Additional resources and ideas about the use of blogs during disasters:

Rex Hammock puts it very concisely in this post, “Hyper-Local Blogging:

In times of local crisis, the importance of having an active blogging community becomes very apparent. There are so many people outside an area who are desperately seeking information — any information — from the ground, so even if power and web-access is out in a city, the information being shared is much needed. (One of the reasons I blog hurricanes is that all of my family (including inlaws) live within one-mile of the Florida or Alabama gulf coasts.) In addition to the standard “meet-ups” that are popular among bloggers here in Nashville and other cities, I suggest that some emergency preparation might be a good thing for bloggers to discuss before the need arises. I’d be happy to point to any examples or list of emergency-blog planning suggestions that exist. Feel free to e-mail me some, or add to the comments below. And I’d be happy to assist in helping Nashville bloggers organize for such an effort.

Josh Hallett makes the case that public information officers should familiarize themselves with local bloggers and make use of them during emergencies. (Hallett was, I think, thinking about government PIO’s – but since so much of the private sector can be involved in crises, private organizations big enough to have a public information function, in my view, can take similar advantage of the blogosphere). From PIOs – Add Bloggers to your Media Distribution List for Disasters & Emergencies

My wife was the public information officer (PIO) for our local county for a number of years. During hurricanes or other emergency situations (remember Y2K) she would spend countless hours at the emergency operations center doing media updates.Like Rex, I feel it’s important for PIOs to be connected with their local blogging community. When a PIO sends out an update to the media they should include local bloggers. The best case scenario would be for the county/local agency to have a blog/rss feed of such content.

I was asked by one power company spokesperson, “if you don’t have power how can you blog or read a blog?” Easy. During Charley last year I:

– used my Blackberry to browse the internet and post (like Kaye is). One of the benefits of my Blackberry last year was that it’s GSM based rather than TDMA or CDMA. Nobody else in the area could get calls out, but I always could.

– Even with no power I was able to login via dial-up on my laptop and browse the web as long as my battery lasted. Worse case scenario I could start the car up and charge the battery via the cigarette adapter.

There are other issues as well. My neighbors knew I was getting updates online so I became the local news source. Getting a message to me helped inform 20-30 people. The other factor is relatives and friends not in the disaster area. I might not be able to view a power company web site but I can call somebody who can.

Now the question to all the local PIOs….can you list the prominent bloggers in your area?

Calvert Jones and Sarai Mitnick’s

article, Open Source Disaster Recovery: Case Studies of Networked Collaboration, is excellent, detailed, and thoughtful. Published on (in?) First Monday. Jones and Mitnick are very clear-eyed about the pitfalls and limitations of ad hoc networks – what NPS has referred to as “Hastily Formed Networks.

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