Social Media: Haiti's First Responder

Social Media: Haiti's First Responder
- 1 Mar 2010
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View more documents from Conrad Lisco.
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over 2 years ago Nahum Gershon responded:

Conrad, great briefing on the power of social media in harnessing the human spirit & capabilities in informing the world and in organizing relief services. This is one of the main reasons that social media is here to stay!!
Nahum

over 2 years ago Ryan_Drumwright (Twitter) responded:

Nice job Conrad! The % of Haitians w/internet access was staggering.

over 2 years ago W David Stephenson responded:

I definitely agree -- I've been saying since shortly after 9/11 that the advent of robust mobile devices should make the public real partners in disaster and homeland security preparation and response. However, there's another aspect to why the social media are so helpful in disasters. Academic research @ the Universities of Colorado and Delaware have shown that people do not panic in disasters, but when advance plans fail (as they almost always do: Mother Nature is capricious..), what saves the day is "emergent behavior," the cumulative, effective response that is built from many simple steps by individuals (i.e., the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
If that's true for perfect strangers, those drawn together in virtual communities by social media have an advantage: they've already built trusting relationships before the disaster. I know that in my own case, my best friends, almost without exception, are people (some of whom I've never met in the concrete world) who I've shared so much with on Twitter over the past 4 years (I was surprised 2 find recently I was user #262!). We don't have to introduce ourselves to strangers when everything goes to hell in a handbasket: we can start right away to cobble together an effective response. Not only that, but we've also learned what each one's strengths and weaknesses are, so we can maximize our best traits and minimize our shortcomings. Sweeet!

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