Public Health Affairs

Category: Uncategorized

  • Social Media During Crisis Response Group Discussion Transcript

    I think that the concept of people sharing their experiences in real time through web enabled communications is something we’ll be dealing with for the long term. As Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said, and I quoted him in this blog posting, “we all as an emergency management community have to understand that there will never be again a major event in this country that won’t involve public participation, and the public participation will happen whether it is managed or not.

    via emforum.org

    Definitely click the link above. It is a transcript of the EMForum.org Virtual Forum Group Discussion on Social Media During Crisis Response. Conducted on October 27, the transcript was just released today and gives a great overview of the state of social media in emergency response. There are some great nuggets in there, including how best to utilize volunteers to help with public information on social media channels. Thanks to Patrice Clouthier for passing this along.

  • ICS Forms on an iPad

    One of my money wasting hobbies is buying every app in the Apple App Store that proclaims to do PDF annotations.

    iAnnotate. GoodReader. LifeForms. You name it, I’ve tried it. None work how I want them to.

    What I want to do is to have ICS forms in PDF on my iPad. And be able to fill them out on the iPad. How nice would it be to draw up a quick ICS 201 on the fly?

    I take mine to every meeting I go to nowadays and everyone from docs to university security directors to fire chiefs has one and they all use ’em in the field. So, there’s definitely an audience.

    For all of our sakes, someone please make a PDF filling out app. And if you could preload it with ICS forms, that’d be super. Thanks!

  • On Timidity and PR

    The 2010 general election season has passed and was a–some would say–stunning repudiation of one party. “America has spoken,” the headlines announce.

    But, what did we say? The easy answer is Democrats, boo, Republicans, yay! But I wonder. Can a nation that resoundingly elected Democrats across the nation just two years ago completely flip the other way, and reject them in a historic fashion today?

    I’m no political analyst (I don’t even play one on TV), so my interpretation is little more than conjecture (and a bit of a search for a silver lining, as a seeming repudiated person).

    I agree with the headlines and polls that say Americans are frustrated. Hell, they were frustrated two years ago, four years ago. So, nothing’s changed in that light. The constant isn’t the political party, it’s the state of the nation, the government.

    People voted in 2008 for change with a capital “C,” and a Gotham font. I think they feel they didn’t get it. The news reports were full of “Obama compromises,” and “No deals dones,” and “Still no progresses.” So, if the Democrats can’t do change, maybe the Republicans can.

    The thing is, and this is how I pull this away from the political world, there was a TON of change. Ask any Republican commentator. Health care, Wall Street, GM, you name it. Why the disconnect?

    I argue that one of the most media savvy Administrations in history failed to communicate their much vaunted change. From a governmental standpoint, maybe that’s for the best, just concentrating on governing, but the whole purpose of this blog is that what you say is as important as what you do.

    This is similar to what local governments do. Lots of great work (though this isn’t necessarily a reflection of the President’s policies), not a lot PR. Nobody saying what’s been done. No good stories.

    Is your PR timid? Are your good works going unnoticed?