Yesterday I had a very productive day in California talking about social media, technology, emergency management, and ways to assist the public in getting prepared, by using the tools they use on a daily basis.

In addition to meeting with fellow “Craig”, Craig Newmark (the founder of Craigslist), I also met with editors from Wired Magazine, Twitter, Apple and Facebook.

Some of the things we discussed included:

• The need to provide information to the public as data feeds, because they are a key member of our emergency management team;
• The importance of referring to people impacted by a disaster as survivors and utilizing them as a resource; 
• The importance of providing good customer service; and 
• How we, as emergency managers, need to stop trying to have the public fit into our way of doing things and receiving information, but that we should fit the way the public gets, receives and seeks out information.

There are a lot of discussions and conversations taking place about social media, text messaging, etc, and how these tools can be used before, during, and after a disaster.

Click to read full blog: Social Media + Emergency Management: Talking with Tech Leaders on the West Coast