Social media requires reassessment of government's role in response, says Bates

The rise of social media and mobile, networked citizens requires a new governmental attitude toward preparedness, said panelists and audience members during an Oct. 28 panel discussion at the Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C.

A Cold War model dominated by a "professional protector class...I-could-tell-you-but-I'll-have-to-kill-you kind of approach to national security" can no longer apply to the problem of ensuring national resiliency in the face of terrorist attacks or even natural disasters, said Scott Bates, the center's vice president for national security. Bates co-authored a recent report (.pdf)  on social media's role in national resilience.

"Because of the revolution in social media, [people] expect an answer, and we're not happy to just roll with whatever recording we get on the telephone," Bates said, adding that official response has to also integrate with increasingly organized response from the public to disasters.

During the event, Michael Dunaway, who until earlier this year was program manager for the Homeland Security Department's enhancing public response and community resilience project, said the government still isn't prepared to receive on-the-spot data from public in the event of a disaster.

"Right now they're going to go to CNN's iReport because the government has made no provision to take this information in either as intelligence or as ground truth of the incident or as an ability to manage the process from the local level," he said.

For more:
- go to the event webpage (archived webcast and transcript available)

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