SMEM Initiative

Social Media in Emergency Management Initiative

The Social Media in Emergency Management Initiative “SMEM” is an informal network of Cross-functional disciplines, including emergency management practitioners, Virtual Operations Support Team Volunteers, First Responders, and practitioners in academia, 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, behavioral science, public data and technology innovation to support mission objectives of emergency management to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disaster.

The overarching goals of SMEM as an open community are to document and share social media best practices within the practitioner field of emergency management; to help frame policy development, operations and other augmentations of support within domestic crisis management systems; and to accelerate and amplify the incorporation and engagement with social media and accessible technologies within the broader emergency management community. The community will do this by establishing SMEM collaboration processes, including ad-hoc small multi-discipline workgroups to support coordination efforts, recruitment into the community, monthly conference calls, bi-annual in-person meetings, and reaching out to garner support and augment existing efforts. For an overview you can also check out the SMEM Factsheet.

In March 2011, SMEM gathered together to host its first gathering in collaboration with NEMA at their Mid-Year Conference. 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. A volunteer research team led by CNA with support from CrisisCommons was conducted. Initial findings from this event can be found online with a full report released on November 10, 2011 entitled, Social Media in Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise.

Join the SMEM Conversation

There are several resources which you can connect with SMEM Initiative. Follow the #SMEM on twitter and view their conversations online at www.sm4em.org and join the email group at http://groups.google.com/group/smem.

• Visit SM4EM.org [[1]] to view past #SMEMchat conversations and news
• Join the SMEM Email Group: [[2]]
• Check out the SMEM Twitter List: [[3]]
• Join the SMEM Contact List: [[4]]
• If you are a first responder, you can also Join the DHS First Responder Portal. This is a DHS First Responder Communities of Practice. If you wish to join contact Sara Cohen at scohen (at) ghinternational.com for an invitation.

SMEM Research

• Released November 10, 2011: Social Media in Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise

• Report Annex B: Virtual Operations Support Group/Team
• Report Annex C: Social Media in Emergency Management: the Canadian experience
• SMEM Camp Report Factsheet
• SMEM Camp Report Sample Blogpost
• Findings Briefing - Coming by November 12
• Talking Points for SMEM practitioners - Coming by November 12

SMEM Collaboration

• SMEM_Collaboration_Framework
• SMEM Twitter Chat: Occurs every Friday at 12:30PM via the #smemchat hashtag
• SMEM Monthly Calls - All calls will take place at 1PM EST / 10PM PST use the (619) 276-6333 Pin: 411911 If you are outside the US dial in through our phone bridge

• July, 21, 2011 - July Notes

• Incident/Exercise Events: VOST/G Skype Channel

SMEM Events

• SMEM Camp at NEMA - March 24, 2011
• SMEM Camp at UASI Conference - June 23, 2011
• SMEM Camp at IAEM (Proposed) - November, 2011

Participants

• City of Altus, Department of Emergency Management, Oklahoma
• City of Cupertino, California
• City of Seattle, Washington State
• City of San Francisco, California
• City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• City of Bellevue Washington State
• City of Plano, Texas, Department of Emergency Management
• CNA [[5]]
• Los Ranchos, New Mexico Emergency Management
• King County, Washington State
• Monroe County, New York
• San Diego County, California, Department of Emergency Services
• Johnson County, Kansas
• Clark County WA Regional Emergency Services Agency
• State of Arizona Department of Emergency Management
• Medical Reserve Corps
• Northlandfox
• Public Health Emergency Preparedness
• Stanford University
• Federal Emergency Mgmt Agency "FEMA"
• City of Bellingham, Washington State
• G&H International
• Salt Lake Urban Area, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Ontario, Canada

Archive

• March 17, 2011 - SMEM_Notes03172011 and Pirate Pad
• March 10, 2011 - SMEM_Notes03092011
• Friday, March 4, 2011 SMEM_Chat_030411 Topic: How to get from PDF/PPT to data streams & filtering (both internal & external)?
• March 3, 2011 - SMEM_Notes03032011
• February 24, 2011 - Reminder/Agenda [[6]] - Pirate Pad [[7]]
• February 17, 2011 - Agenda [[8]] SMEM_Notes_02172011 Pirate Pad[[9]]
• February 10, 2011 SMEM_Notes02102011 For Review SMEM Camp WikiBoard Pirate Pad [[10]]
• February 1, 2011 SMEM Chat Session hosted by @andrewjphelps SMEM Chat Fridays
• January, 31, 2011 - SMEM Content Call Pirate Pad [[11]] SMEM Camp Agenda and SMEM Participant Survey
• January 28, 2001 - #SMEM Twitter Chat [[12]]
• January 24, 2011 - Notes SMEM Notes 01242011 - Pirate Pad: [[13]] Google Doc Collaboration [[14]]
• January 22, 2011 - Notes SMEM Notes 01242011 - Pirate Pad: [15]
• January 14, 2011- Notes SMEM Notes 01142011, Pirate Pad [[16]] Scheduler [[17]])
• December 3, 2010 - Notes [[18]] Pirate Pad [[19]] Participants: [[20]]
• November 10, 2010 - Notes [[21]]
• EM Camp EM Barcamp - March 2011

Notes

• (12/8) EMI needs to revise G290 Basic #PIO & E388 Advanced PIO to include #SMEM content. Tweet by @N3rcc (@Disaster_Guy) [[22]]: [[23]]
• (12/9) Twitter needs to have verified accounts for Emergency Managers (like they do celebrities). Tweet by @Alisha_Beth: [[24]]

Support from CrisisCommons

• Coordination Liaison: Heather Blanchard, @poplifegirl, heather (at) crisiscommons.org, mobile 703-593-3823
• Research Team Lead: Clarence Wardell, Ph.D, @cwardell