Please vote for my panel at SXSW DON’T PANIC – The Geek’s Guide to the Next Big Crisis

LONG VERSION:

A little more than four years ago I wrote my first blog post. It was about the need for a form of Emergency RSS. We can share celebrity gossip headlines through feed readers faster than we could use technology to respond to a crisis. And this was an important point as I started blogging in 2005 right after and in response to a need to share after Hurricane Katrina. Crisis response and crisis communication has always been a passion of mine, and seeing our government’s mostly failed response in New Orleans compelled me to start blogging and contributing where I could.

Running the company I chose to stay in town during the Hurricane Rita evacuation. While Rita did not hit Houston, instead crushing the gulf coast near Beaumont with little news coverage in the wake of Katrina, we did learn from the Rita evacuation. We used a wiki page on Tendenci (our software) to track down all employees. Employees on the road, which for some of them was 10 to 20 hours during the evacuation, would text their manager’s who then updated the wiki to account for everyone. We quickly knew everyone was OK.

Then last year we prepared for Hurricane Ike which went over our town. When the storm hit the ONLY thing that worked was SMS messaging. No power, no water, no data, no TV. Just radio and text messaging. Luckily we had set up a product called Yammer, which is like Twitter for your company (and they have a business model) and we were able to keep in touch. Data services, which is what your cell phone depends on to get to web pages, went down. Voice went down. The only thing that allowed us to keep in touch with all of our employees and their families was text messaging sent directly and through Yammer.

We learned a lot about the role of tech in a crisis combined with human behavior. Example – an employee’s cell phone would die. They would use someone else’s cell to text a message to their manager saying “we are OK and staying near College Station”. Except that is ALL they would say. We didn’t recognize the number and had no idea WHO sent it! The solution was to train all of our people to put their NAMES at the end of each text message. Seems like a small thing. It is. But it makes it possible to do a head count!

Since 2005 our firm now does the web site for the Houston Red Cross and Reliant Park, both of which are key for Houston Emergency Response planning. We have the privilege of working with Firestorm Crisis Communications and Preparedness and long time clients like crisis communicator Dan Keeney. I have attended Netsquared Houston meetings when David Geilhufe taught us about People Finder Information Format. And I work with people like Jonti and Katie who have helped all of us set up our ICE cards for our families.

Now I need your help. I’d like to continue the dialog on Social Media and Emergency Response. What IS the role of twitter beyond updates? What are the alternatives for Yammer? Is there a cost effective solution for businesses and families? We have come a long way, so let’s talk about it.

PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT on this SXSW Panel I hope to moderate. Without your vote and your comments the panel might not make. And I believe in this topic too much to see that happen. Spare a minute? Please VOTE!

DON’T PANIC – The Geek’s Guide to the Next Big Crisis

Are you and the people you care about prepared? Our panelists will share their crisis stories and tell you how to be ready, both online and offline. PFIF, Yammer, Facebook and iPhones – the technology and strategy is there and getting better, so let’s take it to the next level.

1. How does emergency response and communication relate to the Web? Do developers and small business owners really need to care about Crisis Communication?
2. How can our emergency teams (fire, ambulance, police, etc.) benefit from standardized data sharing? What can I do about it?
3. What does the rise of Mobile Web mean for the next natural disaster or other catastrophe?
4. What tools (Web, mobile and otherwise) are out there right now that my family, friends and company should be using now?
5. As a geek, what are 5 things you should do TODAY to keep your family safe and your business running when disaster strikes?
6. If practice makes perfect, what kind of drills and regular training should your business be doing right now that won’t break the bank or kill your billable hours?
7. What are some of the technical lessons we learned from Hurricane Katrina?
8. Tech and communication stories and lessons from Virginia Tech, Hurricane Ike and beyond…
9. What is a crisis to you and how do you strategically and technologically deal with it internally and for the rest of the world to see?
10. How can you best identify your strongest and most reliable communicators and rock stars during times of crisis? How do you deal with employees that book it and vendors that disappear?

Why am I doing this?

Well, it isn’t for business as I have no financial ties to yammer or twitter or any other messaging services. Tendenci is a content management system that powers associations and sites like the Houston Red Cross, but they are already customers. And ANY emergency response technology must be open source for maximum adoption long term. I just believe passionately in our need to share information and I think technology can help with crisis communication. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter bring a lot to the table. If you, like me, are passionate about this, please vote for the panel “DON’T PANIC – The Geek’s Guide to the Next Big Crisis” and I hope to see you in Austin next March!

I found out at SXSW that BMC may take portions of their systems management software open source in the future. From the press release:

“BMC really understands the value and benefits of open source,” said Hurley.  “The company is defining the future of systems management with BSM, eliminating complexity in the IT infrastructure, and aligning IT with business.  BMC’s leadership and clear BSM vision, combined with the company’s interest in doing open source correctly, is absolutely something I wanted to be a part of.” (more)

Link and emphasis added by me. A couple of thoughts on this. So far we have only the intent. But hiring Whurley is a big step for a company like BMC. So I will keep on the lookout for the official source code available for download. And I am not the only one surprised. From this post on 451.

I wouldn’t have guessed that it would be BMC to make the first move. IBM with
Tivoli seemed like the natural play due to IBM’s history with open source. HP
and CA were less clear, but BMC? This is an interesting move that wil have
repercussions in the software management sector.

Now – the press release clearly was written by a PR guy. Whurley
doesn’t talk like that. And they didn’t link to his blog so that looks like corporate speak. But, I did talk to him at Barcamp Austin and he
IS very excited about his role at BMC and the open source moves by BMC.

Now for the bad news. To play the devil’s advocate, this could also be a shrewd move on the
part of BMC to reduce the threat to their very profitable line of
software against the Open Management Consortium where Whurley is very active. So only time will tell.

Last thought. That picture. Whurley with the shot lady at Barcamp. Because friends pick ridiculous photos of you to go with big announcements about open source software. <grin>