While thoughts are still circulating unrefined in my mind, I thought it'd be good to look at what I personally learned during the Cause III and DVSROE experiment.

I was there to help coordinate the digital volunteer aspect of the three day session, and , particularly to oversee the work of the CanVOST. 

It was a sometimes intense "experiment" but with the group of people in Halifax ...it never got to be a burden ...  So, in no particular order, eight things I learned this week: 

1- A simple VOST (virtual operational support team) mission statement is easier to deliver than a complex one ... as long as social listening is conducted, trends are highlighted, and basic analyses are all provided to the requesting EOC (the Halifax Regional Municipality EOC in this case) in succinct and regular summary/reports ... all is well.

2- VOST leaders realize (and I know that too now) ...if you need 5 people to fill your team for an activation ... you REALLY NEED 10 ... recruiting more members for CanVOST will be a key priority for me. CanVOST was fortunate to be able to call in volunteers from the ad hoc US VOST led by Cheryl Bledsoe ... this showed the great flexibility and adaptability that digital volunteers bring and the importance of basic standardization of VOST processes and missions.

3- Technology is not the driving force in social convergence ... people are ... the point is basic social listening is a must ... most people will not use apps to report incidents/damages ... they might not use keywords or hashtags BUT THEY WILL share what they experience via tweets, pictures/videos ... hence YOU NEED TO LISTEN.

4- Simple monitoring tools (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck) are good enough for 99% of VOST work (although we worked in a closed loop environment during Cause 3 that replicated twitter, FB and even Hootsuite ...) ... again, for me, the VOST mission starts with that simple listening ...

5- Crisis mapping is a fantastic tool and a very useful support to allow EOCs to make better informed decision but they are not the only way to convey information to decision-makers and planners. Well crafted,regular summaries of the social listening operations of a VOST will provide enough of an "add" to the EOC's situational awareness to be very valuable and showcase the value of digital volunteers.

6- Coordination between digital volunteers (VOSTs in particular) and the requesting agency or municipality is essential AND very time consuming. This means that in future CanVOST activations, we will need strong leadership to oversee actual listening activities while the team leader handles liaison duties. I was again very lucky to have Joanna Lane of the NY VOST to act as associate team lead and keep us honest, organized and focused ... I owe her a lot ... and learned a lot from her.

7- A protocol to relay urgent messages/calls for help or any other pressing situation to the EOC is a must for any VOST ... in real life, people will call for help on social networks ... EOCs, PIOs and VOSTies must have a plan in place at the very start of every deployment on how they'll handle that aspect of the monitoring.

8- Mastery of the basic virtual/online collaboration tools used by VOSTs is a crucial necessity. Whether it's Google Docs/Drive/Worksheets or Skype Or Google Hangouts ... volunteers must know how to navigate in this array of tools that go beyond what they use to monitor (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, other listening platforms)