Watching the online meltdown of Amy’s Baking Company (after owners Amy and Samy proved too much of a kitchen nightmare even for Gordon Ramsey) was a vivid (and, ok, entertaining) reminder that saying sorry is rarely easy for us humans. And while Amy and Samy’s apparently enraged, hysterical rebuttals only garnered more criticism (they’ve since [...]

Interesting infographic from the team at Creative Signals highlighting how social media has been used in the immediate aftermath of recent natural disasters: Source: USF’s Online MPA  

  When it comes to using ‘new’ media to assist in a disaster, the Red Cross is normally ahead of the curve. In 1881 the Telegraph was used to relay disaster response communications. Fifty years later, amateur radio users helped relay disaster messages on behalf of the Red Cross across the United States. Following research [...]

If you have people ‘on the scene’ at a crises event and they are uploading photos or video that some viewers may find disturbing do you have an obligation to mark the content as sensitive? If you don’t, are you planting the seeds of another issue you will have to respond to? I was playing [...]

Stuart Bruce has a really great post on dealing with investigative journalists (known or ‘undercover’) over on his blog ‘A PR Guy’s Musings’. In late March The Sunday Times ran a sting operation which uncovered a cash for access scheme (paywall) involving the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer run by the co-Treasurer of [...]

Great clip of  Gordon Scobbie (Deputy Chief Constable, Tayside, Scotland) at the Social Media, Internet and the Law conference (SMILE) on Digital Policing in a Post Riot World Video streaming by Ustream

This still rates as an all-time favourite infographic. If you haven’t seen it before, Mashable published this early in 2011. There’s no better explanation for why your organisation needs to be using social media during a crisis!  

An interesting article over on HuffPost this month about Lynn Peters who successfully managed to raise the alarm after her boyfriend was carjacked and then kidnapped in South Africa. Following a number of re-tweets her request went viral and private security companies in conjunction with Riga Rescue (a volunteer-run emergency service) helped pinpoint the location [...]

The Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN) is a ‘network-of-networks’ concept that aims to leverage digital networks to a ’21st century humanitarian response’. It looks like a great idea and I’ve often wondered if a network that could provide a better interface between charities and humanitarian organisations and the myriad of volunteer tech networks out there might [...]