Witnesses inconsistencies in behaviour or 'fact' - this is some intriguing stuff and perhaps some of us (me at least) need to get some of this out of our systems without feeling like we have to prove anything within the context of a thread about something else.
So, I'll start by linking to "Crisis Actors - Trained Players and Actors Making It Real" a website that purports to sell such services.
http://crisisactors.org/
Snippets from the front page:
First, the conclusion of a long sales pitch:
Story-driven simulation is a technology that expands on previous research efforts to create interactive experiences in virtual worlds where the outcomes are known and specified in advance by instructional designers (e.g., Cleave, 1997). This approach allows instructional designers to work with storyline writers to create a training experience that is dramatically engaging and includes a specific set of training experiences, but to do so in a manner that allows for a high degree of interactivity.
Social Media Training
Social Media in Emergency Management
Increasingly the public is turning to social media technologies to obtain up-to-date information during emergencies and to share data about the disaster in the form of geo data, text, pictures, video, or a combination of these media. Social media also can allow for greater situational awareness for emergency responders. While social media allows for many opportunities to engage in an effective conversation with stakeholders, it also holds many challenges for emergency managers.
Click here to download our complete guide to IS042 Social Media in Emergency Management, the official course launched last Summer by the Emergency Management Institute. This document gives you all the lesson summaries, as well as all course handouts, including:
How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems
Key Organizational Challenges
List of Commonly Used Social Media Sites, Platforms, and Tools by Emergency Managers
Common Steps to Adopting the Use of Social Media in Emergency Management
Tactical Uses of Social Media in Emergency Management
Note: This course is required training for all Crisis Actors performing members in 2013.
Sample Exercise - Terrorism in a Mall
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For example, with a large shopping center, the producers review all security camera views and design dramatic scenes specifically for existing camera angles, robotic camera sweeps, and manually-controlled camera moves.
The producers then work with the trainers to create a "prompt book" for the actors so that key scenario developments can be triggered throughout the mall shooting simulation, and caught on tape.
The actors can play the part of the shooters, mall employees, shoppers in the mall, shoppers who continue to arrive at the mall, media reporters and others rushing to the mall, and persons in motor vehicles around the mall.
Visionbox Crisis Actors can also play the role of citizens calling 911 or mall management, or posting comments on social media websites.
During the exercise, the producers use two-way radio to co-direct the Crisis Actors team from the mall dispatch center and at actors’ locations.
Within this framework, the exercise can test the mall's monitoring and communications systems, the mall's safety plan including lockdown and evacuation procedures, the ability of first responders and the mall to coordinate an effective response, and their joint ability to respond to the media and information posted on the Internet.
Security camera footage is edited for after-action reports and future training.
