Purpose of Portland NETwiki
| General PBEM Volunteer Program Information |
| CPT Guidelines Creation and NETwiki Management
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| Portland Bureau of Emergency Management |
| General Volunteer Policies and Information |
| Volunteer Candidacy |
| Volunteer Standing and Badging |
| Volunteer Training Policies and Information |
| Volunteer Leadership |
| Volunteer Recognition Information |
| Supportive Information |
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Portland NET is not a typical CERT program. NET's large membership base and commitment to community learning mean that NET can grow into areas of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery that many CERT programs do not find the opportunity to explore. That also means NET has become a relatively complicated program with branching and specialized areas of expertise.
The strength of Portland NET is its people: their knowledge and diversity of experience. By using a collaborative platform, a Wiki preserves institutional knowledge long after key PBEM staffers come and go. The Wiki does not supplement PBEM's community engagement; it is a part of PBEM's community engagement. It also saves staff and volunteer time by organizing collective knowledge into easy-to-find and send articles.
Add to that a Wiki's interlinking capabilities, ease of use and familiar formatting, automated revision tracking, capacity to present information that engages with multiple learning styles, and scalability, and it's easy to see why a Wiki would evolve into a critical part of the NET ecosystem.
To summarize the most important reasons PBEM manages and grows this resource:
- Preservation and accessibility of community and institutional knowledge: Portland NET is the outcome of over 30 years of volunteer and PBEM staff expertise. Prior to NETwiki, much of this institutional knowledge was locked up in the heads of volunteers or under layers of nearly forgotten electronic files stored on PBEM drives and inaccessible to the wider NET community. Today, PBEM and NET can use NETwiki as a platform to establish, expand, and refine expertise and knowledge. A Wiki harnesses group productivity as opposed to individual productivity.
- Saved PBEM staff time: An inordinate amount of PBEM staff time was spent writing emails to volunteers answering narrow questions about program protocols or best practices for response. Today, PBEM staff can publish much of that information to NETwiki and send volunteers links to comprehensive articles instead of calling up all the information or research needed in order to complete a reply. With that time saved, PBEM staff has increased capacity to respond to other volunteer requests and program needs.
- Quick and easy edits: A Wiki allows team members to update or correct content on the fly, ensuring that information stays current without requiring specialized technical skills (as was needed for the NET Guidelines, which was published through Adobe InDesign). Not for nothing, "Wiki" is a Hawaiian word meaning "quick".
- User-friendly interface: The familiar, web-based format is easy to navigate for volunteers and staff alike, offering a more approachable alternative to complex platforms like WebEOC.
- Offline capability: Wiki content can be exported or mirrored for offline use, supporting continuity of operations in disconnected environments, such as over the AREDN mesh network.
- Supports rich content: Wikis can host a wide range of media—text, images, videos, documents, and hyperlinks—making it easier to share training materials, guides, and operational protocols in one place.
