We live in a dynamic and innovative world where the way we communicate has evolved and people expect information to come to them.  Further, we are used to customized news, twitter feeds and companies which are more than happy to suggest “you might also like…”  In the meantime, our advice on preparedness has remained static, making it feel stale.  So, it gets lost in the sea of information.  Additionally, those who are interested in learning how to prepare have to seek out the information by going to a website, attending a preparedness presentation or tracking down a brochure.   

   It’s time to turn public preparedness into a conversation, leveraging our greatest asset – each other.  In the process, we will generate or discover innovations in preparedness and learn how to push customized messages to people in ways which are more likely to engage them.   

   The first step is to create the next generation of ready.gov which should be a public, private, non-profit partnership resulting in a collaborative web-based platform which integrates well with existing social media outlets.  The preparedness guidance on the site can leverage existing expert advice but, most importantly, should also allow for the general public to make submissions in a variety of formats.  All of which can be rated, commented upon, and tagged with searchable keywords both by original submitter and other users.   

   To inspire engagement, the site should have the functionality to run contests in which the public decides the results such as: best preparedness video, preparedness innovation of the month (e.g. use dropbox.com to store scanned copies of important documents), easiest preparedness tip (e.g. decide an out of town person for your family members to call), a “why i/we prepare” essay contest, most retweeted preparedness tip.  The submissions would be stored and become searchable.  The platform should integrate with existing tools: videos uploaded via youtube, twitter feeds which scroll on the site, contests or preparedness actions which have facebook applications announcing that friends have voted or have acted on a certain preparedness tip.  Importantly, we are leveraging preparedness leaders to bring their friends to the site as voters and then hopefully stay engaged.

   Further, the site should have the functionality that the contests be created by FEMA, state and local EM agencies, or other trusted stakeholders (VOAD, CERT etc) and potentially sponsored by private sector partners.  If certain preparedness tips involve purchasing goods or services, the site might allow companies to offer discounts to members.  The more partners involved - the more visibility the site will get from the public.

   The Prepare & Share platform would benefit both the public and emergency preparedness activists. People who join the site will be allowed to submit preparedness tips based on how they personally prepare, vote in contests, track their own preparedness, see what tips their friends from facebook or those the follow on twitter are also doing, and elect (or choose not) to receive emails.  In the meantime, as people register (including which part of the country they are from) and vote, their information should feed into a search algorithm which recommends other tips, videos, etc for them.  Ultimately, people would be guided towards taking preparedness steps they might not have otherwise thought about.    

   In addition to the increased engagement of the public in preparedness, this site also becomes a resources to professionals interested in promoting preparedness by hosting a searchable database of videos, stories and preparedness tips.  Further, it can be leveraged by state and local EM agencies or VOAD organizations if mechanisms are created which allow them to create subpages which only display submissions tagged as applicable to them (e.g. Miami.prepare&share.org) 

   We’ve falsely developed a mentality that someone is either prepared or not when in reality preparedness is a continuum and people make small and large preparedness choices every day.  So, we need a tool which provides regular reminders and tiny steps people can take to make progress.  A well designed site can harness preparedness energy across the nation and empower preparedness activists to educate the greater public on how to be prepared.