kind of thinking leads us down a very dangerous path as it builds up false expectations and breads unrealistic thinking.
"Accurate, complete, and current" information is a nice goal, but entirely impractical and unrealistic in reality. In a recent email listserv conversation, a number of very experienced information managers discussed the difficulty in simply keeping up with the flow of information during a disaster. Perhaps this can be better achieved
3 Reasons Why Disaster Information is SO Important
For all the talk about about how we need better information delivered in better ways, I am struck by how easily people lose sight of why it is needed in the first place. After all, information that you don't need is really not helpful and can cause big problems. You can experience information overload, be distracted from your goals or tasks, or be unduly influenced by extraneous information.
Whether you are looking for information before, during or after disasters, there are three reasons why good information is important:
1) Situation Awareness - Information helps responders understand the situation
Information helps us identify operational gaps and enables us to effectively coordinate resources. Knowing the gaps along with what is going on and who is doing what is the heart of situational awareness. Without good awareness, though, it can feel like you are making a decision in a vacuum or hedging your bets on risky decisions more than you would like.
[NEW REPORT] Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support
After a long effort by the DHS Virtual Social Media Working Group (VSMWG), the report Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support was just released on Tuesday. I was very happy to be a part of developing this report among many other talented people.
The report also discusses issues that extend well beyond social media. The report highlights many of the issues we face related to disaster information management as a whole. If you have questions about big data, social data, data interoperability, this report is your primer.