Emergency Blogcasting System

The Emergency Blogcasting System (EBS) is an association of Austin-area weblog authors who will contribute to a regional disaster response through communication and citizen reporting enabled through blogging.

The EBS is under development. Official release is planned late August 2006.

Mission

The mission of the EBS for bloggers is:

• Educate the blogging community of the role they can play in a disaster situation.
• Identify and publicize primary sources of information that may assist bloggers in their task during a disaster situation.
• Establish and encourage best practices for bloggers during a disaster situation.

The mission of the EBS for the general community is:

• Publicize the constructive role that bloggers may play in a disaster situation.
• Bring attention to valuable blogging and citizen reporting during a disaster situation.
• Dissemenate information to people less connected to official and conventional channels, with particular attention to the diversity of cultures and languages in our community.

Organization and Staff

The EBS is a not-for-profit unincorporated association. No fundraising is anticipated. Any cost of operations are expected to be addressed through partnerships, sponsorships, and alliances.

EBS will offer free memberships. Membership will be open to bloggers either based in Austin or with ties to the Austin community. Members must be willing to write about disaster and response issues during times when the EBS is activated. Members also display the EBS badge on their web site, which is a dynamic graphic that indicates the state of the EBS.

Staff:

• Director: Chip Rosenthal (Austin Bloggers, Unicom Systems Development)

Board of Advisors:

• Gary Chapman (21st Century Project, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Univ. of Texas at Austin)
• Allen Y. Chen (Austinist)
• Pete Collins (City of Austin, Chief Technology Officer)
• Jon Lebkowsky (AssistOrg, EFF-Austin)
• Dale Thompson (Austin Free-Net)
• Tim Trentham (Metroblogging Austin)