As the foundation of the information ‘superhighway’, broadband connectivity across the US (rural, urban, tribal, etc.) is a vital component of the critical infrastructure of our nation’s future communications and competitiveness – well done FCC maps and GIS team!
” They were the “riot commuters”, people who came from far and wide to take part in – or just watch – the disturbances across England. But did they really exist? How far did people actually travel?
Now we have the first answer: 2.2miles
According to analysis by the UK’s top transport data mapping company, ITO world – based on the Guardian’s database of riot-related court records – the average distance from home to where defendants were accused of a riot offence was just over two miles, or a half hour walk.
If the most likely road route was taken into account, that distance rose to 2.6 miles.
That varies between cities – in Manchester, the average from home to offence location was 2.8 miles. In Birmingham, the average was 2.9 miles and in Nottingham, 2.6.
In London, people were closer to home: 1.5 miles in Peckham and 2.2 miles in Brixton. But those accused of riot-related offences in suburban Ealing and Croydon were 2.7 miles and 2.3 miles.”
Via the National Science Foundation (@NSF), using advanced sensor technologies (i.e. mobile accelerometers,, GPS, WiFI, Bluetooth, etc.) to track first responders INSIDE of buildings during disasters – aka the ‘holy grail’ of HLS/EM GEOINT since 9/11 -
On Wednesday November 10, 2011 a community of emergency management practitioners in collaboration with a volunteer research team at CNA, released a report of the findings of the March 2011 Social Media in Emergency Management Camp. During this event emergency managers and practitioners gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using social media and other emerging technologies in emergency management. The primary objective of the gathering was to capture best practices, challenges, future engagement and training opportunities.
SMEM Camp event brought together more than 150 members of the U.S. emergency management community convened to discuss how social media and emerging technologies are affecting response operations. Findings of this event, along with additional collaboration with the community, has yielded the first independent, community-led report reflecting the needs and challenges of our nation’s emergency services systems ability to leverage social media tools to support emergency management functions, not only during crisis events but during preparedness, recovery and mitigation efforts.
The participants and researchers collaborated with hopes to share an independent and grassroots practitioner perspective which can to shed light on current opportunities and challenges with regards to use of social media across the entire emergency management spectrum. To view the report and its resources you can click to http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/SMEM_Initiative or the below links:
Social Media in Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise Report: http://scr.bi/uy5H0w
SMEM Report Factsheet: http://scr.bi/ts1fFP
SMEM Report Annex B: Virtual Operations Support Group/Teamhttp://scr.bi/VOSGTConcept
SMEM Report Annex C: Social Media in Emergency Management: the Canadian experiencehttp://scr.bi/SMEMCanada
About the SMEM Initiative
The Social Media in Emergency Management Initiative “SMEM” is an informal network of emergency management practitioners who seek to explore best practices and bridge social media in emergency management. SMEM seeks to build a common understanding and “experience exchange” to support the use and inclusion of social media, public data and technology innovation to support mission objectives of emergency management to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disaster. To join the conversation, visit the #SMEM hash tag and be sure to visit the #SMEMchat each Friday at 12:30PM EST where there is a live discussion. Check out news and archive topics at at www.sm4em.org and wiki.crisiscommons.org and be sure to join the practitioner email group at http://groups.google.com/group/smem.
To submit a formal service request to NYC, use 311. For emergency assistance, call 911. For more information about how the City is responding to the storm, visit: http://www.nyc.gov/severeweather
Info4Disasters.org launched it’s new website this past week. A virtual EOC for Hurricane Irene was created last night for sharing information with the public & colleagues.
And a quote that seems idyllic and possibly naive to Norwegian Americans -
“I would prefer to live in a society where police normally work unarmed,” said Johannes Knutsson, a professor of police research at the Norwegian Police University College.
Though graphic, the above aerial image from news helicopters reinforces the fact that the police, SWAT and counter-terrorism first responders were woefully unprepared and slow in their response. Their use of an overloaded boat in a country that daily flies thousands of oil workers via jet helicopters to offshore oil rigs will surely be a lesson learned in the forthcoming after action reports and inquiries – per the NYTimes article above -
” It took police SWAT units more than an hour to reach the camp, on Utoya Island, after reports of the shooting came in. Officers had to drive to the shore across from the site of the shooting attack, and use boats to get to the island. A police helicopter was unable to get off the ground; news crews that reached the island by air could only watch as the gunman continued the massacre. ”
Tragic loss of the one onsite first responder/police officer ( Trond Berntsen ), who was unarmed and was the step-brother of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit .
