My two biggies are situation awareness and UAVs. I thought they were two, but as I think about them, they are close to being one and the same issue as I'll explain. Both are going to be central to developments in crisis and emergency communication, both will draw the PIO, JIC and comms functions closer into command and operations management and both are driven by absolutely exploding technological innovation.
Knowing what is going on is essential. Sun Tzu pointed that out in The Art of War about 2,500 years ago. Emergency management is not war, but if you don't know the situation on the ground, what is happening and what may happen, you are at a severe disadvantage. The opportunities to improve situation awareness have been increased greatly in the past decade, even more in the past two to three years. Yet most response organizations from police and fire all the way to multi-agency disaster response seem to organize and manage using methods that were developed before smartphones and even the Internet were envisioned.
You want a simple example? I would suggest that if the police in Ferguson, Mo., had any idea of what citizens using Twitter and their smartphone cameras were doing and saying, and if they had any idea how that information — false as it may have been — was being shared around the neighborhood and country and globe, would they have responded at the glacial, old world speed they did? I suspect their understanding of the situation on the ground is a bit different today than it was then.
The truth is that managers have access to unprecedented information. Information is not intelligence as many will be quick to point out. But there is little intelligence without information. Much of the technology that will rapidly change situation awareness in the next year or two is focused on this issue of signal versus noise, of information versus intelligence. The best source I know for keeping up on all things related to this is Brandon Greenberg's extremely useful newsletter and website DisasterNet. Here he shared a presentation he recently made that provides a very comprehensive look at the technology landscape related to improving situation awareness.
But while Brandon did a masterful job of rounding up the Web-based technologies, I think he forgot to look up when talking about technology and situation awareness. In my mind, by far the biggest issue to hit emergency management in general, and situation awareness in particular, in the next five years is in the sky. The eyes in the skies: UAVs or drones. It's true the FAA is doing its darndest to keep these things on the ground — and in the process, according to The Economist anyway — forcing innovation in one of the most exciting and promising new tech fields to come along since, well, the WWW, into places like China, Germany and Switzerland. But I am convinced that despite the FAA's best efforts, the eyes in the skies will be with us. And that means for good or ill, emergency managers and communicators will need to deal with the implications.
As an example of just how far the discussion is coming, I strongly encourage you join up with Patrick Meier's (irevolution.net) forum called UAViators(pronounced "waviators"). On Nov. 6 a meeting was held at the United Nations to get a discussion going about the humanitarian use of drones (I've given up on trying to change to UAVs, drones it is). The result is very interesting and worth a close look. You will learn what is happening around the world as governments, companies and humanitarian organizations begin to adopt and deploy this important technology.
I know, I know. You are thinking, jeez, I just started getting used to the idea of Twitter and tweeting and this crazy social media stuff and now you tell me I have to get educated about drones. Well, yes. Because the eyes in the skies, combined with the world's biggest transmitters we carry in our pockets will combine to share information around the world faster, with greater depth and detail, and with more storytelling oomph than ever before. Did we need more storytelling oomph than that demonstrated by @theepharoah in the shooting of Michael Brown? Imagine the scene captured by the eyes in the skies.
Imagine the eyes in the skies after an earthquake, flood or landslide. Imagine them during an oil spill or huge toxic release. Imagine them during an active shooter, another marathon bombing, an apartment fire. They will be there. And both incident commanders and PIOs will soon be dealing with them. (If you have already I'd really love to hear from you: gerald.baron@agincourt.us.)
Of course, I may be wrong about all this. After all, I'm the one who said after Twitter came out, who in the world will want to know what kind of latte I'm drinking?
