Ebola crisis commons: good practices

The Health Care Assistant Teresa Romero was discharged and officially allowed to leave after a month in hospital, what she did to visit her mother in the North of Spain. The press conference to explain how she has recovered from the Ebola virus was quite different from the previous one, offered by the Government when the Health Care Assistant was contaminated by the virus. The director of Carlos III hospital congratulated the whole team for their work, which is always a good way to start. 

Good practices made their way (after the pressconference on October 7^th) and I’d like to point them out.

An expert in health alerts, spokesperson

The first achievement to me was the nomination of a technical spokesperson. Fernando Simón has proved to be a sensible man capable of offering credible, accurate and timely information. His reputation as a technical expert is out of doubt and this was exactly what was needed to stop rumor spawning rapidly. Simón already dealt with the Influenza A crisis in 2009-2010 and is an expert in health alerts, not a politician. So, his credibility is immaculate and his good disposition to attend the media anytime in plain and clear language has made of him the best possible spokesperson.

(Though there was some other technical spokesperson, like Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, Simón is nowadays the most popular.)

Fernando Simón, Spokesman of the special committee for the ebola virus management

A single message

Once you have a single spokesperson it is much easier to have a single message. The media know who to ask and that what he says is the official version, so there is no need to search information somewhere else. This fact, besides what I explained above, leaves rumor out of place. When the information is timely, accurate and credible there is no place for rumor.

The same applies to citizens, who are also eager for information and have a right to know.

@Info_Ebola_Es, a  Twitter official account to pull information

@Info_Ebola_Es Twitter account is, to me, the best tool to stop rumor spreading through social media. If you want to stop rumor going viral in Twitter, use Twitter. The official account, set on October 14^th (and already verified by Twitter) is an official place where it is possible not only to find last minute information but also resources, videos, links, FAQ, recommendations and all the information related to the Ebola virus inside and outside Spain.

Again, official, credible, accurate and trusted information. A one stop shop that makes unnecessary to go somewhere else to search information. If we admit that you must feed the information beast regularly, nothing better than a good big store where everything is at hand.

What is more, @Info_Ebola_Es is a place where the citizens can address the experts directly, ask their questions, have them answered and pull information. Let's not forget that Twitter is a two way channel. Unilateral information of traditional media is not enough (though it is relevant) in this new communications’ era, where nothing is more important for citizens than being capable of getting in touch directly with the source of information. 

Again, if I get what I want (certainty), It would not be necessary to go and search somewhere else.

To sum up, we have moved from improvisation to a 360 degree strategy, and the results are what is expected during a crisis.

Any more good practices I may miss?

MIT Laboratory for Social Machines, a bet to avoid a mayor emergency in Twitter

The MIT Media Lab announced the creation of the Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM), whose main goal would be the creation of programs aimed to develop collaborative technologies to tackle complex social problems, as you can read here. This would be great news for the emergency management world as long as Twitter itself developes new technologies  capable of detecting a big streaming growing up in Twitter. Once we have this problem solve, it would turn into the best tool for PIOs to control rumors when a disaster strikes. If we admit that Twitter is the biggest web of reporters existing ever (with all their drawbacks) and that it offers a synchronized experience, as @dkroy explained in #TATGranada2014, there is an urgent need to put an order in this huge stream of information. We’ll try to explain in this post (co written with @LuisSerranoR) why and how this new tool may help.

It is true that there are some ways to monitor conversation in social media (we are talking about Twitter basically here) when a disaster strikes. We can add a column either in Hoosuite or Tweecked with a Hashtag (ie: #Sandy, #yycflood) and this helps to monitor the conversation. I always tell my students that a tweet without a Hashtag is like going to a Big Store without a directory indicating you where the goods are. If you want to buy shoes you go to the shoe section- not to the bakery. So if you want to follow the news of a Hurricane your follow the HT with its name.

We could also follow the official source of information (usually the Government, local authority, and so on) or a list of influencers and people we trust as a reliable source of information, but still, we cannot stop rumors because we lack relevant information: where and when (the exact time) the tweet was posted being the more important. Moreover, we need to detect the rumor going viral from the very beginning.

Time is relevant to stop rumors going viral

The thing is we don’t have any app capable of detecting a huge stream of (false- not trusted) information expanding at an incredible speed. By the time we detect a rumor in social media, it would have been retweed thousands of times; it would have become viral and would have caused undesirable effects. We would be lucky if we can still control the situation if a big disaster strikes, considering the speed of Twitter. Just remember the 6.000 tweet per second in the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake .That's why Twitter would the one to offer the Technological solution.

Using a HT helps, but it is no enough to stop rumors

What I describe above is a way to follow only the information of a topic and spare the rest. But, as explained, besides detecting the rumor stream there are some other issues to solve: where and when a tweet was posted (most tweets are not geolocated); whether the information delivered is updated, relevant, and trustful and who is the source of information (when this is not indicated). Our main problem remains. We need a lot of hands (VOST teams) to stop rumor spreading through social media.

As @LuisSerranoL says, one day we will face a mayor disaster amd rumors will be so big that we will not be capable of controlling them. Unless we find a way to really scrutinize social media and get the information delivered in a manner we can decide what is worth and what is rubbish at the speed needed to stop a mayor disaster. 

500 million tweets per day and 241 million users deserve a solution to the Twitter conundrum, especially when we are talking of saving their lives, properties and the enviorenment. It is on Twitter's hands to provide a tool that helps emergency managers making civil protection to save  lives using social media.

If Twitter succeeds in creating this rumor detector, the microblogging site would move from being just a mass media to effectively save lives in emergencies. This step would be the base above which  Public Administration and VOST teams all over the world would build a holistic strategy to stop rumors.

As @dkroy heard  at #TATGranada14 from @LuisSerranoR speech: “100 firefighters cannot stop a tsunami without the help of they who control the web”. The Laboratory for Social Machines is undoubtedly a huge step to fulfill this goal.

Citizen journalism?

Social media have come to stay and they have changed completely the landscape when a disaster strikes.  We all know wonderful examples of citizens being rescued thanks to social media geolocated post (as in Turkey) as well as the possibility to add information that can help emergency services to get a better picture of what’s going on thanks to these post in social media by anonymous people. Social media saves lives and this is out of discussion nowadays. What I like to discuss today is the name we call that activity consisting, basically, on anyone armed with a smartphone (tablet, computer, etc) sharing text, pictures or video through social media. To have a better idea of the concept, you can see Tony Rogers post, whose content I basically agree.

I’ve been thinking for quite a time in the term citizen journalism and I came to the conclusion that we really should find a better name for this activity. It sounds to me that we all see the advantages when the story has a happy ending. Let me just remind you that we live in the era of co-creation, and thanks to social media, we have a great opportunity to be part of the story rather than to be told what  the commercial brands used to sell.

The message is not unilateral anymore, and that is good. Thanks to this co-creation process the way we watch TV or go a show live is a completely different experience and this is great for many reasons.

I believe that we all could agree till here. But what happen when we are talking of an emergency and there are people sharing pictures though social media saying things like a person has died during the explosion or blood is needed at some point and this information is not true? Who is responsible of these rumors being spread through social media? Obviously, they who share the information. But it is when this occurs when we all start thinking whether this is journalism or it is something else.

In the picture above, someboy called @ineslr73 shares a picture of a building in Madrid where an explosion has taken place and says: "It seems that there are dead people".

She argues with Madrid 112 Press Manager, @LuisSerranoR, who asks her not to spread rumor nor to create social alarm. In a more than casual tone ( to me an offensive one)  she offers to delete the picture.

She explained then that it has been her sister who lives near the building and who has taken the picture.

This is a citizen armed with a smartphone sharing a picture from a non trusted source of information and creating social alarm. It is clear to me that she has not even thought for a second of those people who live in the building neither on their families. Would you call that (citizen) journalism?

Shoemakers make shoes, journalists do journalism

I am not saying, by any means, that ordinary citizens shouldn’t use social media when an emergency strikes, nor that what they share is worthless. I like to make it clear that social media are good value in these cases as I have always written in this blog. To put but one example, VOST teams work very well in emergencies and many of its members are not journalist.  The difference here is that they use official sources. As we (the journalists) do, they corroborate the source of the information, something that, generally speaking, is not an issue for the ordinary citizens, as shows the example above. Let’s say that people, and to some extend (see below) the media, rush to share information without thinking twice.

Besides, it is good when citizens use social media during a disaster because it helps the authorities and firsts responders to make civil protection. At the same time, the citizens are empowered by being capable to access the information they need to protect themselves through social media.

Is journalism at a loose end? Where is the journalism reputation?

It caught my attention the undeniable fact that some journalists and media seem to have forgotten how to do our job. Since social media started it seems to me that the old uses of corroborating the source of information and the rest of good practices what we learned at College and working in traditional media are old fashioned. Why is that? We know why: due to the urgent need to be the first source of information, competing in Twitter, what anyone armed with a smartphone (journalist or not, including the- to me misnamed- citizen journalism)

You can see examples of what I mean here  and in the picture below.

The picture of the former president of Venezuela
Hugo Chavez is a fake

  

When the first newspaper in Spain has reached the point to publish a false picture of former President Hugo Chavez there is little more to say… not to remember the great amount of false pictures uploaded to social media of hurricane Sandy.

The misnamed revolutionary tax versus (the misnamed?) citizen journalism

During Franco dictatorship , after the Spanish Civil War, many of you would remember that here in Spain we have a huge problem in the North of Spain (Basque Country), with a terrorist band called ETA. They used to blackmail the businessmen who have their industries in the Basque Country and that blackmailing was called “The revolutionary task”.  In the 90’s I used to work for a Radio Station in Madrid and we (the journalist) started to called that the “misnamed revolutionary tax”. For one simple reason: that was not a tax.

From my point of view, citizen journalism is not journalism. Journalism is what journalists practice. What the citizen share, using their right to express themselves using social media, is something else. Besides the terminology issue, if we are talking about emergencies, “you do need to watch what people post”, as Steve Outing explains so well in this interesting article.

What do you think?

Can we avoid Tweets expiring in emergencies?

Yesterday night I was reading @LuisSerranoR post explaining why and how tweets expire in emergencies and whether it would be possible to find a solution. I completely agree with him in his approach. Nonetheless, I’d like to add one more step in the possible solution. That is: if only Twitter can make it possible to counter criticism efficiently, let’s ask them to make an app to solve the problem.

As @LuisSerranoR explains so well, we have a problem (in emergencies) when people collapse the timeline with old information regarding, for instance, the need for blood donation. If that happens, roads might be collapsed and hospital overwhelmed, so they won’t be capable of attending injured patients who really need their help.

Detecting rumors in Twitter

The first step to detecting that something is going on (whether they are good/bad news or rumors) is a peak in the number of messages coming for a source or being retweeted. Let’s offer an example. I realized that King Juan Carlos of Spain resigned the throne because my iPhone screen informed me that several of my contacts had retweeted @CasaReal. So I had a look and discovered the big scoop going on.  Since the source was official and verified, the information was correct.

What happens when we follow non official accounts and make RT without checking the time when the info was pushed?

As I already said, old information spreads, with the consequences already known.

Why do we spread that info without checking? There are many reasons. Being lack of expertise the first and most obvious of all, good will is another. We want to be helpful, so if we read in Twitter that blood donation is needed most people would retweet straight away, without thinking whether blood was needed some hours ago, but it is not anymore, as @LuisSerranoR says.

The added problem is that people are not as fast as they were before when it is time to retweet that blood is no needed any more. That’s because the previous action make us feel better people, while the second does not seem to be as important issue as the previous one.

The same would apply to pictures. We only have to see what happens with false pictures during Sandy Hurricane.

VOST teams are not enough

Neither VOST teams nor influencers are capable, by themselves, to stop this tsunami of information; no matter how hard we work or how many we are (we are quite a few here in Spain).

If we agree that the emergency should be twitted,  only Twitter, detecting in due time the peak of information, would be capable of stopping this process by making a tool (an app?) which analyzes this phenomenon and acts as a content curator.

Let’s hope it will be develop before a really huge catastrophe strikes.

Any thoughts?

Want to handle crisis communications? Use Social Media and VOST

Summer is here and forest fires have already started in Spain. It is a season when rumors spread through social media even more than during the rest of the years due to the lack of news. If during an accident like the Santiago's derailmenttrain (or any crisis of this magnitude) is important to monitor and control social media, we cannot afford putting at risk citizens now that we have ever more population because of the holiday season. 

So, If you are the authority, you’d better follow some advice:

Create the HT and push informacion as soon as possible

It is the best way to monitor and control rumors from the beginning. If you lead the crisis communications process pushing information from the very beginning of the crisis with a hashtag, it will be much easier to follow the conversation and avoid rumors.

If you have not been fast enough and citizens are using other HT use it. In case of forest fire there is a convention here in Spain, so it is simple. We use #IF (meaning forest fire), plus the name of the locality. #IIFF if you are talking about forest fires in general (how to prevent, advice, and so on).

                            

Monitor social media

Monitoring social has never been that simple by using apps, like Hoosuite, Tweetdeck and many others. We are plenty of tools and it is quite sensible to use some of them to save time and organize information, so we know what it is being said about the crisis.

Don’t forget traditional media

Social Media are just one more tool in the toolbox. It is extremely important countering criticism here because of their virality. But traditional media can help us with stopping false information if we ask them to do so. The civil protection chain includes TV, radio, on line newspapers, communication agencies and any other means to transmit the right information so long as the citizens follow them.

Use Whatsapp, direct messages in Twitter, or a traditional phone call to contact them.

Work with VOST teams

The VOST teams are also an essential part of the civil protection chain nowadays. There is no one single Emergency Communications Centre in the world capable of controlling social media if a really big catastrophe strikes, neither in Spain nor anywhere in the world.

So, count on them. VOST teams in Spain work wonderfully. We have the “Dad” account @vostSPAIN plus one account for every territory (17) and 2 more for Ceuta and Melilla.

They formed a very well-coordinated team. Working together with influential people we are fast enough (from the time being) to stop rumor spreading through the web. A WhatsApp group containing influential will be of great help, as it is here is Spain.

Don’t talk to trolls, unless it is necessary

A troll is a person who usually insults your and wants your attention because of notoriety. If you answer them you will act as an amplifier. If the troll is putting neither lives nor properties in danger ignore them. Moreover it they are people with practically no followers and no one pays attention to what they say. Don’t give them a thought, if they don’t interfere with the command and control operation to solve the crisis.

Madrid, teaching emergencies' first step

The community of Madrid will be the first territory in Spain where primary education students’ will be able to acquire knowledge in Civil Protection, Emergency, First Aid and Road Safety Education. Two years after @LuisserranoR uploaded a tweet pleading for these contents to be included in compulsory education; Madrid will include these topics in primary education next course (2014-2015).

It is a first step and we (those who participate in Edcivemerg) are proud and grateful to all who have supported the idea from the beginning: authorities, first responders, scientific societies, journalists and individuals.

Among them today I want to thank you Alcorcon’s, Mayor David Perez , who lend us the city as a testing bench, so all primary students age 12 have already been trained. My gratitude is also for the Community of Madrid, the first who will take into consideration all our objetives.

The topics will be in different subjects

It happens to me that almost every time a journalist interviews me asking for the question she or he thinks that we are talking of a new subject. So I have to explain them that what we have are several topics distributed in several subjects.

So, contents related to First Aid will be included in Science, as they are in other European countries. They also are in Civic Education as well in Physical Education. In this last case, linked to to sports-related injuries.

The Road Safety Education files are gathered in Social Sciences. Their main goal is to acquire knowledge to help consolidate and correct road behavior habits. Among the learning standards are getting to know the meaning of traffic signs; and recognizing the importance of following the rules, both as a pedestrian and as a driver.

The topics related to Civil Protection will be included in Madrid in Social Science, and they will be developed along the six years of primary education.

This said, I am sure this is only a first step and all our students will be capable, in due time, to act as first responders and save a life.

Let’s hope the rest of Spain will also include all these requirements as soon as possible.

Out of sight, out of mind?

This month I came across two very different but interesting campaigns that are making me thinking whether the saying out of sight out of mind is what we the so called first world breakfast every day. One is the fabulous exposition Programa Agua Solidaria (Water Solidarity Program) of Bomberos Unidos sin Fronteras that you can see in Puerta del Sol in Madrid till the end of April. Also caught my attention the campaings made by some NGOs to visualize children’s rights.

I've been considering if the topic was appropriate for this blog, since the topics here are related to crisis communications best practices, emergency information and social media in emergency management, and I decided I’d go ahead for one simple reason. Is there anything more urgent than preserve children’s right? I think not. What is more, children dying for lack of drinking water or due to a war (I’ll talk about Syria) should be our number one priority, since they caused as many deaths as hurricanes, tsunamis or some other disasters.

Somos agua

The Water Solidarity Program has been chosen the Best Project for Humanitarian Action in Latin America. It basically consists on the installation of water treatment plants in places where there is no drinking water. The aim is to fight against infant mortality in the Amazon. As simple as this, this program is saving the lives of very young children who die for diseases related to the ingestion of contaminated water, as William Vázquez Peña, from Iquitos, Peru, explained to me recently in Madrid.

It’s really a paradox that people living next to the Amazon, the biggest river in Peru, died for diseases related to not drinking water. Each year 6 million 600,000 children die from causes that can be prevented, according to Andres Conde, the General Director of Save the Children in Spain.

Bomberos Unidos sin Fronteras also participate in emergencies such as earthquakes, the Philippines tsunami and so on.

Out of sight… or in my own shoes?

Two more fantastic campaigns caught my attention this month and made me think on the media (traditional as well as social media) as the fifth power, so long you fit in their agenda (traditional media) and you are capable of making up a viral video. This has been the case only after leaving out images of those who were really suffering a tragedy to put in their place those who all of us can identify as my own son or daughter.

Save the children make us see Syria war with new eyes

This identification is the reason why we pay attention to the video made by Save the children with an English girl who lives a war like the Syria’s.  “People are not touched by the images of children in these situations and neither do they produce the desired effect”, explained Conde to Televisión Española (April, 14 min 27.40 in the news, in Spanish). And that’s why Save the children thought of changing the point of view.

The same applies to the video of a French girl obliged by their parents to marry an old man, even touhg it happens every day, miles away. (picture above)

So, we must be sick of reality…especially when it so far away or it’s not our concern, or so we think.