In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Andy Carvin, the social media strategist at National Public Radio, has been a pioneer in the use of technology by the public and others in responding to disasters. At the TED-NYED conference in New York, Carvin gave an interesting presentation, “The New Volunteers: Social Media Disaster Response And You,”

He offers a nice overview of the evolution of citizen involvement using new technology to respond to major emergencies — from the 1995 Kobe earthquake to 9/11 to the Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Gustav up through the recent Haiti disaster during which organizations like Open Street Maps and Crisis Commons mobilized citizen volunteers to use (and create) technology applications to help in the response.

This may be a familiar story to some readers, but it’s worth watching for anyone interested in a good  summary of this topic. The video is below and the accompanying slides can be found here.

Andy Carvin’s presentation, “The New Volunteers: Social Media, Disaster Response And You”