For many years, formal and controlled notification systems were one of the only ways to rapidly disseminate information during a crisis -- then came the rise of social media. Today, in one way or another, social media has become a vital part of any organization's crisis communication toolkit. To investigate the fact that social media has such a prominent role in crisis communications, one of our often referenced websites --- Continuity Insights --- recently conducted a survey of more than 250 organizations to determine how social media and notification systems are incorporated into crisis … [Read more...]
Crisis Communications at Penn State
November 10, 2011 By 1 Comment
From a human concern perspective, and first and foremost, our staff supports any and all efforts that reach out to and fully address the needs of the victims in the recent news story concerning the Penn State University child sexual molestations case. Our staff is also in full agreement with a statement in a recent article written by Joe Flach, “….it is especially disturbing to realize that so many of the victims could have been spared this status had the individuals who became aware of these crimes come forward with what they saw and/or were made aware of…” This posting also … [Read more...]
Emergency Reporting Smartphone App
August 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As part of this website’s mission to keep our readers current on developments concerning business continuity and compliance related topics, this posting will focus on the emergency or crisis communication and management aspects of an organization or communities’ continuity plan. Emergency management and first responder disaster recovery team members rely on receiving current notices of disaster related events such as when a tornado leaves a path of destruction or a fire engulfs a home. And most likely, today, you can be sure that citizens with a cellphone camera will capture pictures … [Read more...]
Emergency Reporting Mobile Application Tool Introduced
July 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A one-year old company called Elerts has unveiled a system that’s designed to harness mobile and social technologies to speed the flow of information between citizens and emergency workers during a crisis. The system involves free mobile applications—an iPhone app is available now, and Android and iPad apps will be available in the next few weeks—that eyewitnesses can use to report incidents and get public-safety alerts. And Elerts is offering a management console for municipalities, security firms and universities to receive the reports and disseminate warnings and … [Read more...]
New Disaster Recovery Communications App (“Democri-C”) Available
July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
One of our staff members recently came across an iPhone app called Democri-C™ that was developed from a community service project with the following Project Mission; “Communications is a right for every person. No person should be limited from communicating in crisis situations by money or politics. This project will deliver a free communications system for mobile and stationary users worldwide. Everyone who wants to use this network will be able to use it without charge.” There are both commercial and individual product applications available --- Click here for more details and … [Read more...]
World Conference on Disaster Management Calls for Papers
October 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The 20th World Conference on Disaster Management (WCDM) will be held in Toronto, Canada from June 20-23, 2010. This event is regarded as the premier annual conference to attend if you want to hear all of the major global issues common to every aspect of disaster and/or emergency management. Currently the management of this WCDM Summit Series Conference is soliciting writers and abstracts for consideration to be presented and discussed at this conference. This call for papers requires that all abstracts be submitted by December 6, 2009 and should fit into one of the following six (6) … [Read more...]
