5 Reasons Your Agency Should Have a Smartphone App

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by toddjasper in #SMEM, CAMPUS SAFETY, SECURITY, & PREPAREDNESS, CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION, HOMELAND SECURITY

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“There’s an app for that” has become a very popular phrase–and not just from teenagers. Apps (short for applications) are programs designed to run on smartphones and/or tablets–even without a phone or data connection. In January, Apple announced that they have sold over 40 billion apps for their iOS devices (such as the iPhone and iPad). Clearly apps are a huge part of information-sharing and reaching our target population, here are some reasons why your agency should considered designing and developing your own app:

1. Apps are popular

In June 2013, the Pew Research Center reported its findings that 56% of Americans have smartphones capable of downloading apps–up from just 35% in 2011. Additionally, the number of Americans without a cell phone is down to just 9% of the population. According to research from New Relic, the average smartphone has over three dozen apps (forty-one to be exact) and the average smartphone user checks her phone 150 times per day with 127 minutes per day spent on apps. It is estimated that by the end of 2013, there will be 1.82 billion active smartphones globally and within the next two years, almost 100 billion apps are predicted to have been downloaded by smartphone users.

2. Keep your constituents informed

Unlike a webpage, when content or information is updated in an app, the app can send an alert to the smartphone user to acknowledge the update (also called “push” alerts). During an emergency, it is possible to also send direct messages to users through the app. While not robust enough for a sole means of emergency notification, push alerts or push notifications can be one of the tools emergency managers use for notifying the public. Additionally, if your agency includes plans in its app, app users will always have the most up-to-date plans. When posted on the internet, users can sometimes stumble upon an older version of a plan that has been saved by a search engine or re-posted by local groups, etc. With an app, there is unfiltered access to the most up-to-date information (without the fear of cached versions of older plans recirculating during an emergency).

3. Productivity without connectivity

When disconnected from wifi or wireless data feeds, apps can still function because they have the ability to save information to a user’s smartphone from the previous time an update was downloaded or a connection was available. If your agency wishes to provide any type of guidance for constituents if wireless connectivity is degraded, apps are a good solution. For items like evacuation routes, shelter guides, checklists, and other steady-state documentation, the apps can include those documents and simply update any of the documentation when the user connects to the internet–yet still maintains a copy on the user’s smartphone for when internet connectivity is unavailable.

4. Longer Reach

Since almost all smartphone users keep their phones nearby (how else would they be able to check their phones 150 times per day?), the smartphone is a better targeted device for distributing information than a laptop or desktop computer. Apps are built for ease of use–especially in transit or on the go. For emergency managers, our intended audience during an emergency are those constituents who can be empowered with the right information to help themselves and their community. Oftentimes, information is needed immediately–not when a person can find a computer nearby. Thus, the app is a perfect way of presenting actionable, executable information in a timely manner in a reliable format.

5. Deeper Integration

As the operating systems (OS) of mobile devices become more advanced, apps are becoming better integrated with other programs on smartphones, such as maps, the address book, GPS, text messaging, and social media. The benefit of emergency management apps would be the deeper integration with other platforms. In a large-scale disaster, an emergency management app could open up a smartphone’s maps app to plot a course to safety. Once safe, an emergency management app could recommend using social media (rather than a phone call–which ties up limited bandwidth) to let family members and friends know that the user is safe. Deeper integration with reminders, calendar appointments, and other future mobile platform developments can serve to promote preparedness, enhance dynamic, safe responses, and encourage more robust recovery from disaster.

While not every emergency management agency is ready to release their own app, agencies such as Washington, DC’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA), Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), and even FEMA have already released apps for specific use during emergencies. Will your agency be next?

5 Emerging Trends in Emergency Management

01 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by toddjasper in #SMEM, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

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I just returned from Orlando, where I attended (for the first time) the annual conference of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). While there, not only did I attend about a dozen sessions, but I also had the pleasure of volunteering at the Crisis Technology Center (CTC) hosted by the IAEM Emerging Technology Caucus.

By attending the sessions, having numerous conversations with emergency managers from across the country (and even a few from Canada), and engaging with others at the CTC, I noticed the following emerging themes from the conference:

1. Social media is a big topic, but lacks consistent implementation

Almost every session mentioned social media. Whether it was Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, photo-sharing sites, or other new technology, social media was constantly being mentioned. At the same time, it is clear that the emergency management field is still easing itself into the social media pool. For every social media enlightened emergency manager, I would estimate that there are about 10-15 that have no idea what social media is. In other words, the emergency manager that uses social media is still in the minority. Enterprising emergency managers, like those of us in the Crisis Technology Center, are trying to change that. Throughout the conference, the CTC answered countless questions and explained/demonstrated social media. While the field is definitely heading towards more open engagement with the communities we serve, new technology is still viewed with some skepticism.

In many ways, I think the reluctance of emergency managers to embrace social media is triggered more by differences in perspective regarding the role of emergency managers rather than simply a technology/generational divide. Personally, it seems like if you are an emergency manager that sees value in engaging with your constituents, you will embrace social media after overcoming the hurdles associated with new technology. On the other hand, if you don’t see the benefit of publicly discussing your job performance with the people that pay your salary, you may resist social media for as long as possible. Just a thought…

2. “Resiliency” is a buzzword, not a core competency

The title of this year’s conference was “resiliency”. I counted about 5-6 sessions that had “resiliency” in the title, but other than being mentioned in the title, sessions rarely mentioned the term again. In discussions I had with other emergency managers, resiliency was rarely mentioned. It seems like a good buzzword, but (as a field) we’re slowly adopting the topic and slowly growing to understand what resilience means to our programs and the whole community.

3. “Whole Community” has a real following

While resiliency wasn’t discussed much, the “whole community” concept was given plenty of airtime (and rightfully so). I don’t think most emergency managers fully understand resiliency (I know I definitely struggle with it), but the “whole community” idea has caught on and has a serious following. The idea of encouraging regionalism, empowering local emergency managers, and acknowledging that the Feds don’t have ALL the answers is very attractive to our field. The concept makes sense and has a catchy name. Whereas resiliency can be somewhat ambiguous, “whole community” serves to represent enough of a departure from current practice that it has garnered a significant following. While some understand that resilience and whole community are intertwined–I think that would come as a surprise to many emergency managers. The take-away here is that “whole community” has earned recognition and acceptance for which resiliency advocates could only hope…

4. Capability- and risk-based planning vs. all-hazards planning

Risk-based planning and resourcing is gaining traction and was mentioned considerably during many sessions and discussions. I’m not sure what the impetus is for the change. My guess for the change are one or more of the following reasons:

Reductions in funding have changed local priorities from all-hazards plans to risk-specific planning. Rather than having general plans that cover many different topics, risk-based plans account for the incidents/damages that are most likely to impact your community.
It is too difficult to explain “all-hazards” planning to community members and elected officials who think we ought to just have very specific plans to address obvious risks
With the new THIRA process, the focus has clearly shifted to identifying and quantifying risk–it’s natural that planning follows the same evolutionary logic

5. More changes are coming

With the new THIRA guidelines, upcoming frameworks, PPD-8, and the new National Preparedness Goal and National Preparedness System, the emergency management field is still in a state of major doctrinal refinement. The major changes in doctrine pose significant increases in the level of effort required by organizations at all levels of the “whole community”–but it appears the changes will be positive in the long-term. I think the field will need to reconcile the emerging hierarchy of plans, goals, systems, and frameworks–but that will all come with time.

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This past week, the US was hit with Superstorm Sandy. I’ve been awed by the pre-positioning of supplies, the timely alert and notification, and the prevention of major loss of life. The loss of property was unavoidable, but it was the heroic actions of first responders and others that prevented a catastrophic loss of life. I know several emergency managers that literally walked to work during the hurricane to ensure as robust of a response as possible. Although terrible, Sandy brought out the best in Americans and I’m convinced that the damages from this storm can be an opportunity for the US to rebuild better than ever before.

The Economics of Information during Emergencies

09 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by toddjasper in #SMEM, CAMPUS SAFETY, SECURITY, & PREPAREDNESS, EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

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Unfortunately, the Virginia Tech community suffered another tragedy yesterday with the news of the murder of a police officer and the subsequent suicide of the shooter on campus. Campus officials did their best to communicate with students, faculty, and staff–and I’m aware of no complaints about the campus response. The New York Times has an interesting article regarding the intrepid journalism of VA Tech’s newspaper via Twitter.

As those of us in the Social Media in Emergency Management ( #SMEM ) circle know, Twitter and other forms of social media are quickly becoming major competitors to more established sources for information (such as the NY Times/print media). During emergencies or otherwise notorious events, the Internet can slow to a crawl in the affected area, but Twitter and other forms of SMEM are often unaffected and continue to spread the word. In an emergency, information can be viewed as an economic problem–overwhelming demand with a slow trickle of supply. If that supply is impeded (like VA Tech’s student newspaper–which had to relocate), other pathways to supply are likely to be developed in an ad hoc fashion using mobile technology (namely, social media). Thus, I’ve developed the Jasper model to help visualize the point at which social media overcomes traditional sources of news and guidance during an emergency. Please feel free to leave comments with suggestions, corrections, or modifications to improve this model…

National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF)

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by toddjasper in #SMEM, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, PREPAREDNESS, RECOVERY

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This evening I took a few minutes to assemble the NDRF page on Wikipedia. It still needs a lot of work, but at least it has some presence now. In my next posts, I’ll be further exploring the new Presidential Policy Directive-8 (PPD-8) regarding National Preparedness (issued March 2011), the National Preparedness Goal (September 2011), the recently released National Preparedness System (November 2011), and the forthcoming National Preparedness Report.

For those who haven’t heard of the NDRF yet, the NDRF was released in September 2011 and is a “sequel” to the National Response Framework (NRF)–which replaced the National Response Plan. For emergency management geeks like me, the NDRF is a giant step forward in preparing for disasters–at all levels of government AND NGOs. Like the FCO position in response, recovery is led by the Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator (FDRC). Instead of Emergency Support Functions (ESFs), the NDRF introduces 6 Recovery Support Functions (RSF). What’s really interesting about the NDRF (and this is clearly indicative of Mr. Fugate’s leadership) is that the NDRF includes as much guidance and structure for pre-disaster activities and planning as it does for post-disaster recovery actions. Additionally, the NDRF includes roles and responsibilities for local and state officials–which are meant to work with communities in advance of a disaster or even the need to recovery. This key structural feature of the NDRF effectively transitions some of the coordinating that is normally performed by Federal officials after a disaster to state/local officials BEFORE a disaster.

toddjasper

~ Amat victoria curam

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