In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Though yesterday’s launch of National Preparedness Month was filled with a lot of great activities taking place throughout the U.S., it also a day that underscores the shortcomings in the nation’s public readiness efforts — because also yesterday Japan held its annual Disaster Prevention Day during which 670,000 citizens participated in emergency drills in Tokyo and 34 [...]

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The U.S. State Department and the Ad Council have just released tv and radio public service announcements asking Americans to contribute to Pakistan flood relief. In one of the video PSAs, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton says:
Currently more than 20 million Pakistanis have been affected by the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. The pictures we see [...]

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Another major international disaster and another swift international response from the citizen volunteers of CrisisCommons.
CrisisCommons, as has been covered frequently on the blog, is, according to its website, “a global network of volunteers who help people in times and places of crisis. If you can use the Internet, a word processor, a cell phone or [...]

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The U.S. State Department’s blog, Dipnote, this weekend is promoting text donations for Pakistan flood relief. It is also asking for public input on this question: How can we encourage the international community to maintain focus on natural disaster response?
According to the post:
How you can help: …Please visit the links below for more information about [...]

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A new study  says “individualistic” Americans may be too optimistic about the risk of disasters, including terrorism, as opposed to more “interdependent” cultures such as in Asia. The report argues that the perception of disaster risk is influenced by culture more than experience.
It may help explain why many Americans still do not prepare for disasters (and, [...]

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With Pakistan suffering its worst flooding in 80 years, I wanted to bring to your attention a web-based, civilian-created effort to raise money and be an information conduit both inside and outside the country on the disaster.
The Pakistan Crisis Wiki was created in 2005 by Pakistani native Sabahat Ashraf, a technical writer living in Silicon Valley, in [...]

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In the Boston Globe’s Sunday Travel section today, there’s an article about preparing for emergencies, including weather, health, politics and security, while going abroad. The piece notes:
Traveling should be fun-filled and worry-free. But vacationers leave behind the predictability and convenience of home. Travel can be complicated by unforeseen crises — medical emergencies, canceled flights, lost luggage, [...]

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In the wake of the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, the U.S. State Department’s blog, DipNote, yesterday asked the public for ideas on “What Are Innovative Ways The International Community Can Respond To Natural Disasters”.
The post notes that Americans have been donating to Pakistan relief from their cell phones, by texting the word “SWAT” to the [...]

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I wanted to post an article from Mashable about CrisisCommons and its first CrisisCongress which took place last week. I was lucky to participate in the inaugural Crisis Camp last year and have been incredibly impressed by its meteoric development and impact here in the U.S. and in locations around the world as it looks [...]

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BBC News has an interesting article “Making Sense Of The Web During A Crisis,” about SwiftRiver, an open source software platform that uses algorithms and crowdsourcing to validate and filter news. It is being developed by a partnership including Ushahidi and will be released in beta version later this summer.
According to the SwiftRiver website:
User-generated content is [...]

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