“Citizens Guides” exist
Of course with some different focus groups and cases, but “The Citizen” does not exist. So what I’d think is crucial is the presentation format and delivery method.
For example after a catastrophy (or on the march) very few people will have the time to read about it in Red Cross or USAid pdfs even though they would probably remember critical things much better than in a classroom. Some can understand scientific papers, and others cannot read. Generally, if you want to be prepared you need to invest some time into practicing or reading e.g. “Where there is no Doctor”, or stocking some tools or supplies before shit hits the fan. Not many people are ready to do that. It is much less glamorous than posing with big guns and other stuff. Often people (correctly) feel it is unlikely that they would get a return on investment for their effort. Also, crises affect different regions (e.g. climate) in different ways, in those regions e.g. urban areas will be affected differently from rural, in those places different people (age, occupation, gender, minority) will again be affected differently in short to long term.
Most documents I know are written in a linear fashion, either for “the general populace” or authorities, or a few select critcal professions. Research articles in the field are often a bit better (if you can get them and understand them) as they show more of the detail under the hood. There is quite a bit out there in English, German, and I am sure French language. I would expect that other languages can be a very mixed bag.
Interestingly almost none of the materials I know are intended for reproduction and dissemination (perhaps modification) in the field, which I think is a critical shortcoming. Economically you often cannot but be largely unprepared for low frequency large impact events. If you could could start quickly copy-pasting stuff from a relatively few seeds once the event has come to pass, you would very quickly be able to deliver information and organize action far better.
I think the most realistic forms of reproduction in the field are (including grid down, excluding perhaps nuclear EMP scenarios):
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Copies via smart phone, either onto micro-sd card or using e.g. bluetooth file transfer.
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Recording of spoken/played material via phone, perhaps eventually put into writing.
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Pencil/coal stick/copy machine copies of simple illustrations/heuristics/nmemonics/ not more than a few lines in most cases.
My suggestion would be a less linear and mostly digital collection of material (even if the grid will be down it will be relatively easy to charge a smartphone/tablet/etc from solar or car batteries). Ideally most of it can be accessed through different lenses - weighing urgent vs important, for the specific “type” of audience, in a (or several) appropriate formats. On the latter point I would strongly recommend inlcuding something that is audio based with separate illustrations (and check lists, e.g. in playing card deck, or digitally as “album art” format) and incremental navigation (e.g. if you need to know more on this topic press forward 9 times and you hear the announcement “xyz”). An audio lecture then could be made up of a summary of 1. the most important things to know in a hurry, 2. the main content, 3. mnemonic take aways to repeat to yourself.
Audio has the advantages that you do not need to drop everything you’re doing, you can do it while walking, and you can do it in the dark.
If you use 64kbps (clear spoken language) mono mp3 audio you need approximately 1 MB for every 2 minutes. If we assume 24h of spoken material that would be 720 MB. This fits into almost every memory card (or CD), mp3 player and can be copied using bluetooth version 3 in 5 minutes, and version 2 in 30 minutes. The most important things everyone needs to know should probably be available in different languages but be only 3-15 minutes in duration. Additional material can be provided in ebook format (which can be referenced in the audio) with very little space required.
My schematic in the other comment is an example for non-digital content that can also be reproduced in the field, when you actually have demand. It could also be airdropped as leaflets of course.
I wanted to make a heuristic approach to re-establish some skeletal form of organization which can catalyze coopreration (especially in the 48h hours of pro-social behavior mostly observed after an acute catastrophe). I thought this is necessary because very often there exists no effective interface to the local society that the “professional care & aid circus” can dock into, and many of the respective group’s fuck-ups would be easier to avoid if there was such an interface. The idea is to establish channels on the ground within the local community which accumulate, curate (discuss), and disseminate critical information. Those information dense hubs can relatively easily be found and interfaced with the professionals. If the crises do not have a clear onset like an earthquale or flood, but is more creeping other approaches may be more effective though.
The implied understanding that may motivate people is the following: Doing difficult situations alone is usually not a good idea*. Put 20% into helping each other, and if the majority survives you’ll probably be among them.
The simplified instructions: 1 of 5 connects and helps to coordinate. 1 in 5 helps to coordinate coordinators. Information must flow in both directions fast, and critical aspects need to be documented.
Make a group in which you will quickly be able to trust, care, and communicate (so about 5). Then make groups of groups and dedicate 10-20% of your resources to communication & cooperation, about half “upwards” and half “downwards”.
*Something that rarely gets enough attention when you superficially glance at the prepper scene. Alone you are probably prey to your own stupidity, germs, or pack hunters. Your gun does not help when you are sleeping.
