Developing CanVOST
This blog chanel is dedicated to discussion and announcements regarding the development of a Canadian Virtual Operations Support Team CanVOST.
What needs to happen to ensure that CanVOST can be of value for the upcoming flood and forest fire seasons.
We are once again being reminded this week, how important social media has become for emergnecy information and incident response. The terror attacks in Boston on Monday and the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, just a few minutes ago, illustrate the point.
Canada is not immune to emergencies and disasters. In fact, we know there will be spring flooding and forest fires this summer. In many cases, these incidents will occur in smaller and remote communities where local officials do not have…
I'm posting this on behalf of Karen ... I've made no edits nor any other changes ...
Hi - Karen here from Red Cross. I'm just catching up on posts. I agree with the direction Patrice has laid out here. It's pretty much on par with what we are working to propose at the Canadian Red Cross as we look to fully integrate social media into emergency operations, with a few minor differences. One difference is that part of the mandate of Red Crossers in operations is to open reception centres to provide clients with information and referrals as needed. During Sandy, a lot of people…
Getting CanVOST up and running .... my suggested approach
I"m laying down some suggested structure and procedures to ensure CanVOST can be a solid resource for emergency managers across the country. I welcome comments and suggestions.
We have had the luxury of being observers in Canada so far in terms of large-scale events and emergencies and the use of social media. Our neighbours to the South and colleagues around the world have had a much more "hands on" experience in implementing social media listening as part of their emergency management programs.
This article is based on discussions I have had with VOST leaders and my own observations. It's meant to spur the establishment of CanVOST as an operational team. Here are…
There was fantastic work done by the New York VOST team before, during and after Hurricane Sandy hit the Eastern Seaboard. Many caused me to think about the evolution of our own CanVOST.
I've been in touch with many social media in emergency management (SMEM) enthusiasts in the US and elsewhere in the last few weeks. Many people agree that the storm marked a turning point for the integration of SM into EM. From using Twitter and Facebook as emergency information tools, to monitoring social networks as valuable sources of situational awareness and intel, emergency managers now grasp the many possibilities offered by SM. They certainly get the need to do constant monitoring…
Managing and Operating a Virtual Emergency Operations Centre
Although this article does not pertain specifically to a Virtual Operations Support Team (VOST) I thought the training being offered by Centennial College may be of interest to CanVOST supporters.
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Interest remains high among supporters to investigate the viability of CanVOST and creation of a pilot Canadian Virtual Operations Support Team - CanVOST. The September 11th. web conference signified a shift from talking about CanVOST possibilities, mandate, technology procedures and training to focusing on documentation and decision making.
The main take aways from the last CanVOST web conference are listed below. Most of them are links to discussion forum topics where CanVOST supporters and potential users are asked to contribute to the discussion. Good contribution to the discussion forum will make it much easier to validate decisions based on consensus discussion in the forums.
- The CanVOST space home page introduction was upgraded to emphasize that the documentation in the CanVOST space is draft and subject to change.…
Statement is based on agreed upon general principles about what the team's role(s) should be
Please feel free to comment on the draft mission statement ...I'll repost it in the Discussion forum in the CanVOST space on PTSC-Online
Mission Statement:
The Canadian Virtual Operations Support Team (CanVOST) will support emergency management agencies and other organizations by monitoring social media (or conducting active social listening) to gather operational information and assess the situation and needs of communities/citizens affected by incidents/emergencies. It will also detect…
Although the roles and responsibilities and training requirements have not been established for CanVOST, discussion to date had made it very clear that training will be required for at least some CanVOST participants. This article describes how this CanVOST space can be set up to design and deliver training and fine tune it as required based on feedback from trainees etc.
A training section has been added to the main menu of the CanVOST space. It currently contains a description of one way training can be designed, delivered and maintained.
In summary, The training page will provide a simple overview to describe how training is designed and delivered to new or prospective CanVOST members. This page can list training required for various positions and provide links to various training modules which are contained in wiki articles. These wiki articles can…
When new articles and wiki resources are added to PTSC-Online we try to raise awareness about them with PTSC-Online broadcast messages and through our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook pages and groups, Google + pages and circles, Linked In groups etc.). In this case I believe recent significant additions to the CanVOST wiki deserve special mention.
Please join me in thanking Laura Madison and Bryan Sali for their contributions to the CanVOST wiki. Bryan added an article on the use of social media in disaster recovery and Laura added a significant number of articles and links to a wide range of research and other information on the use of social media in emergencies. If you are conducting research on social media in emergency management there is a virtual treasure of information now available to you in the CanVOST wiki.
Please join Laura…
This article is provided as a follow up to the second CanVOST web conference to help CanVOST supporters use PTSC-Online technology to more quickly and effectively advance the development of CanVOST (Canadian virtual operations support team). If you are not yet a supporter, see below on how to become one.
During the last web conference a significant number of resources were identified that may be valuable to support developing a Canadian virtual operations support team. It would be helpful if this information could be shared among all CanVOST supporters and others who are interested in the VOST concept. This article provides suggestions on how to do this and some additional suggestions for advancing CanVOST.
- Use the CanVOST wiki to share any resource material that may be helpful in…
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Patrice Cloutier
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- Getting CanVOST volu…
- Getting CanVOST volu…This comments highlights changes I made to the CanVOST space to help it support CanVOST long term. I appreciate the tremendous amount of effort you put into trying to get CanVOST up and running Patrice. The fact that all the feedback is going back to you personally will add to your workload. We may need to start that way but longer term we need a…
- Getting CanVOST volu…To all those interested in being a CanVOST volunteer. It's not necessary to actually obtain a certificate from FEMA for the IS-42 social media in emergency management training. There might actually be some difficulties in getting that. Just a note from you that you've completed the online course will suffice. The same applies to the EMO online…
- Getting CanVOST volu…Nice work in getting this off the ground!
- Getting CanVOST volu…Excellent start to get ready for this season, Patrice. Here is what I have done to have PTSC-Online support what you are trying to accomplish.
Getting the first group of volunteers trained is a significant milestone in developing CanVOST so I added it as such to the Milestones calendar
I added a Trained Volunteers page to CanVOST and set up a… - Getting CanVOST up a…Here's how I intend to follow up on the comments. My first priority is to collect expressions of interest from members of the EM community, first responder agencies, NGOs and digital volunteers. Once we have about 20 or so people who want to commit to CanVOST, I will first vet them and gauge their commitment.
After that, with a dedicated base, we… - Getting CanVOST up a…Good suggestions Jay if I understood you correctly. Are you suggesting CanVOST might partner with an organization that has some manpower to help move the concept ahead? This could happen either within their existing structure, using the tools we have provided in the PTSC-Online CanVOST space or some combination of both.
- Getting CanVOST up a…Great stuff. Are there organizations with the capacity and infrastrucutre to support the iniciative? Maybe Red Cross? Recently de-funded Canada Task Force? CanTF teams have planning and coms sections that could be expanded upon to support deployments. The plan is to keep our team up and trained in partnership between province and Muni.
- Getting CanVOST up a…Excellent thoughts Patrice and I thank you for the tremendous effort you have put into trying to make CanVOST a reality for Canadian emergency managers. Please don't take my comments as being critical of your efforts but I do think they have to be considered if we are going to make progress. I support the concept and want to make it a reality.
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I am stepping up!
Attached you can find the completion certificates for the two online courses as well as a copy of my police check.
I am available for web-training + demo during May and June, except from May 10 to May 19. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will not be available from 10:00 am to 12:00 Pacific Time.
Thank you,
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