The recent floods in Cumbria graphically highlighted the practical difficulties a community can experience travelling and communicating in the wake of natural disasters.
With scientists only predicting more environmental turmoil in the future, wouldn't it be appropriate for local government organisations and key support agencies to ready themselves with appropriate technology to keep them connected with each other and the rest of the world if the worst were to happen to them?
When the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Britain caused carnage and mayhem across Cumbria in November, whole communities were cut off from outside help as bridges and roads were simply swept away by the torrents.
Community spirit certainly counts for a lot, and there's no doubting that the actions of local people were critical in preventing the situation from being a lot worse.
But the only reason the rest of the country had a clear picture of precisely what was going on was because of what little technology residents had at hand. When daylight revealed the extent of flood waters at Appleby-in-Morland on 18 November, for example, it was a digital camera and Twitter account owned by town resident Andrew Ratcliffe that first alerted the BBC, not local news teams.
A BBC Cumbria webcam then began picking up images, followed by numerous snaps from camera phone owners and posts by amateur bloggers, before national picture agencies and news broadcasters took hold of reporting.
Whether the situation faced is flooding, snow, fire, storms, swine flu or foot and mouth, isolation is usually a dangerous enemy. In each case rapid communication between local authorities and national agencies and emergency services is of paramount importance.
Travel can be impossible, impractical or forbidden, preventing key workers from reaching their offices and affected areas. In these circumstances, secure web-based collaboration systems not only enable local groups to stay in touch with key external stakeholders, they also empower team work and collaboration between organisations, groups and individuals, cut-off by circumstances but still able to connect online.
Empowering people to work together better
The IT systems of most public sector organisations are locked down by default and are difficult to access outside of the workplace. Police IT firewalls block what they regard as potentially contaminated digital communications, such as those that include photos and hefty attachments. These two factors combined make it very hard for vital documents or informative images to be shared and discussed when a disaster strikes.
A flexible and secure Web 2.0 collaboration platform is helping South Gloucestershire council overcome such limitations by allowing team leaders and communications staff to quickly deploy both private and public online workspaces, enabling group members to receive update alerts, downloads files and discuss key issues as required. Having a platform that can be quickly re-purposed by non-IT staff is seen as essential. In emergency situations there is no time to specify, contract and build a new IT environment.
The council is currently using an internet- based system for partnership collaboration and community consultation. As such, all key contacts, such as parish councils and chief officers are already 'on the system' therefore easy to find and involve. The service is designed to complement the council's official website through private and semi-private web spaces where stakeholders can share information.
In a situation such as unprecedented flooding, the council will be able to use this digital platform alongside any other lines of communication to disseminate information and allow recipients to be kept informed and respond with feedback from the field.
All of these communications will automatically be logged and time stamped to provide a useful audit trail should it be needed after the event or during an enquiry.
Of course there are also minor 'disasters' that can be alleviated by an effective online collaboration system. In heavy snowfall, for instance, many key council staff members could use the system to communicate with staff trapped at home or to coordinate school and road closures.
In an environment of public sector spending cuts, most councils are still unlikely to buy a such systems solely as a precaution in the event that future disaster strikes.
However, if like South Gloucestershire they are already using such a system to ably support their local strategic partnership, then re-purposing it to support emergency situations is both easy and cost effective.
John Glover is Manager of INOVEM, providers of collaboration, web 2.0 software
