April 1, 1998 Special Presentation

by Rick Tobin
Emergency Planning Consultant, TAO Services

Emergency Planning On the Internet

SUMMARY

EIIP Virtual Library Online Presentation

"Emergency Planning on the Internet"

Special Presentation
by
Rick Tobin
Emergency Planning Consultant, TAO Services

Author Rick Tobin reviewed the evolution of the use of Internet technologies in emergency management, and some of the needs which resulted, leading to the writing of his book with his son Ryan. He pointed out some of the ongoing needs to make the Internet fully usable to the emergency management community and the cultural shift it represents as a way of doing business. Each generation handles the cultural change differently.

RICK TOBIN

Emergency Planning Consultant, TAO Services

Rick Tobin is a professional emergency planner. Mr. Tobin started TAO Services Emergency Management Consulting in 1987. Since then he has provided emergency management consulting to all levels of government and business across the United States. He is well known for his high quality products and innovative problem solving.

Rick has recently served as an emergency services coordinator for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) in California. His assignments included revision of the State Emergency Plan and State Nuclear Plant Emergency Response Plan, the OES Work Plan development, and writing after action reports for the Highway 41 Fire and the 1995 Winter Storms. He performed Advanced Planning during the emergency response in Northern California for the 1997 and 1998 floods. He was also assigned the lead coordinator for medical disaster services, mutual aid planning, animal disaster response, mass care and shelter, and many other disaster related issues for OES.

Mr. Tobin has a degree in biology with chemistry, and is working towards his masters degree in management. He has performed emergency response and planning activities for decades. He has served on an ambulance, a Search and Rescue Team, a California County Disaster Council and on response teams for the Navy, the mining industry, and for utility firms. Rick is the author of the book, "Emergency Planning on the Internet." His contributions also include articles in the field of emergency planning including, "The Role of Telecommuting and the Virtual EOC." Because of his service on the State Telework Advisory Group, he is well versed in the needs for communications and information before, during and after disaster. He focused on this information during a recent teaching assignment at the California State University of Sacramento where he taught business disaster recovery planning.

* * * *

Emergency Planning On the Internet

Emergency professionals need a reliable way to stay informed and prepared at a time when the world seems increasingly vulnerable to the effects of a disaster. Web sites and discussion groups on the Internet can be an excellent source for up-to-date information, but finding the best sites is time consuming and frustrating. Emergency Planning on the Internet not only assists emergency professionals in locating and learning how to use informative Internet resources, but it also describes how they can benefit from the information on these Internet sites in their day-to-day work.

In addition to guiding readers on how to utilize the Internet, authors Rick and Ryan Tobin, an emergency planning consultant and computer consultant, respectively, have compiled, evaluated, and categorized emergency management sites so that emergency managers won't need to wade through the flood of information and data on Internet search engines. They have included over 300 sites that will help emergency managers keep track of key issues, trends, and critical data, covering topics such as ,business recovery, climate change information , emergency communications,computer recovery,earthquakes ,emergency alert systems ,emergency management, hurricanes, insurance, risk management, transportation, and many others.

Chapters include: So Much Information, So Little Time; Tools of Choice; The Internet Emergency Database; Mining the Emergency Database; Making It Work For You; How to Find More and More; Applications and Implications - Helping Staff Adapt and Adopt; Exercises; Your Own Emergency Web Site; The Future of Emergency Management On the Internet; and Acronyms, Definitions, Index.

Features include: a tour of Internet sites related to emergency management; a practical applications section noting what others have done, practical exercises for the reader, (comparing findings with the author's results); references to 5 WWW newsletters, 5 key chat areas, where to find announcements of online forums with cuttting-edge experts, and 5 master lists of emergency management sites. Each chapter ends with key strategies and Bright Ideas that help the emergency professional start exploring new areas on the Web.

* * * *