One of the areas we are researching as part of the EU Research project into Food Risk and Benefits Communication (www.foodrisc.org) is how different countries (outside of the EU) are using social media as part of their crisis response and communications and the lessons we could learn especially arounds tools and processes.

A few years ago I was the Producer/Director on a video recording project of one of the largest peace time emergency exercise held in the UK since WWII. It was organised by the UKs Health Protection Agency (HPA) and involved hundreds of people from all the emergency services dealing with a collapsed building and a simulated biological/chemical leak in a motorway service station. A follow-on exercise was held where a hospital and local GPs surgery had to handle simulated casualties who were potentially and actually (in exercise terms!) contaminated and had started to present themselves or were ferried in by ambulance. We captured literally hundreds of hours of video footage to be used for future training and review/analysis of the exercises equipment, command and communication procedures. That gave me a real insight into the challenges the emergency services face in trying to find out what the situation is, what has caused it and how best to use the resources available and what additional or specialist resources are needed as well as the challenges of clear communication between multiple services over a wide area and trying to ensure the rescuers do not become a casualty statistic themselves.  (To see some still images of the exercise click here http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianjmoss/sets/72157605074153240/)  

From my experience on the HPA projects and other client video production work including Hampshire Fire and Rescue, the NHS, Ambulance Services and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency my interest in how social media can be used to practically help with rescue planning, co-ordination and communication was sparked.  

Whilst not immediately apparent there are many shared characteristics between an emergency and a food contamination scare in terms of communication to and from members of the public, access of accurate and upto date information and clear advice to the public in terms of their safety and well being .

Some useful information sources: 

An audio podcast interview with the Head of the US Federal and Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about the role of social media to help two way communication between the public and emergency services - http://www.directionsmag.com/podcasts/fema-chief-says-social-media-aid-disaster-response-wired/152214

A video of the Head of FEMA talking about the use of social media in Haiti by citizens and people directly effected to help the rescuers understand the issues and focus search and rescue resources http://www.eventuresincyberland.com/2011/02/using-social-media-for-emergency-response/

A blog posting summarising the use of Twitter in the recent Austrialian floods (http://www.parttimepolymath.net/masthead/archives/103)

A research paper into the use of Twitter in Haiti earthquake  http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/voluntweetersStarbirdPalen.pdf

A useful resource site for social media ‘best practice’ for Emergencies  http://www.sm4em.org/best-practices/