Highlights from #bluelightcamp
This weekend in Manchester, the Blue Light Camp unconference took place and was reported to have been very a unique and refreshing day. The emergency services event was the brain child of Sasha Taylor, Paul Coxon and David White and provided a fantastic networking opportunity for those interested in the use of social media and technology in Blue Light services. Here at the blog we followed the buzz online closely and thought a wrap up of some of the highlights would be useful.
Highlights included the following sessions; the US police 'Thank a cop' praise system brought up the idea of using social media to reward effectual police officers and help correct those who need development. ‘Reading the Riots’ explored the spread of rumours during the riots and how emergency services can better use social media during a crisis. ‘Volunteer Force’ put forward the idea of setting up a volunteer force to assist Blue Light services online during emergencies. All of these highlights can still be seen on Twitter using the #blcamp and #bluelightcamp hashtags.
Discussions also included how social media can help the Blue Light Services communicate with the public; in particular The West Midlands Police looked into how the Police can use the iPhone app Bambusa to communicate with the public. You can also find Chief Inspector of Local Policing in Coventry, Kerry Blakeman who promotes and uses the app via this link: www.bambuser.com/channel/kerryblakeman
The event was live streamed and pics were uploaded to Flickr here.
Some blog posts reviewing the event have already been posted online:
All in all, great discussions and insights, innovation-sharing and online buzz.
Were you there? Did you find it useful? If so, please share your thoughts with us here or on our Twitter feed.