The Social Good Summit

https://conversationprism.com/

The above graphic represents the ubiquitous nature of social media applications while illustrating the pervasiveness with which they've permeated almost every aspect of our lives.

It's clear that social media has revolutionized the way we tell stories, report the news, relate to one another, build community, and help one another, and with the understanding that this is only the beginning, it's important that we ask how these tools can help create solutions to some of the larger problems we face. Solutions like Crisis Cleanup are an example of how properly leveraged social media coupled with existing institutions within our social fabric (google maps, 2-1-1, etc), can provide the foundation upon which new ideas and solutions to persistent problems can be created.

In that vein, I'm pleased share that I have been accepted to attend the Social Good Summit, a conference that provides an opportunity to talk about the intersection of big ideas and new media in an effort to create solutions to some of our most pressing social challenges. The speaker power at this event is quite impressive and while I wish I was invited as a panelist, I have the privilege of attending as a member of the press representing this blog. (horn toot)

With sponsors like the UN Foundation, The United Nations Development Program, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this event is an exciting opportunity...Jeremey, what do you mean by exciting opportunity?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

This is an exciting opportunity due to the diverse and influential crowd attending this event. This can be an opportunity to advocate for the increase of focus and resources available to build resilience and preparedness given the increased frequency and intensity of events that are impacting our communities. Given that real change takes time and my time will be limited, I'm asking for your help.

If you were attending this event what are the sorts of questions you would ask? While I look funny dressed up, this is an opportunity to advocate on behalf of our community of practice and your input is valued. I believe that we can get more out of this event if more perspectives are included in the mix--think of it like crowdsourcing to get the best possible outcome.

So, based on the outline below what would you ask? 

The Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place, and then to translate that potential into action.

I don't know what to expect but with our collective brain trust it's my hope to generate conversations around issues important to us as a community of practice.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Coordinating Cleanup 1.0

Crisis Cleanup has a great logo

Nonprofits setting up operations in Colorado are abuzz with talk of Crisis Cleanup, the brain child of Aaron Titus, a guy who said "there's got to be a better way to organize some of the chaos of early recovery cleanup" (I made that quote up) and created a tool that's doing just that. He created a tool that works to advance how nonprofit organizations engage in cleanup activities following a disaster.

The cliff's notes version is that Crisis Cleanup is a google map populated with cleanup needs represented by pins dropped on the location of said need. Registered organizations can claim pins so that other responding groups don't accidentally send teams to a home that has already received help. There is a reporting aspect that accompanies this so that hours can be tracked and volunteer numbers logged, an innovative solution that helps manage the nonprofit aspect of early recovery cleanup following disasters.

I had an opportunity to be a user of the system after Hurricane Sandy as part of its beta testing during response and saw the potential. Since then the system has been implemented several times with what I hope are fixes and advances making it easier to use and more comprehensive from a data capture perspective.

Screen shot of the user interface -- Superstorm Sandy

With the system being used in Colorado to coordinate nonprofit cleanup activities, I'm interested in hearing from anyone who uses it to manage their infield work flow to get your thoughts on the system within the context of cleanup coordination.

And while I'm optimistic about how Crisis Cleanup can work to provide the autonomy nonprofits seek while working within a defined system, I feel that it's important to remember the need to be inclusive.

Spontaneous response in disaster and the substantial impact it has during early recovery activities is no longer an ignorable trend. Social media is being used to organize armies of volunteers to aid in response and recovery, and it's happening as I write this in Colorado. As a community of practice we must strive to include as many of these emergent groups as possible in response coordination. Not only is it key in working towards enacting the "all of nation" or "whole of community" approach to preparedness and response as outlined by Presidential Policy Directive 8, but its important for unity of effort to provide better coordinated service delivery to those affected.

As it stands the crisis cleanup tool is largely for vetted organizations, those with a response history or those who are "known" entities. And while I understand why the system is setup this way, to help ensure consistency in the work done on behalf of homeowners, I feel that there is a solution that can set an expectation as to the level of work needing to be done, while encouraging broader inclusion of locally responding groups.

All Disasters Are Local, a tired expression but one that holds truth; and while Crisis Cleanup has taken a monumental step in unifying early recovery cleanup from a nonprofit perspective, I believe that there is work to be done to ensure access to this tool makes its way down to the emergent groups on a local level. For it's those groups that have the biggest stake in ensuring that their communities make a full recovery and as such rightfully deserve to be included within the broader coordinated effort.

A tip of my cap to you Mr. Titus, I look forward to seeing how we can evolve the model moving forward.

Social media and Calgary Flooding

The hashtag #SMEM (social media emergency management) is flourishing on twitter. I've mentioned VOSTs (virtual operation support teams) that have formed in response to the need for remote support in communities overwhelmed due to infrastructure and personnel limitations. I've talked about the proliferation of technologies that organizations are utilizing and the questionable impacts they're having on nonprofit response, but I haven't talked about Canada. Canada got sucker punched earlier this year by unforeseen flooding, a north-of-the-boarder Sandy if you will. Well just as everyone went agog over the social media stats for Sandy here is the first consolidated dataset on social media use during the flooding in Calgary.

Social media and its ability to empower an organized voluntary response is no longer debatable...it's time we re-wrote some volunteer management annexes and figured out how to truly integrate local response (grassroots efforts) into the broader context of emergency management.

Thanks to Inbound Interactive for putting this together...