Tag Archives: public

Trends in Technology that Emergency Planners should consider

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There are a couple of noteworthy technology items that could affect your emergency planning.

First, there’s a trend of younger people (teens) away from Facebook and towards Twitter.  If the trend continues, it will be more important to have emergency messages going out on Twitter feeds than on Facebook pages.  This is just a heads up that if faced with a decision on how to spend your Emergency Planning budget, Twitter looks like the mechanism that will be the better choice to reach the teen-age demographic.   Please pass this along to your Schools Liaisons, Community Center Managers or others who will need to communicate with teens during a disaster.  See the article below.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/poll-teens-migrating-twitter

Second, there’s a trend of young people (twenty- to thirty-yr-olds) to move to Tumblr as their choice of blogging tools.  It’s also a very good tool for sharing images which could be very useful for confirming/assessing damage and controlling rumors during a disaster.  The demographic is one of the reasons Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo.  This would be useful for CERT teams and others trained to perform Damage Assessment or Light Search and Rescue during an emergency.  See the article below.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkantrowitz/2013/05/22/yahoo-tumblr-and-social-media-stuck-in-neutral/

Third, an 18-yr-old from Saratoga, CA has won an award for developing a super-capacitor which is tech-speak for ‘battery’.  The cool thing is that it charges in 20-30 seconds.  What does that mean in terms of emergency management?  It means that power for radios, cell phones, etc is becoming a non-issue (or less of an issue).  The logical next step would be to put the technology to use in larger ‘charging stations’ which would allow people to charge up as they walk by.  Connecting the dots even further…remember the article about the Serval Project where cell phones create a meshed communications network using wi-fi instead of cell towers (see http://www.servalproject.org/)?  If we can keep the cell phones charged, we won’t need to depend on cell towers in emergencies (in densely populated areas anyway). Well, we can now keep the cell phones charged so going forward we may need less emphasis on backup communication methods/devices.  Fewer different device types could mean we’ll see a savings in training, maintenance and repair costs.
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/teens-invention-could-charge-your-phone-20-seconds-1C9977955

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating:  The rate of change for technology is accelerating.  The changes make it easier for us to execute, but in order to remain effective our emergency plans, the training of ourselves and our teams will have to keep up.

2012 Volunteer of the Year Award for the City of San Jose

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Each year, the Santa Clara County Emergency Managers Association honors individuals who volunteer their time to serve the communities in which they live.  I was pleasantly surprised when Chris Godley, the Director of the Office of Emergency Services for the City of San Jose (CA), told me that I’d been nominated to receive this award.

The awards banquet was held on Dec 20, 2012 at the Three Flames Restaurant in San Jose, CA.  Each volunteer was introduced by his or her city’s Emergency Manager and as I listened to the introductions what impressed me was the scope of everyone’s contributions.  No task was too small or unimportant and conversely, no project was too large and daunting to be taken on.  In some cases, volunteers had special skills that the agency needed but didn’t have; in other cases volunteers performed routine duties and in doing so freed up someone else’s time to do other work.

I also took a moment to reflect on why I like volunteering:

  • I can set my own schedule
  • I get to choose what projects I work on
  • I have the freedom to use all my skills and knowledge
  • I have the opportunity to learn new skills and gain more knowledge
  • I have the chance to make a difference
  • I’m appreciated for the work that I do

I feel very honored to be the recipient of the 2012 Volunteer of the Year for the City of San Jose.  It’s been a very rewarding experience and I have no plans to slow down in 2013.  If you’ve ever considered becoming a volunteer, I’d encourage you to give it a try.

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Nakama Photos Featured on VTA/BART Website

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Monday, Nov 26, 2012 – Two of the aerial photographs taken by Nakama Enterprises in October 2012 are being featured on the VTA/BART website.  The photos show the current state of the Milpitas and Berryessa stations.  It’s going to be exciting to watch the progress as the stations are being built literally from the ground up.  Click the following link to view the photos; they’re captioned ‘Milpitas Station in Progress’ and ‘Berryessa Station in Progress’.

http://www.vta.org/bart/

Nakama Enterprises Delivers First Set of Aerial Photos of the VTA/BART Berryessa Extension Project

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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2012 – Today, Nakama Enterprises delivered the first set of aerial photos for the VTA/BART Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension project.  The images were presented to the project’s prime contractor Skanska-Shimmick-Herzog Joint Venture (SSHJV) at their project headquarters in Milpitas, CA.  Key members of the project team reviewed the images with a great deal of interest and enthusiasm and Nakama received very positive feedback.

There’s an interesting side story here that has to do with the Upper Penitencia Creek.  The first image below taken from Google Maps, shows the area before construction on the project began.  The creek bed corresponds to the line of trees that runs alongside Berryessa Rd.

Upper Penitencia Creek prior to construction

The second image, which is one of ours, shows how things look today.  Notice the creek stops short of the track alignment and picks up again towards the left of the frame.  The creek is actually dammed on both sides and the water is being pumped from one side, across the construction zone into the other creek channel.  This diversion will remain in place until later in the project when the dams will be removed and the creek will flow into the new artificial creek bed (within the dashed green lines) being constructed.

Upper Penitencia Creek – Oct 2012

This preservation effort sends a message that SSHJV is committed to minimizing impacts to the environment whenever possible during the project.  That’s very cool.

CalPERS names Nakama Enterprises as Information Technology Consultant

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August 30, 2012 – Today, Nakama Enterprises and our joint venture associate, Winning Strategies LLC (Oakland, CA) received a Notice of Intent to award Solicitation 2011-6339 “Information Technology Consultants Spring-Fed Pool Refresh No. 1” from CalPERS (the California Public Employees Retirement System).   CalPERS provides retirement and health benefits to more than 1.6 million public employees, retirees, and their families and more than 3,000 employers.

Our role will be to provide Management Support Services including Senior/Lead Technical Specialists and Senior Business Analyst services as CalPERS makes improvements in their infrastructure and tools.