You, or people you know are actively using social media. I'm often asked why I believe those in infra-structure protection, IT security, and people in general should even be using the technology. I simply respond it's just one more tool in the toobox, but you should have in the box, and ready to go.
Unless you've been living under a rock, there is no deying the power of such tools. As we saw in Iran, and we are seeing in Haiti, the use of this technology brings critical information to the airwaves from eye witnesses on the scene. We have heard stories of applications like Twitter being used to locate hostages, find people trapped in rubble, and we now use Twitter to provide on the ground observations of seismic activity (the USGS TED system).
I'm not saying that there aren't risks of using social media, but they are managable. Just like I wouldn't put my utility knive back in the tool box with the blade exposed, I shouldn't take unessarry risks using social media.
Ask any Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) person the difficulty of locating people who may be trapped or injured, by "searching" with limited technology and dogs, and compare it to knowing where someone is specifically trapped and the job becomes more rescue than search.
Understanding not eveyone will have cell phones, nor will cellular/texting services always be available we should encourage our public sector agencies to adopt a means to communciate with the citizens during a mass casualty event, in order to reduce the "search" timeline and provide more time for rescue.
Here is link to a blog that describes "Social Media’s True Impact on Haiti, China, and the World"
