At Future Summit 2009 the topic Priorities For Australia In The Crisis And Beyond was one that Peter Williams has had plenty of experience with – working with the people of Flowerdale through the bushfire crisis and the rebuilding efforts. When your family have just lost their homes to bushfires most people probably aren’t thinking about using social media – but the first thing Pete did when he heard of the problems that were arising was set up the Victim’s Voice blog (now renamed Survivor Spirit).

Pete’s sister in law reached out and said that the community of Flowerdale weren’t getting the help they needed. Their town had been devastated with 80% of the homes destroyed, and the CFA had left to go and help in other areas and couldn’t get back to help them. A group of locals were fighting to defend the remaining homes but couldn’t get the supplies they needed because of the roadblocks that had been set up. She left the town to hand over pages of handwritten notes from people there begging for help.

Pete shared them in the post ”A cry for help from the forgotten people of Flowerdale“ on the simple and free Blogger blog that was set up in minutes, and then used Twitter (as @rexster, and the #bushfires hashtag) to amplify those messages. There was a huge response and it was amazing to see how effective these simple tools can be in solving real-world problems. The daily coverage on the blog continued as the issues went from immediate threats through to reconstruction efforts. Youtube was used to share videos, and a forum called Firevoice was build on the Uservoice platform, used by the locals to discuss the topics that would be brought to the Royal Comission. The web is currently a key part of discussions around the  Community Recovery Model that is currently being put together.

“There has been a real shift in the culture of the town from waiting for help to making things happen for themselves. The spirit of the people has been extraordinary and it really shows what can be achieved by a group of people in the face of huge adversity.” – Peter Williams.

By Ross Hill - June 19th, 2009 at 12:03pm with 855 views - future summit peter williams