Following my earlier post on the concept and Bill Mackay's response, the time has come to lay out the basics for the purpose of initiating discussions among those interested in taking part.

Pre-requisite reading would certainly include the link posted in Bill's above blog entry (http://vosg.us/) and this presentation which lays out the basics and the contribution that a VOST can make during an emergency. 

To help start conversations in a meaningful way ... I propose the following regarding the work leading to the creation of the first CanVOST:

• Scope: creation of the first Canadian Virtual Operations Support Team which would ultimately lead to the creation of regionally-based team and a Canadian Virtual Operations Support Group (VOSG).
• Purpose: Identify the functions/roles that a CanVOST would fulfil during an emergency (or exercise) in Canada.
• Some of these roles could include (but are not limited to ...): 
• • Monitoring social media, the web and traditional media for: 
  • • situational awareness enhancement (we'd need to develop flow charts/processes for operationalization of the data gathered in this manner)
    • aggregating available information for use by the public and emergency managers 
    • identifying reputation threats to responding agencies and their partners
  • Engaging on behalf of activating agency(ies) on social networks and other platforms (provided that we are give authorization and given the proper key messages and communications materials)
  • Liaising between activating agency(ies) and Volunteer Technical Communities (VTC), and individual volunteers, engaged in crowdsourcing information/situational awareness and crisis mapping
• Structure and organization of the CanVOST
• • geographical representation
  • leadership based on type of activation/geographic location of emergency/exercise
  • assignment of roles based on members interests and field of expertise 
• Training and Accreditation
• • training and cross-training members in: 
  • • basic Incident Management System and procedures (forms, EOC functions, etc)
    • social media basics and monitoring tools 
    • social content aggregation, curation and analysis 
    • basic crowdsourcing and crisis mapping tools/practices 
    • communications and online technologies to help members in touch and function during activation
  • Accreditation and "trusted agent" status 
  • • focusing on members' professional competencies and work (at the municipal, provincial or federal level, industry or EM organizations, first responder agency, etc)
    • recruiting members who have received training or participated in activation of recognized VTCs and/or NGOs