THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

FSU VOST

Initial Briefing, April 2013

#VOSTFSU Virtual Operations Support Team

Virtual Operations SupportVirtual Operations Support (VOS) as applied to emergency management and disaster recovery is an effort to make use of new communication technologies and social media tools during an emergency or disaster to aid the response and recovery effort through open-source data collection, aggregation, verification, and dissemination.

Virtual Operations Support Team

VOS Teams (VOST) are activated to perform specific VOS functions in support of participating organizations or agencies.

FSU.VOST

The FSU VOST (FSU.VOST) will be comprised of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (EMHS) Faculty and staff, along with interested and qualified students.

Students on FSU.VOST should be: Familiar with emergency management practices and

concepts. Completion of “Foundations of Emergency Management” and/or “Disaster Systems” is a plus.

Comfortable with social media, including Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Comfortable with Skype, Google Chat, and Google Docs.

Must have a Twitter account, Facebook account, Google account, Skype account, and a laptop with internet access.

FSU.VOST Members

FSU Student

FEMA IS-042: Social Media in EM

Computer with Internet Access

Proficiency in Social Media Platforms

Awareness-Level Understanding of Emergency Management and Public Safety Operations

FSU.VOST

FSU.VOST is virtual! There is an operations center/studio in Bellamy, but team members can work anywhere with an internet connection.

Communication and backchannel coordination is accomplished through Skype, Google chat, and web applications.

The FSU.VOST may be activated for any type of disaster.

Shifts will run 4-8 hours, depending on mission needs and available personnel. Major disasters may require near 24/7 operations.

FSU.VOST Missions

FSUVOST may operate in support of:

FDEM or county/local governments. Primary missions will be to track trends and information regarding ingoing

disasters, amplify official messages, and assist with rumor control. Can integrate with ESF-14 (Public Information) or ESF-5 (Planning /

Reconnaissance)

ESF-18 and/or Department of Economic Opportunity Data collection and damage assessment of businesses impacted by

disaster.

FSU Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program (EMHS) research projects EMHS is developing a concept called PRISM – Platform for Real-time

Integration of Social Media. VOST will help develop and refine this toolset and concept.

FSU EMHS Disaster Incident Research Team (DIRT) DIRT operates in and around disaster impact areas. FSU.VOST may provide

operational support to these deployments.

Apps

FSU.VOST may utilize any of the following applications for situation monitoring/awareness.

Familiarity with any or all of these tools is a plus.

(FSU is also developing its own proprietary situational awareness software solutions for use by FSU.VOST

Social Media management dashboard

Full integration of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Foursqare, Myspace, WordPress, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.

Allows user to receive/author posts from multiple accounts across multiple platforms

Data can be sorted in Streams by account, keywords/hashtags, etc.

Open-source crowdsourcing app

Gathers and structures data from multitude of sources

Aggregates user-generated geocoded reports with Google Maps overlay

Cross-platform Social Media tool for monitoring, filtering and exporting Social Media data

Allows traditional keyword/ hashtag searches or searches by user-identified regions or locations

Only aggregates Social Media posts that include geolocation data

Geofeedia

How To Get Involved

Go to: http://em.fsu.edu/vost and fill out the application.

For more information, please contact David Merrick at dmerrick@cdrp.net