Putting UK Flooding Alerts Onto Twitter #UKBLC14

@edent — Mon, 26 May 2014 11:06:28 +0000

As part of BlueLightCamp '14, a group of civil servants, hackers, and emergency service workers got together for a weekend of furious creation.

I decided to look at flooding data. The recent floods in the UK are a brutal remember of the realities of climate change and our poor stewardship of the nation's waterways.

The UK Government has a large collection of Flooding Data online - including some very detailed river-by-river data.

Initially, we thought it would be a great idea if every river in the country could Tweet. Telling local residents how high its water levels were and how likely it was to flood.

Unfortunately, the data isn't in brilliant shape. It's hard to find a reference guide to see what the data mean, where the measuring stations are, and which levels indicated likely flooding.

Hack Da Police (and other emergency services) #UKBLC14

@edent — Mon, 12 May 2014 07:12:38 +0000

This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer.

I've just come back from an amazing BlueLightCamp 2014 - held in the splendid offices of the Ordnance Survey.

Themed unconferences are nothing new - but I think this was one of the first that I've been to focussed on such a vital topic - the Emergency Services.

You can read a full write up of all the sessions on the official blog, or you can read Ben Proctor's take on the day.

Here are my scattered thoughts, interspersed with tweets from the event.

999

It's funny how little the basic 999 / 112 service has evolved from the caller's perspective. Is there any way it can be made more useful to the caller, dispatch, and the arriving teams?

Video and images is thought to be a great, practical way to assess a situation before the police / ambulance / fire crews get there. The immediate fear is that people will send in pre-recorded video (possibly from TV shows) in an attempt to scam operators. There needs to be a guarantee the video is live and - if possible - a way to communicate back to the person filming.

Even more challenging - it has to be cross platform and quick. Downloading apps isn't easy in an emergency situation.

I showed off a demo of WebRTC which can do live video from the phone's browser.

There was some suggestion that footage - as well as being useful in court - could also be a revenue generating front. Although that's not without its issues.

The texting of 999 is mostly used by those with hearing impairments. But there's a crazy situation at play

Amanda from Pesky People is working on better ways for Deaf people to communicate in an emergency.

Wearables

How do you feel about cops wearing cameras? Does Google Glass present too large a barrier between service provider and citizen?

Quantified Self toys like FitBit are also useful for monitoring the general health of the workforce. They can also be used to detect elevated heart rates, and other things which could be very helpful in realising if a worker is in danger.

Ultimately, emergency services workers take their own phones with them on calls - it won't be long before Glass (or its generic equivalent) will be sneaking its way into the ranks.

Drawnalism

The day was illustrated by the fabulous Drawnalism.

Rapid Innovation

I ran a workshop on Rapid Innovation, and how we practice it here in The Lab. There's a great write up on the BlueLightCamp blog.

The essence of my message was that:

JFDI is a valid strategy.
If you can't get a prototype working in 6 weeks, you won't get anything done in 6 months.
Ask forgiveness (and a little bit of permission).
Show your wider team that you're experimenting. Let them know that it's ok for them to try new things.
Be open with your failures. People can't learn from your mistakes if you bury them.
Innovate in the open. We built a 3D printer in the main entrance of our HQ precisely to get people asking "Why are you doing that?"

Drones!

Drones are a reality. The technology is now at a price where reliable drones can be used for surveillance, rescue, and intelligence gathering.

As a demonstration, Simon Orr flew his drone for us all to see.

As well as the regulatory issues - don't fly them near nuclear power plants - we are going to have to contend with multiple drones sharing the same airspace.

Hacking

Ultimately, I didn't use any police data in my hack - but I was able to get some open data from the Environment Agency tweeting :-)

Final Thoughts

Brilliant day, fantastically organised, gorgeous building, well catered, and some very stimulating conversation. I'm already looking forward to #UKBLC15!

ukblc14 – Terence Eden’s Blog