On 27 January 2016, the second testing of the mobile phone application and emergency services headquarters application was conducted in Ljubljana within the framework of the Athena research project, namely, the participating partners – among them the City of Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Fire Brigade – are exploring the use of social networks in cases of natural and other disasters to facilitate cooperation between emergency services and residents.

Ljubljana, 27 January 2016. A large quantity of unknown gelatinous substance has spilled into the Sava River, endangering the groundwater. The emergency response is initiated; emergency and other professional teams are sent into the field.
Fortunately, this was just the incident scenario members of the Athena research project used to test the application, named after the project, with the aim of analysing and upgrading the current use of social media for information gathering and dissemination of instructions and information during natural or other disasters among emergency services and residents, and for mutual assistance among residents.

The City of Ljubljana (Department for Protection, Rescue and Civil Defence) and the Ljubljana Fire Brigade are participants in the project, the West Yorkshire Police (Great Britain) is the project coordinator, and other partners involved are the International Organisation for Migration (Belgium), Sheffield Hallam University (Great Britain), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung (Germany), SAS Software Limited (Great Britain), Thales (Netherlands), University of Virginia (USA), Swedish National Defence College (Sweden), Izmir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), EPAM Systems (Sweden), Research in Motion Limited (Canada) and Epidemico (Ireland).

The basic objective of the Athena research project is to examine the impact and use of social networks both for communication between residents and emergency services before, during and after natural or other disasters, as well as to gather and share key information at the time of the accident. Within this framework various experts are looking into different methods of using social media for gathering information on the subject, location and time of the incident, the attitude of people towards it, and the adopted measures as well as the dissemination of information and recommendations, that is, instructions for residents.

In his introduction into the Athena application testing professor Eric Stern (Swedish National Defence College) underscored the power of knowledge and information which can help us reduce the scope of damage or even prevent it altogether. He underlined the immense importance of information exchange and the awareness that each and every one of us can help, not just the professional and emergency services. Using a practical case, the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, he demonstrated the significant role of social networks. A heavy exchange of information immediately started on Facebook and Twitter – questions from people who were in Paris during the attacks and their confirmations they are alive and well, profile pictures with the French flag colours overlay in symbolic support of Parisians, as well as #portesouvertes (hashtag »open doors«) the residents in those parts of Paris where the police search for terrorists was conducted used to open their doors and offer shelter to those people who were notified by the police that streets are not safe but were not able to go indoors.

To this extent communication via social networks is already happening spontaneously and is currently the fastest communication channel for information exchange in cases of natural or other disasters. The Athena application aims to facilitate this type of communication, upgrade it and take it to a higher level suitable for information exchange, directing and managing actions of responsible institutions and individuals as well as regulating relations between them in a particular case of emergency.

The testing was conducted at 8 locations in 3 countries simultaneously, but mainly in Ljubljana, and additional two smaller groups took part using social media, one in Sweden and the other in Great Britain. The testing of the Athena application involved 100 people who played 60 interconnected roles.

Julij Jeraj, the Slovenian counterpart entrusted with the preparation of the contents and the logistics of the exercise, stated that during the latest testing each participant made his contribution without which the mosaic of advantages and deficiencies of the application could not be assembled. He added that the members of the Athena consortium were impressed by the tireless efforts and preparedness of volunteers to participate in the group and share their opinions, points of view, experiences, recommendations and remarks during the latest trial.
As a participant in the project Ljubljana is included in the most modern currents of IT applications development, which enables it to keep up with the current knowledge as well as with the most renowned professional and scientific organisations. Jeraj also stressed that linking up with professional and scientific organisations in Slovenia, which was necessary for the preparation and execution of the exercise, leads to a higher level of preparedness for cooperation and capability of coordinating actions during big disasters that can hit us.
Robert Kus, the head of the Department for Protection, Rescue and Civil Defence, underlined that the use of social networks within the scope of protection against natural and other disasters is becoming indispensable and it represents a challenge for all participants. He added that the participation of the City of Ljubljana in this project is important especially with regard to gaining new experience and getting acquainted with tools enabling the use of social networks in cases of natural and other accidents as well as learning from the experience of others. He further commented that during the exercise the City of Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Fire Brigade have again proven themselves as excellent organizers and hosts thanks to all participating employees of the City of Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Fire Brigade.
Tomaž Kučič, Chief of the Ljubljana Fire Brigade, added that the participation in this project is a big commendation. »Namely, the project consortium is comprised of renowned organisations and institutions. And the subject of the project is ground-breaking in this field. The practical testing included 21 members of the Ljubljana Fire Brigade who were fully engaged. This makes me particularly proud because all foreign members of the consortium praised us and thanked us for the really big contribution of the whole Ljubljana team«, Kučič concluded.

Within the framework of the Athena project another testing of the application is planned in autumn in Great Britain, and the project is to conclude on 30 November 2016 with the finished prototype information tool for gathering and sharing intelligence through social networks.

The project is co-financed from the European Union funds, the details on the project can be found on the website www.projectathena.eu.