I had the pleasure of moderating a webinar last Wednesday: How Governments are Harnessing the Value of Community and Collaborative Technologies: A Haiti Case Study. Telligent founder and CTO Rob Howard made this presentation at the Gov 2.0 show last month, and he received such an overwhelming response that we decided to repeat it as a webinar to ensure everyone that wanted had an opportunity to see it.
Regardless of your line of business, you are sure to find the information Rob presented insightful. For those engaged in disaster relief, the relevance is clear. The way the military responded and supported the coordination of the more than 300 military, government and NGO responders has forever changed the way humanitarian assistance and disaster relief will occur.
Other government entities will be able to relate to how the technology was used to engage a broad range of stakeholders, both inside and outside formal organizations, and to analyze the unstructured data generated into useful, actionable knowledge. Rob makes clear parallels to the private sector as he explains how corporations are similarly engaged with their customers through support communities.
More specifically, during the webinar, he shared the APAN (All Partners Access Network) story to demonstrate how US and international government organizations are utilizing community software to more efficiently and securely augment the free flow of information to government personnel and other approved parties across the globe.
After Hurricane Katrina, the US learned some very tough lessons around the impact that coordination - or the lack thereof - can have on the lives of many during disasters. In response to those lessons, the military was in the planning stages of developing better communication and coordination processes when the earthquake struck Haiti. Understanding that people's lives cannot wait for final plans when faced with a disaster, APAN was launched within 24 hours of the earthquake, a full 10 months ahead of schedule.
While the magnitude of the loss in Haiti is unimaginable, there is no doubt that lives were saved and aid was more effectively delivered because of the improved collaboration of the first responders. As technology, processes, and the ability to analyze and learn from past experiences improve, there is no doubt that the US and the world will be better able to respond to the needs of those impacted by disasters in the future.
If you have not yet viewed the webinar, read the APAN success story or watched the short video, I encourage you to do so. If you have done those things, I challenge you to think of ways you can use community and collaboration technologies in your organization or industry to drive change for the better.
