Crisis Response video through the eyes of Payton Peterson, a new vision.

Payton Peterson is a 15 year old audio visual and new media entrepreneur. The motto for his approach is "If I don't know how to do it, I will learn how to." In the midst of two Colorado wildfires, Peterson became part of a volunteer community using this approach to respond responsibly via new media. There are excellent posts with an analysis of how social media was used on Huffington Post and Wingineering.

What is fascinating about Peterson's video is that he set out to capture the "news", but his vision of video journalism is highly compelling and new. The visual world of the wildfire itself tells the story. Peterson captures the volunteer firefighters working as a team and how they accomplish a tough job. His use of time-elapse captures the nature of the Front Range and how a wildfire can consume it. The soundtrack and clips express a community coming together during a crisis. The editing is outstanding.

At 15, Peterson will only know the interconnected social web. He will only know the more lightweight digital editing and real-time tech that can mobilized quickly. With his talents, he will improve their use and their meaning to our society. Peterson states that he edited the video in 10 minutes in a response to questions for the Tweetingdonal's Dhidean blog. He uploaded the video on his YouTube channel then released it into the crisis response community following the #Lovelandfire hashtag on Twitter. I found it around 8 a.m. on the 13th after many fellow Colorado residents retweeted it. We all loved it.

It is interesting to compare Peterson's video with Colorado 9 News, as the television station's van appears in one of Peterson's clips. The two were there at the same time and the clips are also about equal in length. In contrast, Colorado 9 News has far more financial and media resources. 9 News uses the effective format that existed long before Peterson's era of nimble digital technologies: A live newscaster stands before the camera interpreting the event, a Firechief gives statistics, newscasters give commentary. It is an "expert interpreter" visual experience.

 

For the question at the heart of this post, place yourself in the shoes of a Loveland or Boulder resident. Which video above holds value beyond the "news"? Which video above helps you grasp the big picture and still represents your community? 

For those of us that live in Colorado, it has been a week to drop everything and help in some way. Victims of the fire lost homes, part of their heritage. The firefighters are heroes for containing Boulder and working hard in Loveland. Both fires broke out in rugged, dry terrain. A beetle infestation left dead wood across the state, so containment of the wildfires is exponentially urgent. It has been a historic week, both in loss and also in the strength of response.

Payton Peterson's video is a reflection of the dynamics of the Front Range community and the terrain of the foothills. He represents a shift towards what a more connected future means, and his future is a bright one at that. His work is a testament to a highly engaged Millennial generation that deserves our attention and investment.

Data Journalist David McCandless: "When Sea Levels Attack"

David McCandless of Information is Beautiful teamed up with two designers for an info-graphic entitled "When Sea Levels Attack: Which cities will flood when?" One of the irreversible and uncontested effects of climate change is melting ice sheets and polar caps, which have already created a 20 to 40 cm rise in sea levels. At the going rate, the sea will rise one meter every century. Compared to the cataclysmic projections of extreme weather, this slow effect seems benign at first.

McCandless pulled data from NASA, NewScientist.com, Potsdam institute, Sea Level Explorer and ICPP to show how far above sea-level major cities stand. Los Angeles and Amsterdam average one meter above sea-level. San Francisco, Lower Manhattan, St. Petersburg and Hamburg average two meters above sea-level. As the sea levels rise one meter per century, all five cities will begin to flood in two hundred years.

The info-graphic shows rising sea-levels on the left at a steady rate over 1000 years. Major cities are listed by their meters above sea-level across the bottom. In 800 years, New York, London and Taiwan will be flooding. Many of America's major cities will be underwater in a thousand years.

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You can view more of McCandless's excellent information design on his Flickr stream. It is well worth the trip.

On the Dvafoto Blog: MSF’s Jason Cone and Ron Haviv discuss “Starved for Attention"

The Dvaphoto blog has an excellent interview with the creators of the multimedia campaign "Starved for Attention." Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) teamed up with Photo VII to expose "the neglected and largely invisible crisis of childhood malnutrition." Their website uses video, photography, mapping and narrative to tell the story of those that are affected. The photojournalism and documentaries are unforgettable, intimate and respectful.

The numbers are staggering: 195 million children are affected by the epidemic each year. Starved for Attention personalizes the numbers and tells the individual stories of children who are affected around the world. The stories follow success, treatment and hardship. We are asked to "rewrite the story" and thousands have signed the petition for change.

M. Scott Brauer of Dvaphoto interviews the executive producer of video and communications director of Medecins San Frontiers to give us a behind the scenes look. Starved for Attention is also a traveling exhibition of the documentary photography. Medecines Sans Frontiers talks about the importance of documentary to their mission.

The interview is an excellent read for advocates and organizations using images and video. Visit the Dvaphoto blog to learn more.

 

Info-graphics created by Florence Nightingale: Visualizations for hospital reform.

Florence Nightingale is best known for establishing the nursing profession and advocating for hospital reform. What is not widely known is her pioneering work in data-visualization to help reduce war causalities.

Below is one of her info-graphics from the Crimean War, which documents the cause of death in war hospitals over the course of two years. The number of deaths from combat wounds are in red and the number of deaths from preventable disease are in light green. At the time, combat wounds were thought to be responsible for casualties, not preventable issues such as infections.

The diagram on the left displays the improved ratio after Nightingale called for improved sanitation, nutrition, and an increase in support staff. The diagram on right shows the larger ratio before changes were implemented. 

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Fast forward to today's real-time internet. Nightingale's format uses a familiar circle to represent time, similar to a clock face. This is an excellent form for a real-time display that shows the change which your organization aims to improve over time. It also layers the data set that the public believes is the cause of a situation with the data set that is more responsible. As your organization accomplishes its goals for change, the overall statics for the problem improve.

Celebrate World Humanitarian Day: A video on the WITNESS blog

Today is World Humanitarian Day. The WITNESS blog explains the meaning and history of today's celebration.

I enjoy how this video below closes the distance gap between our lives and humanitarian workers around the world. It also closes the gap between the cerebral nature of text content and our human response to visual portraits of humanitarian workers.

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