Hi, I my name is Eileen Culleton and I’m the Founder and voluntary CEO of the Emergency 2.0 Wiki. I’m running a Pozible campaign to travel to Switzerland on 22 August to present at the 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference (#IDRC2014) 24-28 August in Davos.  This conference is organised by the Global Risk Forum in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and is the largest world gathering of key players in this field. I will be talking about how the whole community can use social media to save their own lives and the lives of others in disasters.

Importantly, it is an opportunity to shape world policy. As a speaker I will be making recommendations for the Post 2015 Disaster Risk Framework to be ratified at the UN World Conference WCDRR in Sendai, Japan in 2015.

My key challenge is to raise the funds for me to travel from Australia to Switzerland to present at the conference. I ran a previous campaign in May to raise funds for the conference registration fee (thanks to all who supported me), now I need to raise funds to get there! I am asking for your help to make this happen and I thank you in advance! Together we can make our world safer... Thankyou!


About the Emergency 2.0 Wiki
The Emergency 2.0 Wiki is a free online global resource and knowledge sharing hub for using social media and new technologies in emergencies. The wiki serves a global hub for emergency response agencies, government, NGOs, schools, hospitals, community groups, faith based groups, business, media and citizens to use social media to better prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

The wiki provides tips, guides, mobile apps, mapping tools, videos and an international directory of emergency services on social media. It has tips for citizens to help themselves and help others, an accessibility toolkit for people with disabilities and guidelines for emergency services, government, community groups and NGOs, schools, hospitals and business.

The Emergency 2.0 Wiki facilitates collaboration, knowledge sharing and crowdsourcing across the industry sectors to provide users around the world with the latest information, best practices and resources. The Emergency 2.0 Wiki is a nonprofit run entirely by volunteers. The development of Wiki content is overseen by international volunteer Reference Groups of professionals with expertise in the field.

Overview of my Presentation 
We believe that together we can help create a world where communities use social media to save not only their own lives in a disaster, but also the lives of others. A world where:
- Emergency response agencies use social media to issue alerts and warnings to save lives
- Emergency response agencies engage with the community as partners
- The community is prepared, including people with a disability
- Digital volunteers from across the globe provide ‘information aid’ during and after disasters
- The community reaches out to help the community

We believe that to create this world, a ‘whole of community’ approach is needed. That along with the emergency service agencies services and first responders; the government, NGOs, community groups, faith based groups, schools, hospitals, business, media and citizens can all play a role in using social media to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters.

Despite the rising popularity of using social media in disasters, it is still not a normal part of mainstream emergency communications globally. Also there are few instances where a whole of community approach is being applied. In my presentation I’ll be sharing examples of how it can be done and also showcasing how the Emergency 2.0 Wiki can help.

How you can help
If you believe we can create a world where communities join together to use social media to save lives and help each other in disasters, I’m asking you to support me by making a donation to me travel to Switzerland to present at this conference. I'm also asking you to share this campaign with your social networks to help spread the word and rally support.  We don’t have much time but I know that together we can do it, and I’m thanking you in advance for your support! Together we can make our world safer. Thank You!

Photo credits

We have a very short timeframe to raise the funds. I'm confident that if we all share this campaign with our social networks we'll meet the target by the deadline. Together we can do it, and I’m thanking you in advance for your support!