Press Statement: UP Social Media Operations Center
Dec. 1, 2013
UP launches the country’s first Social Media “War Room” for Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation Efforts
The University of the Philippines through the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy recently launched last week, Nov. 25, 21013, the county’s first ever social media war room, the “UP Volunteer Social Media Operations Center” for disaster preparedness, relief and rehabilitation efforts starting with victims of super typhoon Yolanda. The activation
It is joint volunteer project of the CSSP-UP, public relations firm Brillantes Campaigns, business intelligence company iSentia, and development communication firm Technomedia Asia. It is supported by volunteer students, faculty, and alumni and is located at the CSSP-UP computer lab.
The four main objectives of the ops center are as follows:
1. To provide immediate support to students, personnel, and professors within the UP system affected by Yolanda by mobilizing a social media support structure;
2. To generate actionable information to further help focus the allocation of resources and expertise mobilized by UP and its alumni in Yolanda relief and rehabilitation efforts;
3. To increase social media buzz about the 77 areas affected by Yolanda which still need substantial aid through participation and even activation in trending topics, popularization of memes, posts, videos, etc.; and
4. To track and analyze the social media environment on a long term basis to identify trends, flashpoints, and black holes to help UP fine tune its academic programs, policy advocacy initiatives, outreach projects and direct action on disaster preparedness and mitigation, and relief.
CSSP-UP dean Professor Michael Tan, Public Administration Professor J. Prospero De Vera III of UP Padayon, and Political Science professor Ranjit Rye are the focal persons for the volunteer efforts from the UP community.
Eero Brillantes, president and CEO of Brillantes Campaigns, is the lead volunteer organizer and focal person for setting up and maintaining the operations center.
iSentia volunteered the use of their social media analytics software called Social Express.
Technomedia Asia contributed the GEO-SMS system and is doing the volunteer media work for the initiative.
UP was very much affected by typhoon Yolanda.
In UP Diliman, there are 128 students from Eastern Visayas seeking support
to at least finish the semester and for relief goods and financial aid to be sent to their families
In U.P. Visayas Tacloban College there are 1,543 constituents , and the U.P. Manila School of Health Sciences in Palo, Leyte, 209 constituents affected by Yolanda. The school facilities have been severely damaged.
There are many students from Eastern and Central Visayas who are presently enrolled in UP Los Banos, UP Manila, UP Baguio and other campuses within the UP system.
For more info: Eero Brillantes
Lead Volunteer Organizer
CSSP-UP Volunteer Social Media Operations Center
photo caption: Social Media Buzz on Yolanda on a nose dive. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs, and News Sites conversations and posts about super typhoon Yolanda is going down in a fast pace based on the tracking of the UP volunteer social media operations center. The graph shows a steep downward trend from Nov. 24-29, 2013. This shift in social media mood looms in stark contrast for the need to mobilize billions of pesos in aid and long term rehabilitation of about 77 Yolanda hit municipalities and cities. A parallel social media track of the Bohol earthquake which happened just three weeks before Yolanda showed negligible buzz.
Narrative Public Relations 