New Mailing List - The use of the Internet in Disaster Situations

Communication of information by the internet during disasters is an area
that I have been involved in studying for 3 years and attempting to bring
about by establishing The Disaster Center site, as a media distribution
outlet, by establishing our status as a media distribution outlet for
government agencies, developing the means to collect and distribute official
disaster related reports, that are then posted to a message board system
that is accessible by search engine, and by promoting the development of the
internet as a means for communication of the disaster related message by the
emergency management community.

The Disaster Center is an advocate for the development of the use of the
internet as a means of communicating the "disaster message" by the Federal,
state, and local governments, nonprofit organizations, groups in the
disaster area, and by the people.

Our search engine driven message board system has been used by individuals
writing about the disaster long after it takes place, and by people in the
middle of it.

At this point in time the internet has already been used as the only means
of communication into the center of an area during a severe disaster*, as an
organized means of collecting, compiling and distributing disaster reports
from large areas**, as a means for the collection and for the distribution
of official disaster information in a single location***, to collect
archives of local storm and weather reports and  NWS text statements
available to the public on the Internet****, and as a means of collecting
and sharing local public information in a closed  and open networks.*****

*Kobe Earthquake
**Caribbean Hurricane Page -- Caribbean Reports(1)
***The Disaster Center(2)
****Central Atlantic Storm Investigators(3)
*****(1)(2)(3)

Yet, the greatest developments in the use of the internet for the
communication of the emergency and disaster related message are just over
the horizon.

I believe that the development of internet and wireless based systems for
the communication of the disaster message will proceed at such a pace, that
a child born this last week, will need to have explained to him or her what
we are now doing; because by the time he or she is ten, the systems that
will be established to provide that message will be so far advanced that
those children will wonder how we got along without the ability to
communicate during disasters.

Announcing a New Mailing list:

I would like to take this time to invite members of CASI and the SitRep to
join a new mailing list for discussion about the development of improved
ways of collecting and communicating information during and after disasters
by the use of the internet.

The purpose of this list is to promote the use of and development of the
internet by public agencies; and to discuss the development of other
internet based systems for the collection and distribution of the "disaster
message."

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this list send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
with the word
subscribe
or the word
unsubscribe
only, in the body of the message.




%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%