Initiating Spontaneous Mass Gatherings with Social Media Tools

Posted by Greg Friese at 1 September, 2009, 6:00 am

Mass Gatherings are often planned months or years in advance and usually require permits, meetings, consultations, filing of documents, special meetings, activation of a command center, redeployment of resources, and changing staffing. Now imagine if a mass gathering is announced and it is scheduled to take place in two hours and in all likelihood there is no advance notification to municipal government, law enforcement and traffic agencies, public transportation managers, and emergency responders attempting to reach unrelated incidents.

Lance Armstrong, 7 time Tour de France winner and global celebrity, has more than 1.8 million Twitter followers. Lance uses Twitter to share his daily activities, movements, and appearances. Last month while in the Ireland Lance posted to his Twitter account that he was going for a ride and wanted to know if anyone wanted to ride with him.

On August 25th he wrote, “Good morning Dublin. Who wants to ride this afternoon? I do. 5:30 pm @ the roundabout of Fountain Rd and Chesterfield Ave. See you there..”

How many people do you suppose responded to this invitation?

More than 1,400 people came out for that ride. Read the story about the ride at the Livestrong Blog. View photos of the ride at VeloNews.com.

As you can imagine 1400 cyclists change traffic patterns, block intersections, and create a chance for multiple casualty incidents (most cyclists are not used to riding in a large pack of riders at a Lance Armstrong casual training pace). A moving mass gathering could also force emergency vehicles to reroute, tie up local law enforcement, and disrupt other types of public services. In a VeloNews.com article Armstrong states, “I thought maybe there would be 50, or 60 people. But this is amazing,” Armstrong said mid-ride. “I did this in Glasgow last week and as soon as I arrived at the airport the police wanted to know what I was planning. I told them I didn’t know, which I didn’t. Here, the Gardai have been great, the roads are closed off. It’s a fantastic circuit.”

Any celebrity without using any local media can announce a spontaneous mass gathering through their social media outlets – Twitter, MySpace, and/or Facebook. An emergency response organization needs to:

1) Be aware of how social media tools are being used for initiating mass gatherings.

2) Monitor social media outlets for events in their response areas.

3) Respond to quickly starting events by notifying responders that are on-duty, consider redeploying active resources, and even activate off-duty staff.

4) Use its own social media networks to advise the community about alternative transportation routes.

What are your thoughts on the impact of social media tools being used to initiate mass gatherings?

Social media tools and networks can be used to become aware of spontaneous mass gatherings and support a safe gathering that minimizes disruptions to ongoing public services.

About the author

Greg Friese wrote 58 articles on this blog.

Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is an author, podcaster, blogger, and advocate for emergency response agencies to use social media before, during, and after any incident. Greg is the Director of Education for CentreLearn Solutions, LLC. He is also the co-host of the EMSEduCast podcast and is a paramedic for a 911 agency in northeast Wisconsin