Case Summary

The disaster management and recovery efforts in the wake of Southern California's 2007 wildfires were greatly enhanced by Web 2.0 technologies. Through a free wiki application, all local residents, news organizations and disaster relief were able to access the wiki to keep up to date with the rapid pace of events. KPBS, KNBC.com, Facebook, Myspace and Flickr all provided effective online venues for assiting with emergency coordination, as this user-generated content provided a more comprehensive detaling of events and allowed citizens to be engaged in events around them.

Business Challenge

California was looking for ways to quickly share up-to-date information on wildfires in order to better manage disaster response.

Approach Taken

Through the use of Web 2.0 technologies, Southern California set up a free application where all local residents, news organizations, disaster relief associations, and private companies with critical communication and collaboration needs are able to keep up to date with the rapid pace of events in case of a wildfire breakout.

Results Achieved

The disaster management and recovery efforts in the wake of Southern California's 2007 wildfires were greatly enhanced by the use of wiki technology. KPBS, San Diego's public radio station, used wiki to coordinate its live 24/7 coverage of the wildfires, including a Google map mashup showing fire perimeters, evacuation centers, and road closings. KNBC.com featured live streming video, user-submitted photos, blogs, and other resources. Facebook had more than 100 groups formed to support those affected by the fires and MySpace had over 11,000 related posts. A search on Flickr revelaed more than 26,000 results for California fire pictures, while NASA provided countless detailed images from space.

Lessons Learned

The user-generated content made possible by wiki technology allowed for a much more comprehensive and detailed information flow during an emergency. Being connected to continuously updated information and other resources helped citizens be much more aware, and responsive to, the crisis events around them.