When (and why) social media fails...

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Technology exists, organisation, focus and will power required

Much of the technology for facilities to empower "local journalism" already exists, what is needed are people who are ogranised enough to collect the technology together and present them under a unified front. Taking these excellent points in order:

1) Local Maps can already be provided by Google. Adding content which explains facilities, limitations etc. is a matter of time and hosting. Suggest local government is the right place for this. The UK is trying to go in this direction, but who is ever ready for disaster contingency ? (Or Continuity Planning, as we now know it).

2) The facility for feedback already exists, through chat room / blog / feedback mechanisms. Suggest local government needs a disaster co-ordinator who can collate and channel content provision from "on the spot" reporters.

3) Far from supporting volunteerism, it should be promoted. After all, people after often at their best when helping others in times of crisis, and a little local popularity for deeds done never goes amiss. Again, local government and journalists can provide a focus for this.

4) The best people to free local government databases are local government themselves. Maybe they need assistance to see the value of doing so and how benefits can outweigh any costs.

5) No need to tie major media to local reporting. How foolish will big league media look if their reporting is off-beam ? It's in their own interests to unearth and support local reporting agencies with proper organisation and attention to detail.

Where would all this come in handy ? Take the money wasted by international aid organisations on the tsunami. Not saying they were wasteful in themselves, but there was inadequate co-ordination between aid agencies, so resources were over-deployed in some areas and under-deployed in others. Wasteful !

Clearly a commercial case can be made for taking this approach, and as usual the question about set up comes back to funding. Any entrepreneurs out there ?

Kind Regards,

Peter Jones
Director, Business Innovation & Strategy Ltd.
http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=guestbook&id=35196

Posted by: peter.m.c.jones@...   Posted on: 12/21/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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