Wikis and Emergency Management
This article was originally written for the July 2006 International Association of Emergency Managers Bulletin.
The rapid growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has spawned the creation of new and potentially useful software applications that may provide benefits to emergency managers. One of these applications that is currently drawing attention is the wiki.
Wiki is the Hawaiian word meaning to hurry, hasten; quick, fast, swift. Wiki software therefore refers to packages that are designed to make it quick and easy to create and modify collaborative web pages on the Internet. They have actually become more powerful and advanced than just for the creation of web content – wikis now power some very content-rich websites including the open source Wikipedia – the open encyclopaedia.
What are some of the key characteristics of a wiki?
- server-based software
- free, with few licensing restrictions
- accessible from any web browser
- can be run on a standalone laptop
- uses html links to reference other pages in the database
- designed for collaboration and sharing
- records all revisions of documents and tracks changes made by users
- immediately highlights recent page changes and by whom
What opportunities exist for wikis in the emergency management domain?
Wiki software has much potential to be used as a collaborative planning tool – whether planning occurs within or between organisations. Rather than passing a word processing document around via email to all participants in the planning process, the plan could instead be created and maintained using a wiki. A secured web site would provide an excellent home where plan developers could log in to check the latest changes and make modifications. The one key benefit over using a document-based approach is that everyone is always guaranteed to be reading and editing the latest version of the plan.
As certain milestones are reached in plan development, it is possible to lock the wiki, and create a ‘snapshot’ of the current plan before continuing the review and development process. Conceptually, this model of development is quite similar to techniques used for managing the development of computer software – with developers sharing a central repository.
In addition to planning, a wiki can also be used as a knowledgebase to store information and references to other documents. For example, certain pages in a wiki could be ‘tagged’ with a pandemic tag. Then, by viewing the pandemic category, it will show all pages that are tagged with pandemic. This provides quick and easy access to relevant information.
The benefits of wikis do not end when response starts. Conceptually, wikis can be installed on laptops or PDA’s enabling responders to have an entire knowledgebase available on a PDA including all the links and available plans.
Wikis could be used on a set of wireless laptops as a tool to assist your incident management system of choice. For example, the response plan developed in the EOC could be created in a wiki, and then planning/intel, operations, logistics, finance, information could collaborate on the one document with each section being able to view the other sections.
Wikis are also starting to be used in response and recovery by those people that have access to power and communications. Probably the best recent example is the Katrina Help Info wiki that is used to consolidate response and recovery information following a disaster – in effect creating a portal for the event with links to other agencies websites. In this manner, a wiki could be used as a public information system where key infrastructure is available.
Another example is the Hurricane Katrina web page on Wikipedia which started as a collaborative effort to record open source situation information. In the case of the Flu Wiki, wikis are even being used to develop a community knowledgebase about a hazard before the event.
It is important to note at this point that public wikis with permissive access controls can have issues with the quality and authenticity of information provided. Restriction of editing rights to approved and trained personnel can ensure that quality of information contained in the wiki is not threatened.
The next likely development is going to be the consolidation of wikis and community mapping projects such as the Hurricane Information Maps that were developed following Hurricane Katrina and utilise Google Maps. The combination of information contained in a wiki linked to spatial references and presented on a map will provide a very powerful information resource for response and recovery.