Site
Set Up
The Public Health Emergency Dark Site is
set up using the Google Sites template gallery, which includes:
These templates were developed by
the Stanford University Social
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SIE) Program, in collaboration
with Santa Clara County Public Health during the H1N1 response
and with local emergency managers to address other emergencies.
The Public Health Emergency Template
is designed to provide information during public health emergencies.
The All-Hazards Template is designed to provide information
about county-wide response, not just public health response.
The All-Hazards Template pages are set up to display information
for each local jurisdiction and to give information about
shelters, evacuations, first aid, and school and road closures.
The All Hazards Template also includes Google mapping features.
Instructions to set-up a Google Account
1. Go to the Google
homepage.
2. Select “Sign-In” at the top
right hand corner of the page.
3. Under “Don’t Have a Google
Account?” Select “Create an
account now”.
4. Fill in required information to open
a Google account. For the
account name, use the organization name,
not your personal
name. For the email address, use an email
for your organization;
not a personal email.
Instructions to set up a Public Health
Emergency Site
1. Log on to the Google Account.
2. Click on http://sites.google.com/site/einfopht/
to access the
Public Health Emergency template.
Public Health Emergency Template User
Guide
Detailed instructions to set up a site using
the Google template can be found in the Public
Health Emergency Template User Guide. The User Guide explains
how to:
- Create the site
- Insert or change the site logo
- Edit the sidebar
- Delete pages
- Localize pages
- Create pages
- Use Google Maps
- Post updates
- Set up automatic translation
Public Health Emergency Template User
Comments and Email Updates
Comments on the Public Health Emergency
Template and your experience using it can be sent from the
Public
Health Emergency Template User Guide.
In the User Guide, click on Comments
in the left hand column. This will open an email to send your
comments to the site manager.
Click on Get Email Updates
in the left hand column to subscribe to an email list to receive
updates about the Public Health Emergency Template.
More Information - Google Sites Help
Google Sites includes an excellent help
section. After creating an account and signing in, select
Google
Sites Help for more information.
SITE SHARING your organization
will need to determine how the site is shared before and during
activation. Google Sites allows you to manage the site and
establish who can prepare, edit and view the site.
Site Owners can:
Pre-prepared risk communication materials:
- Invite other owners, collaborators,
or viewers.
- Change site themes, and
layout.
- Do everything a collaborator
can do.
Site Owners are assigned to maintain the
Public Health Emergency Dark Site for your organization. Site
Owners should be comfortable using the site and have a good
understanding of web sites, cloud computing and how emergency
dark sites work.
Site Collaborators can:
- Create, edit, and delete
pages.
- Add pages to and remove
them from the sidebar navigation.
- Subscribe to site and page
changes.
The Site Owner invites Site Collaborators
by email. Google Sites provides instructions for doing this.
Site Collaborators may be, for example:
- Public Health Department
personnel involved in response.
- Public Health support staff
trained to assist at the Department, City or County EOC.
- City or County Emergency
Managers.
- City, County or Departmental
Information Systems personnel.
Site Viewers can:
The public is only able to view the public
emergency site when the Site Owner selects, “Everyone
in the world can view this site”. This
is only done when the Public Health Department PIO decides
to make the site “go live” by
enabling this option. Otherwise, the site sits ready, but
not seen on the Google servers.
Using PDFs, RTF, and HTML
- Whenever possible, static content
should be in text (HTML) format for performance reasons.
When using Word documents, save them as RFT files first,
and then copy and paste them into the emergency dark site
to render them in HTML properly.
- Use of PDF or other attachments
should be minimized as these can take up valuable bandwidth.
If needed, the file size should be optimized whenever possible.
Use the web profile conversion setting and the built-in
PDF optimizer within Adobe Acrobat.
- Using HTML also ensures that
Section 508, web accessibility requirements are met. Section
508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology.
Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. 794d), agencies must give disabled
employees and members of the public access to information
that is comparable to the access available to others.
Language Translation
The Public Health Emergency Example Site
have been set up to be automatically translated into Spanish,
Vietnamese, and Chinese.
The translation of dynamic and static content
is an important risk communication requirement and also a
challenging task during response. Fortunately, Google provides
a unique and automatic translation tool. Go to translate.google.com
and follow instructions to automatically translate your site
and all the linked material to another language.
The Google automatic translation feature
is a starting point. Nothing can replace the expertise of
native speakers to translate important information during
emergencies. For this reason, we recommend that you use the
Google translation feature and have the translated document
reviewed by a native speaker. The reviewer can correct any
context, grammar or spelling errors directly into the translated
document. As this is done, the Google software learns from
the editing for future translations.
RSS Feeds, Email Subscription Groups
and Social Media Tools
You can set up subscriptions so that viewers
will receive RSS feeds and set up links or badges to social
media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. You can
also include “+Share” buttons
to share pages and articles on other social media sites. When
adding these social media tools to the emergency dark site,
consider these lessons learned:
- If you use Twitter or other
social media platforms, the risk communication staff and
PIO must be able to consistently monitor and post fresh
content in a timely manner in order to keep it interactive
and engaging. This may require dedicated staff.
- Email subscription groups
should be audience-specific so that emails can be targeted
to user groups such as:
• The public
• School officials
• Physicians
• Emergency managers and emergency responders
• News media
<
previous | next
>
|