Red Cross creates wildfires blog on Wordpress.com

Ike Pigott of the American Red Cross created a blog to provide media outlets with up-to-date information about the Red Cross response to the disaster.

Ike didn't use proprietary software, deployed on the Red Cross network and configured by a developer or designer. He just logged in to WordPress.com and created a free blog. I'm seeing more and more organizations do this recently: when they need a new Web presence for a project, a team, or an initiative, they just jump on to WordPress or Blogger and ride it straight out of the gate.

Many streams of information:

Three headlines greeted me in the predawn darkness when I got off the bus at the Bellevue transit center. One newspaper said that 250,000 people had been evacuated from San Diego. Another said half a million, and a third said "nearly 1 million".

I check in on Nate Ritter's Twitter feed now and then.

My former boss (who I keep in touch with through LinkedIn) mailed me back at work about the people in my old IT department: seven evacuated, no news about their homes yet. The department's running at 20 percent. With luck, everyone will get the all clear to return soon.

My former co-worker Fernando posted a link to this Google Maps mashup on my Facebook wall. It shows good news and bad news. The Rice Canyon fire is uncomfortably close to Temecula, where some in-laws live.

My mother sends updates to my personal mail account about the daughter of family friends. The young woman returned briefly to her house to retrieve some items left behind, to discover that although the house is untouched the area is so badly burned that it will be unlivable.

Flickr photos show the National Guard deployed at Qualcomm Stadium (and the arrival of the Governator.)

Tags: San Diego, fire, Red Cross

(Photo by fuggels)

Published 24 Oct 2007 by Wade Rockett
Filed Under: , ,

Comments

 

Ike said:

Thanks for the linkage and attention, Wade.

We're in the process of finding an enterprise-level solution that we can "own" within the Red Cross domain, but there are a number of tumblers that have to click.

First, a big thanks to Matt and the Automattic team for giving us the redcross.wordpress name to use as a portal, linking to active sites.

We've been on Wordpress.com now since January, operating disaster-specific pages:

(JAN) Oklahoma ice storm
(FEB) Florida tornado
(MAR) Enterprise AL tornado
(MAR) Americus GA tornado
(APR) Texas tornado
and another half dozen or so since.

It's a great platform for pushing information to the public and especially the media. By running a somewhat standard template on Wordpress.com, we're able to train dozens of Red Crossers on the technical aspects of posting the material. I encourage them to start of with private personal sandboxes, to get familiar with the interface.

We're still in the process of recruiting and training folks - and determining what style parameters we want to enforce. All while experimenting with additional pieces, such as the sharable slideshows from Slide.com and the Feedburner headline animators.

We're also trying figure out the best way to build the ranks in two directions - teaching experienced Red Cross disaster volunteers how to blog, and giving a Red Cross crash course to experienced bloggers who want to help in disasters.

Stick around, and be patient as we take some baby steps here - it just keeps getting more fun.
October 25, 2007 00:45
 

Wade Rockett said:

Speaking as a former San Diegan: thank YOU, Ike. You guys are doing stellar work.

And thanks for the additional info!
October 26, 2007 17:33
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