Another Disaster Communications Tool

We’re still waiting on a good opportunity to take the Red Cross Twitter channel for a test drive, but it’s time to think even bigger.

My whole foray into social media was my desire to be intensely lazy use technology to make my job easier. The initial frustration was the deluge of messages that came faster than they could be processed. There has to be a way to automate.

The Red Cross Twitter channel is designed to push information out. For instance, those on the interstate evacuation routes might text “FOLLOW REDCROSS” to 40404, and essentially sign up for Twitter on the fly. They might get updates about where the nearest open shelters are, or where they can seek additional information. Then by sending “LEAVE REDCROSS” to 40404, they unsubscribe.

As useful as this might be, it’s only feasible in a real-time event as an outgoing tool. No time to read incoming messages. (You’ll notice I am not following anyone else. This is not a game to see how many friends the Red Cross has. Someone who subscribes to the wrong RSS feed and gets inundated with Friend updates will quickly tune out.) No, we need another tool for incoming messages, and the most pressing need involves removing uncertainty about the safety of loved ones.

During Hurricane Katrina, there were several organizations that ran to the void, trying to establish online databases with information about disaster victims’ safety. Ignoring for a moment the privacy and security concerns, it’s just not smart to have eight competing databases. I register in three of them, and you check two I didn’t know about. In that spirit, the American Red Cross and several other organizations combined their resources and expertise, and we now have a consolidated effort: Safe and Well.

Safe and Well is made up of two parts: a place for evacuees to register themselves, and a search enabled side for loved ones seeking information. There were a lot of internal conversations about privacy. For instance, what if Constance Frey wants her parents to know she’s okay, but doesn’t want her abusive estranged boyfriend to find her? Essentially, those searching will find nothing more than a simple note:

• I am safe and well.
• Family and I are safe and well.
• Currently at shelter.
• Currently at home.
• Currently at friend/family member/neighbor’s house.
• Currently at a hotel.
• Will make phone calls when able.
• Will email when able.
• Will mail letter/postcard when able.

To get even that much, they’ll need to know one of her pre-disaster contact numbers or her address.

So the trick here is how to use an open platform like Twitter to handle incoming information, both in volume and in terms of data security and personal privacy. Here are two answers.

1. Let’s say my friend Kami gets flooded out in San Antonio, and is rushing to a shelter where there is no power. She can call or send a text message to her friend Josh in Orlando, and ask him to register her for Safe and Well. This is a preferred method.
2. Let’s say she doesn’t know anyone on the outside she can trust with her information. She can send a direct message to safeandwell on Twitter. Since those notifications would only come to Red Cross employees (like myself, or others I share the password with) we can start an entry from there. The message (sent to 40404) would be
   

   D safeandwell Firstname Lastname contact# address ‘I am safe and well’

Now, it’s not quite a perfect system, but it is better than nothing. Maybe someone smarter than I am can come up with a way to put the instructions on the back of a business card. Maybe a bunch of you can add your suggestions or improvements to the system.

Maybe a couple of you well step up and register as official Red Cross volunteers, so I can have someone I trust to whom I can delegate this sort of monitoring, troubleshooting, and data entry.

Comments are open, and as always they are free. Discuss.

[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, American Red Cross, disaster, communications, disaster communications, Safe and Well, Twitter, Hurricane Katrina[/tags]