Coast Guard: New Media Mission
The call came in about an hour or so ago from @uscgd13 "Coast Guard is launching on a man overboard off the Ferry Wenatachee on the Bainbridge Island run." The "tweet" was picked up by @King5Seattle which is how I learned about it.
During the next 15 minutes, I learned that the Coast Guard had scrambled a helicopter from Port Angeles as well as a boat from Station Seattle to assist in the search. Eventually, the tweet "@All the Coast Guard is standing down from the search" was posted after learning the report came from someone that thought they saw someone in the water. Better safe than sorry, I guess.
So, what's the point? The point is that there is a lot that could've happened. The fact that users were connected meant the Coast Guard could've asked for help, and King 5 could determine if it was worth sending a crew to report, etc.
The key is determining what is noise and what is worth paying attention to. There are a whole host of issues that arise such as determining credibility of the source, when is help just additional interference, etc. etc.
Despite these issues, I applaud the Coast Guard and others for leading in this area. You can learn more about the new media mission of the Coast Guard on their YouTube channel - also check out their Flickr page.
What are some other organizations that are using social networking effectively that surprised you?
Full Disclosure: The Coast Guard is not a SiteCrafting customer, though we would love them to be. Oh, and a shameless plug for SiteCrafting's social media toolkit, which can be added to your SiteCrafting CMS.
During the next 15 minutes, I learned that the Coast Guard had scrambled a helicopter from Port Angeles as well as a boat from Station Seattle to assist in the search. Eventually, the tweet "@All the Coast Guard is standing down from the search" was posted after learning the report came from someone that thought they saw someone in the water. Better safe than sorry, I guess.
So, what's the point? The point is that there is a lot that could've happened. The fact that users were connected meant the Coast Guard could've asked for help, and King 5 could determine if it was worth sending a crew to report, etc.
The key is determining what is noise and what is worth paying attention to. There are a whole host of issues that arise such as determining credibility of the source, when is help just additional interference, etc. etc.
Despite these issues, I applaud the Coast Guard and others for leading in this area. You can learn more about the new media mission of the Coast Guard on their YouTube channel - also check out their Flickr page.
What are some other organizations that are using social networking effectively that surprised you?
Full Disclosure: The Coast Guard is not a SiteCrafting customer, though we would love them to be. Oh, and a shameless plug for SiteCrafting's social media toolkit, which can be added to your SiteCrafting CMS.
Here's the account of the morning's operation from the Coast Guard Blog - http://uscgd13.blogspot.com/2009/06/social-media-and-coast-guard-cases.html
Left by Brian at SC | Jun. 10, 2009 at 1:57pm
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