Ukraine War Support Tools: Communication & Coordination
One of the first lessons taught to a young Marine Corps infantry officer is that the side that can shoot, move and communicate the fastest, wins the battle. Information enables leaders, civilian and military, to cycle through the decision making process faster. In the Ukraine war, civilians are going to be at a disadvantage due to a lack of information and communication equipment.
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The PubSafe mobile app offers a free version which enables citizens to post SitReps so other civilians understand what is going on in an area. The military can monitor civilian posts so they can respond as needed. PubSafe app users can only share based on their current location. This is designed to reduce fake posts from remote areas.
My Status Feature
As seen on the news, the Ukraine war is separating families. PubSafe offers user a MyStatus function in the lower left. This enables users to quickly share how they are doing and what they are up to. Users can create profiles using an alias for their public name for added anonymity. Using a naming pattern will make searching for family in the PubSafe app (filter icon lower right of map) easy.
JD813-1, JD813-2, JD813-3, etc.
Team Tracking (Android only)
With an Android phone users can create “teams” to track each other and share information. Unfortunately Apple has block PubSafe from doing updates so Teams is not available on iOS.
Teams provides several safety and visibility options. Throughout PubSafe the user always has the final say in their visibility to other PubSafe using. During the Ukraine war, the teams functionality can be used by families, civilian fighters and even the Ukrainian military in order to have more information available for decision making.
As a US Marine, accounting for your Marines is basic leadership function. It is also vital to executing attacks and avoiding friendly fire. PubSafe users can change their visibility as seen in the screen capture on the left depending on the situation at hand.
Teams is free at moment and we will keep it free if we see PubSafe being utilized in the Ukraine war. The paid version of Teams was designed to allow thousands of user to be on one team. Most other apps like Life 360 are not designed to handle so many users.
Creating and Using Teams
Teams is unique to the mobile app. Teams are not visible to the PubSafe portal. If an organization engaged in the Ukraine war wants to use the PubSafe portal, it will be provided at no charge. PubSafe app users can create a team between app users or join an org and interact with the web portal. A user can be a member of a team(s) and a member of an org(s) at the same time. To read and learn more about Teams and the portal, visit out knowledge base.
The general workflow is to create a team, invite members, and approve members. The same process is true for creating an org and adding users; just using the web portal.
Location Updates
In any disaster or situation like the Urkraine war, sharing information on relief aid is important. A location post can be anything from a retail store having inventory, to an aid station in a parking lot of a church. Location information reduces wasted travel time to a place without the needed resources.
One of the best application for the Location function is for hospitals. Hospitals have a limited amount of supplies, bed and personnel. Knowing in real-time if a hospital has the capacity to help an injured person can avoid wasting prescious time if they have to turn people away and send them to another emergency center.
In situations like experienced in the Lousiana Super Dome, location updates would have kept government officials informed in real-time and aid could have been provided before the situation became desperate.
Adding Media to Posts
PubSafe posts allow for the addition of photos and short videos. Officials are often skeptical or unsure of a situation based on a persons description. Including a photo or videos reduces doubt and can geneate a more appropriate response.
Photos and videos cannot be accessed from the past. PubSafe opens the camera and inserts pictures taken at the time of the post. This significantly reduces fraud or misleading content.
