Exercise 24: Using Social Media for Crisis Response

Background

Cloud computing and social media have contributed to the wealth of sharing information across the globe, emergency managers, NGOs, and governments alike are seeking similar information management benefits for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. Numerous emergency managers have formed in these social networking worlds such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc. The capabilities of GIS in cloud environments have allowed for data collection, data processing, and data sharing across the emergency management field. For emergency managers, much of the data collection and processing can be performed as part of the preparation work. Data can be imported or created to reflect what might typically be required for a responding agency to operate effectively and communicate more openly with the counterparts involved in the emergency.

When an emergency strikes, the infrastructure of the cloud environment needs to be flexible enough to work in the field and to incorporate the multiple layers of additional data that will be collected and disseminated as part of the emergency response. In such a dynamic and challenging setting, the software technologies must be easy to handle and manage for those with limited knowledge of GIS or other software technologies. An overly complex software tool that requires additional specialists to run could result in response delays or a bottleneck situation just when the need for information becomes most critical.