a vision for technology mediated support for public participation assistance in mass emergencies disasters

• DOI: 10.5555/1811182.1811194
• Publication Date: 2010-01-01
• Authors: Leysia Palen; Martha Palmer; Dirk Grunwald; James Martin; Douglas Sicker; Gloria Mark; Kenneth M. Anderson
• Keywords: 0211 other engineering and technologies; 02 engineering and technology

We present a vision of the future of emergency management that better supports inclusion of activities and information from members of the public during disasters and mass emergency events. Such a vision relies on integration of multiple subfields of computer science, and a commitment to an understanding of the domain of application. It supports the hopes of a grid/cyberinfrastructure-enabled future that makes use of social software. However, in contrast to how emergency management is often understood, it aims to push beyond the idea of monitoring on-line activity, and instead focuses on an understudied but critical aspect of mass emergency response---the needs and roles of members of the public. By viewing the citizenry as a powerful, self-organizing, and collectively intelligent force, information and communication technology can play a transformational role in crisis. Critical topics for research and development include an understanding of the quantity and quality of information (and its continuous change) produced through computer-mediated communication during emergencies; mechanisms for ensuring trustworthiness and security of information; mechanisms for aligning informal and formal sources of information; and new applications of information extraction techniques.