The state of Louisiana relied almost exclusively on audio conferencing for disaster response reports for several months after Hurricane Katrina. This circumstance during the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States taught many important lessons. If we learn these lessons, then perhaps we can reduce the suffering and loss of life in future disasters.
Conference calling has always been and always can be a tool for choosing a voice connection. The telephone is the most common communication technology on the planet. No other voice system can handle a large number of people at a time. In an emergency, these can be people who do not know each other, but should come together to achieve a common goal: to save lives and fix problems. In addition, audio conferencing systems are designed to process messages at different scales: from several people to hundreds and thousands of people at a time. What should the first respondent, a political leader or an interested citizen, do in choosing an audio conferencing provider capable of being there for them in a crisis? Here is a short checklist:
- Tested in a crisis? Has the provider checked that their services can cope with the stressful problems of the crisis?
- Nodal technology? Your provider needs a federated system, not a centralized one. That way, if one host goes down, then the other host will be able to pick up traffic so that customers can use the system in their crisis. This was a problem in Louisiana. When the Bell South network was flooded, its limited audio conference capabilities were also flooded.
- Call now Technology? Does the provider provide leaders Call now a technology that allows them to choose names from their call list and “beat the disk” all of them simultaneously from a mobile device? In a crisis, you often do not have enough time to schedule a conference when people die and seconds are precious.
- Alarm alerts with audio conferencing? Does your provider provide the ability to broadcast an alert from a live recorded message from you that gives recipients the opportunity to enter a follow-up (trailer) conference call so that you can answer questions and give additional information?
- Record and publish on the Internet? Does your provider allow you to record a conference call on the fly, and then automatically publish these records on the Internet or allow people to dial a number to listen to them later? Emergency response is unpredictable. At the first moment, the first respondents can be called in to save a family from the roof or from the wreckage of their collapsed building. When this happens, the first respondents cannot call the night conference to receive status updates. Recorded calls allow them to dial and listen to reports at their leisure or listen to records on the Internet. This proved to be a decisive factor during the Hurricane Katrina. These recordings also perpetuate the memory of initiatives taken during the crisis for the post-crisis review.
- Expert help? Is your provider answering your questions competently and quickly the first time you call, or do you get new people reading from a canned script every time you call? Do you get answers from operators in faraway countries? Such assistance may be acceptable for certain types of assistance, but not for disaster management when people’s lives are on the line. Ask if your provider has experience supporting disaster management. If not, find a new supplier.
Disaster lessons dictate a new kind of web 2.0 conference call capability that allows mobile teams with Call now from mobile phones. In recent years, telephones have become an ideal tool for communication in any major disaster. This is unlikely to change. To cope with disasters and emergencies, these telephone systems must be integrated with data systems. That's what Web 2.0 audio conferencing is.
To learn more, google "web 2.0 audio conferencing".
Copyright © 2011. Leader Phone® and Michael McKibben. All rights reserved.
