New Global Emergency 2.0 Wiki Launched

Emergency 2.0 Wiki assembles global experts to empower communities to use social media

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Brisbane, Australia – A new, free global resource for using social media in emergencies was launched today in time for the Southern Hemisphere summer season of floods, cyclones and bushfires and the Northern Hemisphere winter season of snow storms and blizzards.

The Emergency 2.0 Wiki will act as a global hub for all sectors of the community to access information and links to resources for using social media and new technology in emergencies.

Speaking at a Gov2.0 QLD event at Microsoft Brisbane, celebrating gov2.0 initiatives in the state, Founder and Project leader Eileen Culleton said the vision of the Emergency 2.0 Wiki was to build resilience by empowering communities with the knowledge to use social media and networks in emergencies.

The Emergency 2.0 Wiki provides the ‘know how’ and it’s formatted for mobile phones. So wherever you are, if you have internet access, you can quickly find tips on sourcing local real time emergency information, how to share that information with others, and how to contact emergency agencies via social media.

You can also link to emergency smartphone apps that could save your life.

The Wiki provides practical guidelines to assist the emergency sector, government, community and business to use social networks, crowdsourcing and crisis mapping for emergency management and business continuity planning.

The guidelines cover a wide variety of topics, including:

Establishing social media channels
Crisis communications
Business continuity
Employee engagement
Risk and mitigation checklists
Policies and Procedures

Contributors from many countries and industry sectors are involved in the Emergency 2.0 Wiki initiative. Reference group leaders include:

*USA - Kim Stephens, Research Associate at Claire B. Rubin & Associates, author of idisaster2.0 blog

*Canada - Patrice Cloutier, emergency management communications advisor for government

*Belgium - Philippe Borremans, online crisis communications consultant, author of Conversationblog.com

*Italy - Daniele Malerba, IT Consultant to United Nations World Food Programme

*NZ – Alicia Palmer, Emergency Management Officer at Waimakariri District Council

*Malaysia - Professor Alan Oxley, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

*Australasia - Paul Trebilcock, Business Continuity Institute QLD Chapter, and Director at JBT Global

*Australasia - Kerry McGoldrick, Risk Management Institute of Australasia (RMIA) NSW Chapter

Core Facts

The Emergency 2.0 Wiki is a free global resource available to all through the ongoing input of professionals from across all industry sectors.
This new collaborative model aims to facilitate global sharing and advancing knowledge on utilising web2.0 and social media in emergency management.
It is a voluntary initiative of the Gov 2.0 QLD Community of Practice. Its impetus was to leverage the learnings from the use of social media during the devastating floods and Cyclone Yasi that swept across Queensland early in 2011.

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Relevant Files

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Quotes

We have witnessed from the unprecedented disasters that swept our globe this year that information saves lives and in an emergency every second counts.

Eileen Culleton

Thanks to the instant, amplifying power of social media and our networks, we can all play a role in saving our own lives and the lives of others. The key is knowing how.

Eileen Culleton

We are all very happy to contribute to a global effort with the potential to help people all over the planet. Social networks and digital technologies are force multipliers that enhance our collective ability to respond to disasters.

All of the volunteers working on the wiki