We are pleased to announce the release of CrisisWire.com.

CrisisWire is a self-aggregating website that pulls information on any disaster around the US and displays it on one page. It gets information into the hands of the people that need it most.

During a disaster people spend valuable time searching the internet and waiting for the media to report on their city, their neighborhood, their street. While main stream media serves a vital role during disasters, it is impossible to update the population on everything that is happening during a crisis. There usually isn’t enough time or resources. CrisisWire not only uses the traditional media outlets’ valuable information but will also utilize citizen journalists and Google maps to track the disaster. YouTube.com (videos), Flickr.com (photos) and a whole host of other types of published media will also soon be integrated.

Along with the website, CrisisWire will soon utilize text messages to get information to people that have lost their electricity, internet, or been displaced from their home. So no matter where someone is, they can be receiving invaluable information about shelters, road closures and other dangers.

Our hope is that CrisisWire will change the way people respond and learn about disasters.

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CrisisWire is currently being used for the southern California Aftershock earthquake drill that began on Novemeber 13, 2008. This drill is helping to teach people how to respond in a disaster and is a perfect example for CrisisWire to use at this time.

To learn more about this vital source of disaster information, please visit CrisisWire.com or contact me directly

We would appreciate your input and feedback greatly.

Please listen for a second.  I’ll try to keep this short, but if you don’t want to read anymore, please do me this one favor.

Click this link, register, and vote for our team and our idea:
http://ideablob.com/ideas/3344-Disaster-Emergency-Info-Now-

Now, for those of you who are a little hesitant, here’s why I want you to click, register and vote.

See, I’ve been a little busy these last few years down here in San Diego.  Of course, I’ve always been busy, but this is different.  A few years ago I started searching for something more than money.  I’ve always been committed to my faith, but I’ve also been a pretty decent business-minded guy too.  Even now I consult other small businesses and non-profits on revenue strategies.  I know how to do that pretty well.

There’s something else I’ve been looking for.  I’ve been looking for a team and an opportunity.  A group of leaders who are self-sacrificing, looking for the betterment of others and willing to do what it takes to give a pure gift.

In 2003, San Diego went through some pretty ferocious fires.  I heard about them and watched a little on CNN while I was at Western in Bellingham.  But, I didn’t pay much attention, as most of didn’t who weren’t in the middle of the crisis.

But, then there were the floods in Centralia and Chehalis two different years that destroyed homes, businesses, and livelihoods.  Now those, we paid attention to.  We were in the middle of them. We had 18 inches in our home and it ruined everything.

Then there was Katrina, Hurricane Ike, the California Firestorm of 2007.  It’s in everyone’s back yard now.  It’s everyone’s problem at some point.

Here’s the problem we’re living with today.

The same problems exist today that have existed for a hundred years.  We still aren’t able to communicate to the people we need to most in times of emergency.

When the phone lines are down, how do you call 911?  When the internet is down, how do you find a map out of your area or the next shelter?  When the radio stations and tv stations are retelling the same stories every 20 minutes, but not talking about your area and whether the fire is over that hill behind your house, how do you find out?

That’s the problem.

But now we’re living in a world of opportunity.

The world is crazy and always has been.  But what’s changed in the last few years is the maturing of one of the worlds I’ve been living and working in for the past 15.  The internet has become a big and awesome place.  We’re now all publishing massive amounts of things.  Text, videos, audio, location-aware devices like GPS is able to all be published.  Real-time.  Like our own TV broadcasts but more than just TV.  It’s all possible today. Not only possible, but actually happening.  And by more than just internet geeks like me.

Some people find all that scary.  Those people are right about the possible threats of publishing so much info about ourselves.  But there’s also a whole world of possibility that we haven’t tapped yet.

So here’s the point.  With all this information being published by people in real-time, we have a chance to fix the problem.  We have the opportunity to make sure the officials and groups who can help us in times of disasters have all the information possible.  Every bit of it.

We need them to know when we’re out of water, food, shelter.  We need them to know when fires cross the roads.

That’s why the team I mentioned earlier exists.

Together, we’re creating the world’s first service which will take all the things that we are publishing and turn it into something useful.

We’re already talking to official public information officers in San Diego and Houston, government officials, traditional media outlets, publicly funded media outlets, citizen journalists and so many more stakeholders.  But this isn’t a company. It’s a project.  This project should have existed years ago, but it doesn’t.

Soon it will.

We’re building it.  For free.

I believe in this team.  I believe they’ve sacrificed time, effort, and skills to help save their fellow neighbors during an emergency.  This is a noble cause.  They deserve this.

Please, go to this link.  Register.  Vote for our cause.  We’re in the running right now for a $10,000 prize which will be split between 15 people.  It’s worth about 1/100th of the amount of time they’re putting into it. It’s a drop in the bucket to them, but it would mean so much to validate their work.

http://ideablob.com/ideas/3344-Disaster-Emergency-Info-Now-

Please, take the time for us.  I would really appreciate it.

And feel free to encourage your friends and family as well to do the same if you feel led.

Sincerely,

Nate Ritter

The point is there’s a tribe of people who want change. It’s not a group of people. It’s not a crowd of people. Crowds are faceless and groups are leaderless. We’ve got both faces and leaders. Every one of the individuals who are helping to make CrisisWire a success are leaders. These people knew change was needed and stepped up to the plate.

What is CrisisWire?

Let’s start with the real issue. What’s the problem? Why all the passion?

The problem is that in an emergency people can’t find their way. We’ve been given massive power to publish anything we please. We, the public, used our ability to publish our concerns and troubles during all the natural and unnatural disasters that have taken place over the past few years. But it’s not always helping. That’s one problem.

The other problem is on the other side of this situation. In an emergency, the people who can help don’t know about our problems in the midst of it all.

But, people know that this is a problem. And our group (thanks to Refresh San Diego) has stood up to answer the call.

We’re building a media aggregator of emergency/disaster information from every source possible including tv, radio, blogs, micro-publishing, governmental sources, traditional media, publicly funded media, and more. Published on one page per disaster and then separated into neighborhoods where possible, this application could put the info into the hands of the people who need it most.

Tribe Highlight

Peggy Gartin

One of the crazy-awesome people on our team is Peggy Gartin. She’s the one with the awesome shoes and jokes being muttered under her breath to people sitting next to her in a serious meeting.

Peggy is a fantastic leader. She’s a fanatic about eliminating AIDS and supporting those who live with it. She has a craving to “use [her] superpowers for good”.

Peggy is like many of us. We all have our “zombie fiction” (that thing we geek out about in private). Peggy and her husband collect Simpson action figures and host the Simpsons Collector Sector BBQ every Comic-Con here in San Diego. See, she’s normal too.

She’s also a hard core public news geek too. She ran a corporate intranet for a Fortune 15 company for years. She became a news junkie while doing this to keep up on the goings on. Her thirst for well timed, well written, well read pieces makes her an advocate for the people in these emergencies who are searching anywhere and everywhere for important up to date news on their area and situation. It’s good to have her on our side.

The reason I’m telling you all of this about her is because Peggy is one of the many leaders we have on our CrisisWire project team. This isn’t a company. It’s a project. Projects require leaders. Projects that have more than one person in them require many leaders. Peggy is a perfect example of the kind of leadership mentality we’re blessed to have on this project.

Everyone has a different role to play. Everyone on our team is a leader. And we’re thankful for that. That’s what makes this a tribe. Not a group, not a crowd. A tribe.

Peggy joined CrisisWire to have a hand in creating a good, useful web app that spreads “like wildfire (bad pun fully intended)”.

We’re with her.

Image by slworking2 via Flickr

Tis the season for disasters and emergencies.  There always seems to be something going on in the world where people need help. We’ve got a team of people trying to help solve the information drought that comes with localized emergencies.

The backstory

About a year ago many of you know I played a small role in helping people get information about the 2007 wildfires here in San Diego. The response was positive, to say the least. But while I talked about what happened, one question still plagued me (from a BarCamp I spoke at): “What’s the next step?”

The thing is, even though the role I played was comparatively small – 1000 or so people in the midst of 3 million – we recognized the need. Citizen journalism was playing a roll that traditional media couldn’t.  Now, with the popularity of Twitter and other very fast broadcasting/publishing mediums, we have an opportunity to impact the world for good, one person at a time, one post at a time.

Image via Wikipedia

I thought about this issue, advocated “the next step” to other organizations who had funding, manpower and drive.  So far, few have stepped up to the plate.  I even gave a prototype example of what small steps could be taken to prepare for the next emergency with little staff, leveraging the massive amount of information being put out by citizens, traditional media and governments.  I’ve seen few takers. Only a handful of potential services being started that will do this kind of thing.

So, I thought… I’ll build it myself.  I have one month before HeroCamp in Houston. I’ll build it and show it off there.

Enter Refresh SD.

Refresh San Diego is a group of people who are “working to refresh the creative, technical, and professional culture of Internet in the San Diego area.” Phelan Riessen, a local entrepreneur and the organizer of Refresh SD, wanted to solidify the group around a goal. Something that would be fun and potentially bring in extra money for everyone involved.

I attended the brainstorm meeting to figure out which idea we would work on as a team.  I pitched the idea of an aggregated emergency informational system/site and I was surprised to see every person in the meeting raise their hand in agreement that this was the project to work on, even without money being the first objective.

Image via Wikipedia

In the next month a team of 15 volunteers will be working together to produce one of the most comprehensive emergency information aggregation, categorization, and broadcasting systems on the planet.

This team is doing so without funding, in everyone’s spare time, and for the good of humanity as a whole.

….

Now, I’m telling you this story for a few reasons.  (1) I believe this team is doing some of the most important work of our lives and I want you to know about it.  (2) I believe this team should be credited with thanks and admiration from you, the ones who will profit from it.

There are a few other things you can do to be a part of this adventure, too.

1. You can vote up, comment, and give advice about this idea at IdeaBlob. (the team will win $10k, which would be a HUGE “thank you” as well as offset some costs)
2. Comment on this blog with ideas and advice.
3. Help us get the word out about what we’re doing to local and national media.

Please, feel free to share this story.  I’ll be posting more about the project as we go along as well as the link to it when it’s ready for testing.

Thanks!