Abstract: Much of the crisis management literature focuses on improving communication by improving the integrity of communication equipment, vulnerable for example, to the loss of electricity. But communication issues arise in sociotechnical systems with functioning communication equipment, prompting researchers and practitioners alike to bemoan the absence of information sharing. Computer scientists envision a giant virtual display accessible to all, but little thought has gone into the principles for selecting, formatting and organizing content to make it useful. Here we argue that what is needed is information rather than data, and that situating data in context is key to the provision of information. Documentation of information exchange issues in real crisis management is quite superficial, generally pointing to conclusions without any supporting data. Using documentation of the Deepwater Horizon Accident in 2010, we distinguish between data and information, and the challenge this poses to the design of computational support for information sharing.