Musings of Wired Pig

Or, how your agency can use Social Networking to inform the community you are in.

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This is a brief overview of how one first responder agency uses Twitter for updating the community on their actions and location and how you can get your agency using Twitter or Brightkite or any other SocNet⁽²⁾ for more than just blogging.

The best example I have for this is the Los Angeles Fire Department. They have been in Twitter for a while and use it to post updates about what their crews are responding to and status updates. Here is an example of what @lafd does -

*Structure Fire* 17900 Hart St; TG 531-A5; FS 100, Fire in single family home; 1 male? civilian rescued/critical; NFD; Ch:8,18 @8:54 PM ### about 23 hours ago from web

*UPDATE: 17900 Hart St* KNOCKDOWN; 39 FF’s took 24 min; Confined to subdivided home; 1 adult male unk condition to hosp; NFD ### about 22 hours ago from web

LAFD uses Twitter as the broadcast method for getting the information out. The don’t, however; use Twitter as the method to post the information. By that I mean that LAFD does not open the Twitter home page and enter the information in the “What are you doing box”. They use an outside service called TwitterMail that they email the updates into. In turn TwitterMail posts the information to Twitter. If the post is over 140 characters it leaves a link to the full post⁽³⁾ .

As far as I am aware, LAFD is the only First Responder agency that uses Twitter in this matter.

With the release of a new service called Brightkite you can give exact locations. It recognizes and posts links to a map with exact locations (house numbers or intersections). This application would be ideal for first responders wanting to provide a more visual method of getting information out to their communities. At the moment, integration of the location and a comment or update are two separate postings.

Brightkite would be ideal for use by first responders or any public service agency as they would be able to post the information on two or more networks at the same time.

As an example, let say its a Fire Department (since we have already shown what @LAFD does with Twitter) who have responded to a structure fire.

Using Brightkite they would first “Check In” at either the exact location (i.e. 123 Main Street, Your Town, CA) or at the intersection (N. 1st Ave and Main St, Your Town, CA) and send it to Brightkite.

Using SMS or Email they would send the command -

@123 Main Street, Your Town, CA

This would place them on the Map⁽⁴⁾ .

Again, using Brightkite, they would then make a statement^{(5) (6)} like, “Fire in single family home; 1 male? civilian rescued/critical; NFD; Ch:8,18 @8:54 PM”⁽⁷⁾ Note that the location is not needed in the update as it will be linked to location in the post anyway⁽⁸⁾ .

Again, using SMS or email, the command would look like this -

!, or say – “Fire in single family home; 1 male? civilian rescued/critical; NFD; Ch:8,18 @8:54 PM”

Additional data can also be added, such as photos from mobile devices – sent via SMS or email – and would be updated as a “Note”.

Notes, either with or without photos, look like the examples below -

Text Only(9) -	Photograph with Text(9) -

In addition to using SMS or Email to check in, post text or photo notes, users can also use Brightkite’s web interface to do all of the functions. This would be easier for dispatch operations to use as SMS/Email would not be needed. As with Twittermail, Brightkite will also post to a dedicated Twitter account.

When you cross post to Twitter, the posting will look like this -

Checking in at a Location -
IMAFIREAGENCY : I’m at 123 Main Street, Your Town, CA, 94000 USA – bkite.com/XXXX⁽¹⁰⁾ 2008-05-17 16:29:47

Posting a Text Note or Photo with Text -
IMAFIREAGENCY : Fire in single family home; 1 male? civilian rescued/critical; NFD; Ch:8,18 @8:54 PM – Photo: bkite.com/XXXX⁽¹⁰⁾ 2008-05-17 16:27:46

Posting a Photo Only (No Text) -
IMAFIREAGENCY : Photo: bkite.com/XXXX⁽¹⁰⁾ 2008-05-17 16:23:09

The only drawback to using Brightkite would be with a busy agency. Brightkite is limited to you being in one place at a time⁽¹¹⁾ . Using Twittermail you can post multiple locations as it is not location dependent.

One solution would be a possible partnership with Brightkite or building your own application that would use the open API’s⁽¹²⁾ of Twitter and Google Maps to do what Brightkite does.

I have to fair, @LAFD does not post all of their fire calls. They only post a small fraction I’m sure.

This is not the end all, be all of using SocNet’s to inform the public. These are merely two ways that it can be done. Get your agency out there. SocNet’s are a great tool. Use them. Be creative.

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