Sophia B. Liu. (2010). The rise of curated crisis content. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In a networked world, we are increasingly inundated with information from online data streams especially from the social web. Curation has increasingly become the buzzword for managing this problem of information overload in the digital age. However, the applications and interpretations of curation by social web users are varied and often stray away from traditional curator roles. I present seven curatorial activities (i.e. collecting, organizing, preserving, filtering, crafting a story, displaying, and facilitating discussions) based on the analysis of 100 web artifacts. I introduce the concept, socially-distributed curation, to emphasize the distributed nature of this curatorial process emerging from the social web. Lastly, I present seven case studies to illustrate preliminary examples of curated crisis content for four crises. These findings are to inform future designs and developments of crisis management tools that could benefit from curated crisis content.
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Sophia B. Liu, & Leysia Palen. (2009). Spatiotemporal mashups: A survey of current tools to inform next generation crisis support. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have adjusted the opportunities for spatial and temporal representations of data, possibly permitting the simultaneous visualization of how different regions and populations are affected during large-scale emergencies and crises. We surveyed 13 crisis-related mashups to derive some high-level design directions to guide the design and testing of next generation crisis support tools. The current web mashups offer a new way of looking at how crises are spatiotemporally ordered. However, since all technology is constrained by limitations of design choice, examining the limits and possibilities of what current design choices afford can inform attributes of what next generation crisis support tools would require.
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Sophia B. Liu, Leysia Palen, Jeannette N. Sutton, Amanda L. Hughes, & Sara Vieweg. (2008). In search of the bigger picture: The emergent role of on-line photo sharing in times of disaster. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 140–149). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Eyewitness photography is increasingly playing a more significant role in disaster response and recovery efforts. This research elaborates on the ways in which members of the public participate during times of disaster by closely examining the evolving role of a prominent photo-sharing website, Flickr, in events that have occurred since its launch in February 2004. We discuss features of Flickr's emerging evolutionary growth as a community forum for disaster-related grassroots activity based on the findings from our qualitative study of 29 groups across six disasters over Flickr's nearly three-year lifespan. Our findings discuss efforts toward the development of norms that attempt to guide the nature of social practice around photographic content during disaster response and recovery efforts.
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Lise Ann St. Denis, Amanda L. Hughes, & Leysia Palen. (2012). Trial by fire: The deployment of trusted digital volunteers in the 2011 shadow lake fire. In Z.Franco J. R. L. Rothkrantz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2012 Conference Proceedings – 9th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Vancouver, BC: Simon Fraser University.
Abstract: We report on the use of a team of trusted digital volunteers during the 2011 Shadow Lake Fire that occurred in the US Pacific Northwest to extend the social media capacity of a Type I incident management team. In this case study, we outline the tools and processes used by this virtual team to coordinate their activities, monitor social media communication and to establish communications with the public around the event. Finally, we discuss the potential merits and limitations of implementing a team of trusted volunteers and explore how this idea could be incorporated into emergency management organizations. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Lise Ann St. Denis, Leysia Palen, & Kenneth M. Anderson. (2014). Mastering social media: An analysis of Jefferson County's communications during the 2013 Colorado floods. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 737–746). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: We report on the social media communications and work practices of the Jefferson County Type III Incident Management Team during the September 2013 Colorado Floods. In this case study, we examine flood-related communications across three platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and the team's blog for insight into how this innovative team coordinated their communications to meet the information needs of a community outside of the media spotlight. Using a mixed method approach of interviews and social media content analysis, we describe their online behaviors in relation to the needs of the emergency response as a whole. We report on adaptations to their work practice that allowed them to extend traditional communications with social media to create an integrated communication plan. Finally, we look to the team's experiences for direction in how to use social media in emergencies generally.
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Kate Starbird, & Jeannie Stamberger. (2010). Tweak the tweet: Leveraging microblogging proliferation with a prescriptive syntax to support citizen reporting. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a low-tech solution for use by microbloggers that could enhance their ability to rapidly produce parsable, crisis-relevant information in mass emergencies. We build upon existing research on the use of social media during mass emergencies and disasters. Our proposed intervention aims to leverage the affordances of mobile microblogging and the drive to support citizen reporting within current behavioral Twitter-based microblogging practice. We introduce a prescriptive, tweet-based syntax that could increase the utility of information generated during emergencies by gently reshaping current behavioral practice. This offering is grounded in an understanding of current trends in norm evolution of Twitter use, an evolution that has progressed quickly but appears to be stabilizing around specific textual conventions.
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Kate Starbird, & Leysia Palen. (2010). Pass it on?: Retweeting in mass emergency. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: We examine microblogged information generated during two different co-occurring natural hazards events in Spring 2009. Due to its rapid and widespread adoption, microblogging in emergency response is a place for serious consideration and experimentation for future application. Because microblogging is comprised of a set of practices shaped by a number of forces, it is important to measure and describe the diffuse, multiparty information exchange behaviors to anticipate how emergency governance might best play a role. Here we direct consideration toward information propagation properties in the Twitterverse, describing features of information redistribution related to the retweet (RT ) convention. Our analysis shows that during an emergency, for tweets authored by local users and tweets that contain emergency-related search terms, retweets are more likely than non-retweets to be about the event. We note that users are more likely to retweet information originally distributed through Twitter accounts run by media, especially the local media, and traditional service organizations. Comparing local users to the broader audience, we also find that tweet-based information redistribution is different for those who are local to an emergency event.
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Kate Starbird, Grace Muzny, & Leysia Palen. (2012). Learning from the crowd: Collaborative filtering techniques for identifying on-the-ground Twitterers during mass disruptions. In Z.Franco J. R. L. Rothkrantz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2012 Conference Proceedings – 9th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Vancouver, BC: Simon Fraser University.
Abstract: Social media tools, including the microblogging platform Twitter, have been appropriated during mass disruption events by those affected as well as the digitally-convergent crowd. Though tweets sent by those local to an event could be a resource both for responders and those affected, most Twitter activity during mass disruption events is generated by the remote crowd. Tweets from the remote crowd can be seen as noise that must be filtered, but another perspective considers crowd activity as a filtering and recommendation mechanism. This paper tests the hypothesis that crowd behavior can serve as a collaborative filter for identifying people tweeting from the ground during a mass disruption event. We test two models for classifying on-the-ground Twitterers, finding that machine learning techniques using a Support Vector Machine with asymmetric soft margins can be effective in identifying those likely to be on the ground during a mass disruption event. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Amanda Hughes, Muhammad Imran, Linda Plotnick, Robert Power, & Murray Turoff. (2019). Requirements for Software to Support the use of Social Media in Emergency Management: A Delphi Study. In Z. Franco, J. J. González, & J. H. Canós (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management. Valencia, Spain: Iscram.
Abstract: Social Media contain a wealth of information that could improve the situational awareness of Emergency Managers during a crisis, but many barriers stand in the way. These include information overload, making it impossible to deal with the flood of raw posts, and lack of trust in unverified crowdsourced data. The purpose of this project is to build a communications bridge between emergency responders and technologists who can provide the advances needed to realize social media?s full potential. We are employing a Delphi study survey design, which is a technique for exploring and developing consensus among a group of experts around a particular topic. Participants include emergency managers and technologists with experience in software to support the use of social media in crisis response, from many countries. The topics of the study are described and preliminary, partial results presented for Round 1 of the study, based on 33 responses.
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Jeannette N. Sutton, Leysia Palen, & Irina Shklovski. (2008). Backchannels on the front lines: Emergent uses of social media in the 2007 Southern California Wildfires. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 624–631). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Opportunities for participation by members of the public are expanding the information arena of disaster. Social media supports “backchannel” communications, allowing for wide-scale interaction that can be collectively resourceful, self-policing, and generative of information that is otherwise hard to obtain. Results from our study of information practices by members of the public during the October 2007 Southern California Wildfires suggest that community information resources and other backchannel communications activity enabled by social media are gaining prominence in the disaster arena, despite concern by officials about the legitimacy of information shared through such means. We argue that these emergent uses of social media are pre-cursors of broader future changes to the institutional and organizational arrangements of disaster response.
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Tom Wilson, Stephanie A. Stanek, Emma S. Spiro, & Kate Starbird. (2017). Language Limitations in Rumor Research? Comparing French and English Tweets Sent During the 2015 Paris Attacks. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 546–553). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: The ubiquity of social media facilitates widespread participation in crises. As individuals converge online to understand a developing situation, rumors can emerge. Little is currently known about how online rumoring behavior varies by language. Exploring a rumor from the 2015 Paris Attacks, we investigate Twitter rumoring behaviors across two languages: French, the primary language of the affected population; and English, the dominant language of Internet communication. We utilize mixed methods to qualitatively code and quantitatively analyze rumoring behaviors across French and English language tweets. Most interestingly, temporal engagement in the rumor varies across languages, but proportions of tweets affirming and denying a rumor are very similar. Analyzing tweet deletions and retweet counts, we find slight (but not significant) differences between languages. This work offers insight into potential limitations of previous research of online rumoring, which often focused exclusively on English language content, and demonstrates the importance of considering language in future work.
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Michael Tyworth, & Steve Sawyer. (2006). Integrated criminal justice system design: Designing an appropriate governance structure. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 444–449). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In this paper we discuss interim findings from an ongoing comparative case study of the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) in San Diego, CA. Significant attention had been given to the need to integrate information systems across organizational boundaries in the criminal justice domain. We employ a social informatics lens in this research that views the technological artifact as embedded in cultural and institutional context. In our examination of ARJIS we have found that the adoption of a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) as a governance structure has impacted system design and organizational practices significantly. Specifically, the JPA facilitates participation by member agencies and, allows the ARJIS management team autonomy and flexibility in developing and managing the ARJIS information system.
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Valerio Lorini, Carlos Castillo, Steve Peterson, Paola Rufolo, Hemant Purohit, Diego Pajarito, et al. (2021). Social Media for Emergency Management: Opportunities and Challenges at the Intersection of Research and Practice. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 772–777). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: This paper summarizes key opportunities and challenges identified during the workshop “Social Media for Disaster Risk Management: Researchers Meet Practitioners” which took place online in November 2020. It constitutes a work-in-progress towards identifying new directions for research and development of systems that can better serve the information needs of emergency managers. Practitioners widely recognize the potential of accessing timely information from social media. Nevertheless, the discussion outlined some critical challenges for improving its adoption during crises. In particular, validating such information and integrating it with authoritative information and into more traditional information systems for emergency managers requires further work, and the negative impacts of misinformation and disinformation need to be prevented.
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Sara Vieweg, Leysia Palen, Sophia B. Liu, Amanda L. Hughes, & Jeannette N. Sutton. (2008). Collective intelligence in disaster: Examination of the phenomenon in the aftermath of the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 44–54). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: We report on the results of an investigation about the “informal, ” public-side communications that occurred in the aftermath of the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech (VT) Shooting. Our on-going research reveals several examples of on-line social interaction organized around the goal of collective problem-solving. In this paper, we focus on specific instances of this distributed problem-solving activity, and explain, using an ethnomethodological lens, how a loosely connected group of people can work together on a grave topic to provide accurate results.
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Wang, D. (2023). Public Cognition and Perception on Social Media in Crisis. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 1081–1082). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: Microblogging platforms have been increasingly used in crisis, facilitating more participatory communication between official response channels and affected communities. Despite the potential benefits, research has shown that disaster response organizations could not effectively utilize social media data due to data deluge (Knox 2022). To better understand the information needed for disaster response, we turn to the National Incident Management System Guidance for public information officers (PIOs) (NIMS Basic Guidance for PIOs 2020), the primary spokesperson for emergency management organizations. The guidance indicates that PIOs use social media for two major purposes, supporting their operational needs and gauging public perception of risk and incident response. To support the operational needs, the crisis informatics literature has heavily focused on information types supporting situational awareness, including serviceable, eyewitness or actionable information. However, the information representing public perception, such as people’s cognitive and perceptual processes in response to incidents, has been less addressed at scale. To bridge the gap between quantitative study in crisis informatics and information representing cognitive and perceptual processes and better support the task of PIOs, I focus on the study of people’s cognitive and perceptual processes on social media for my research. Cognitive and perceptual processes refer to the way that people pay attention to or process environmental inputs, including the mental activities of acquisition, processing or evaluation of environmental cues, social cues, and warnings. These processes reveal people’s perception of- and decision-making in response to potential threats. With this focus, I seek to answer the following research question: How could people’s cognitive and perceptual processes be inferred from their social media activities in crisis to benefit stakeholders in incident response? My interest in tracing this overall theme through a varied range of sub-tasks produces three more specific research questions: RQ1. How can information exposure and attention be operationalized to highlight cognitive and perceptual processes? RQ2. How do people’s perception of risk communications from stakeholders vary in crisis? RQ3. How could a principled and scalable pipeline be designed to identify people’s cognitive and affective perceptions on Twitter? I took cues from the Protective Action Decision Model (Lindell and Perry 2012) and leveraged baselines in the literature to address these research questions. To address the first research question, I proposed a metric that conceptualized and operationalized the predecision process. The proposed metric was incorporated into a pipeline and applied to two real-word events to recommend messages that represent the shift of collective attention of those locally affected with a specialized focus on cognitive and perceptual processes. To address the second research question, I went beyond the perception of risks to include perceptions of risk communications by stakeholders. I performed an empirical study of the relation between risk communications by stakeholders and different kinds of public perceptions (Lindell and Perry 2012). To address the third research question, I proposed a future work to provide benchmark coding schemes, datasets and models to quantitatively identify information representing cognitive and perceptual processes. I will leverage existing benchmark datasets in the literature (Olteanu et al. 2014; Imran et al. 2016; Alam et al. 2018; Zahra et al. 2020; Rudra et al. 2017; Mazloom et al. 2018; Purohit et al. 2018) and coding schemes in qualitative studies (Trumbo et al. 2016; Demuth et al. 2018) and create benchmark classification models.
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Wang, D., & Kogan, M. (2023). Resonance+: Augmenting Collective Attention to Find Information on Public Cognition and Perception of Risk. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 487–500). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: Microblogging platforms have been increasingly used by the public and crisis managers in crisis. The increasing volume of data has made such platforms more difficult for officials to find on-the-ground information and understand the public’s perception of the evolving risks. The crisis informatics literature has proposed various technological solutions to find relevant information from social media. However, the cognitive processes of the affected population and their subsequent responses, such as perceptions, emotional and behavioral responses, are still under-examined at scale. Yet, such information is important for gauging public perception of risks, an important task for PIOs and emergency managers. In this work, we leverage the noise-cutting power of collective attention and take cues from the Protective Action Decision Model, to propose a method that estimates shifts in collective attention with a special focus on the cognitive processes of those affected and their subsequent responses.
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Hiroko Wilensky. (2014). Twitter as a navigator for stranded commuters during the great east Japan earthquake. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 697–706). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: The increased use of social media, such as Twitter, was widely reported on Japanese media after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. This study is a qualitative investigation of the use of Twitter by the stranded commuters and their supporters in the Tokyo metropolitan area immediately after the earthquake. This paper describes the possibilities and problems of Twitter use under a rapidly changing disaster situation. During the first evening of this disaster, the Japan Railroad and other railroad systems ceased their operations in the Tokyo area. This left more than five million commuters stranded in the area. Many commuters walked hours to return home, while others struggled to find temporary shelter and stayed overnight in the city. This study also explores if Twitter was an effective navigator for helping stranded commuters return home or find shelter.
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Yasas Senarath, Jennifer Chan, Hemant Purohit, & Ozlem Uzuner. (2021). Evaluating the Relevance of UMLS Knowledge Base for Public Health Informatics during Disasters. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 97–105). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: During disasters public health organizations increasingly face challenges in acquiring and transforming real-time data into knowledge about the dynamic public health needs. Resources on the internet can provide valuable information for extracting knowledge that can help improve decisions which will ultimately result in targeted and efficient health services. Digital content such as online articles, blogs, and social media are some of such information sources that could be leveraged to improve the health care systems during disasters. To efficiently and accurately identify relevant disaster health information, extraction tools require a common vocabulary that is aligned to the health domain so that the knowledge from these unstructured digital sources can be accurately structured and organized. In this paper, we study the degree to which the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) contains relevant disaster, public health, and medical concepts for which public health information in disaster domain could be extracted from digital sources.
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