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Blogging system to help first responders using ground-up trusted sources | 03.16.2007 | 08:07:34 | Views: 5438 | ID: March 16 '07: Researchers at Indiana University Bloomington have said that the blogging community can be utilized to help situational awareness and information-sharing among first responders during an emergency, a press release announced. After looking at the available information on the blogosphere during Hurricane Katrina, university officials said the potential is great if there can be a way to harness that information. To push that systematic gathering, categorizing and subsequent dissemination of information, the IU School of Infomatics and the Pervasive Technology Lab created the Blooming Emergency Collaborative Information System "a research project in which bloggers monitor communications sources such as the Internet, television and two-way radio traffic, and then contact authorities." David J. Wild, the assistant professor of Informatics said, "While it is only in the developmental stages, this project is harnessing local volunteer efforts, serving the community in which we live, and it provides a model, a new way, if you will, to think about information flow in emergencies." The project was unveiled to members of the Bloomington area emergency management community, the Red Cross, members of local religious organizations, search and rescue officials, amateur radio operators and other officials. "As a result of the meeting," the press release read, "several people in the community volunteered to become 'trusted reporters' for the BECIS blogging system." The "information [will be] collected by reporters monitoring one or more communications sources [which] would feed pertinent information into the blog. The information then would be made immediately available to officials, emergency responders and volunteers."
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