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Ana Laugé, Josune Hernantes, & Jose Mari Sarriegi. (2013). Disaster impact assessment:A holistic framework. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 730–734). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: One of the important aspects of the crisis management consists in a comprehensive analysis of the impacts generated and their associated cost. The capacity to carry out an efficient holistic management, through the development of preventive measures and response programs relies on a proper estimation of impacts which helps to mitigate the harshness or can even avoid impacts in face of future crises. The aim of this paper is to analyse existing methodologies for natural disasters' impact evaluation, the identification of the different impact categories as well as the explanation of a natural disasters impact framework, which includes a list of indicators for a correct impact assessment. The framework also analyses the evolution of impacts, that is, how immediate impacts can also generate delayed impacts.
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Ana Maria Aldea Reyes, Marta Burgos Gonzalez, & Susana Izquierdo Funcia. (2022). Ethics in Catastrophes, Extraordinary Decisions. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 814–819). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: European research projects take ethical aspects into central consideration. In this extended abstract we have developed the methodology of the Search and Rescue (SnR) project and research made in relation to the ethical aspects of animal welfare.
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Ana María Cintora, Eva Teresa Robledo, Cristina Gomez, Raquel Lafuente, Ricardo García, & Cristina Horrillo. (2022). Analysis of the Chemical Incidents from Seveso Directive according to Direct Fatalities and Injuries. In Rob Grace, & Hossein Baharmand (Eds.), ISCRAM 2022 Conference Proceedings – 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1058–1067). Tarbes, France.
Abstract: This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the eMARS database, which contains compulsory information on major chemical incidents under the SEVESO Directive. This analysis serves to assess the installations with the highest number of direct fatalities and injuries. At present, the data collected to assess the status of chemical accident risk globally are rather limited. There are some sources of data on chemical accidents in government and industry that might be used to estimate the frequency and severity of some types of events, but they are far from providing a complete perspective that covers all chemical accidents, thus limiting the possibilities of obtaining a more homogeneous picture of the risk of chemical accidents worldwide. Waste storage, treatment and disposal is one of the industrial areas with the highest number of fatalities and injuries, so we must emphasize the importance of this type of industry within the risk maps.
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Ana Rodríguez-Hoyos, José Estrada-Jiménez, David Rebollo-Monedero, Jordi Forné, Rubén Trapero Burgos, Antonio Álvarez Romero, et al. (2019). Anonymizing Cybersecurity Data in Critical Infrastructures: The CIPSEC Approach. 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: Cybersecurity logs are permanently generated by network devices to describe security incidents. With modern
computing technology, such logs can be exploited to counter threats in real time or before they gain a foothold.
To improve these capabilities, logs are usually shared with external entities. However, since cybersecurity logs
might contain sensitive data, serious privacy concerns arise, even more when critical infrastructures (CI), handling
strategic data, are involved.
We propose a tool to protect privacy by anonymizing sensitive data included in cybersecurity logs. We implement
anonymization mechanisms grouped through the definition of a privacy policy. We adapt said approach to the
context of the EU project CIPSEC that builds a unified security framework to orchestrate security products, thus
offering better protection to a group of CIs. Since this framework collects and processes security-related data from
multiple devices of CIs, our work is devoted to protecting privacy by integrating our anonymization approach.
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Ana Rosa Trancoso, José Delgado Domingos, Maria João Telhado, & João Corte-Real. (2011). Early warning system for meteorological risk in Lisbon municipality: Description and quality evaluation. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The current work describes and evaluates an early warning system for meteorological risk in Lisbon that has been functioning in SMPC since February 2008. The system aims to integrate multiple sources of information and facilitate cross checking observations, forecasts and warnings, allowing for an efficient and timely evaluation of the alert level to issue. Currently, it comprises hourly weather and tide level forecasts and automated warnings for Lisbon city, given by MM5 and WRF models running at IST. Results show MM5 performing better than WRF except for warm weather. The overall skill of the warning system is 40% with some false alarm ratios, mainly for forecasts with more than 3 days in advance. This is a reasonable characteristic for early warning since a potentially problematic situation can be anticipated and checked avoiding unnecessary economic expenditures if the warnings do not persist.
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Ana-Gabriela Núñez, Mª Carmen Penadés, & José H. Canós. (2016). QuEP: Building a Continuous Improvement of Emergency Plans Management. In A. Tapia, P. Antunes, V.A. Bañuls, K. Moore, & J. Porto (Eds.), ISCRAM 2016 Conference Proceedings ? 13th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Abstract: While different governments worldwide have published sets of recommendations-or even laws-for increasing preparedness, a reference framework to assess the level of compliance of organizations is still to come. For instance, emergency plans often remain stored in closets where they stay until some emergency or major legal change occurs. Consequently, achieving actual preparedness is difficult to assess. QuEP is a framework for the assessment and improvement of the management of emergency plans within organizations. It is inspired by the Total Quality Management strategy, and provides a hierarchy of emergency plan management maturity levels. The aim of QuEP is to guide organizations to assess and improve their emergency preparedness by following a set of principles, practices and techniques at the technical, human and strategic levels. In this paper, we show the model underlying the framework, and give details of the current framework evaluation processes.
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Ana-Gabriela Núñez, Mª Carmen Penadés, José H. Canós-Cerdá, & Marcos R. S. Borges. (2015). Towards a Total Quality Framework for the Evaluation and Improvement of Emergency Plans Management. In L. Palen, M. Buscher, T. Comes, & A. Hughes (Eds.), ISCRAM 2015 Conference Proceedings ? 12th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Kristiansand, Norway: University of Agder (UiA).
Abstract: The evaluation of the quality of emergency plans is an unresolved issue. While most research efforts have focused on the definition and improvement of planning methods and the associated tools, a reference framework allowing the assessment of emergency plans is still missing. In this paper, we report our initial work towards the definition of a quality framework for emergency plan management. To create it, we are borrowing results from more than one century of research on quality methods, with special emphasis in the newest Total Quality Management approaches that pay attention to technical, human and strategic concerns during the plan development process. The QuEP framework defines a number of planning principles and practices to define a maturity-driven layered model for the evaluation of organizations. We list the principles and practices, and describe its potential to be integrated with other emergency plan management frameworks.
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Ana-Gabriela Núñez, Sebastián Cedillo, Andrés Alvarado Martínez, & Ma Carmen Penadés. (2020). Towards the Building of a Resilient City able to Face Flood Risk Scenarios. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 593–601). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Despite the efforts that have been made to inform the community about the possible environmental risks, there is still a general lack of information. Currently, we are working on a flood risk scenario focused on a proposal towards a resilient culture together with the support of Information Technologies (IT) as a way to manage information. The goal is twofold: (i) on the one hand, to manage data in a small scenario to analyze and process the data collected from sensors in different sites in a micro-basin. Data get from data processing such as flow and velocity will then be the input data for hydraulic models to predict floods downstream; (ii) on the other hand, to publicize the predictions and the data already processed means people can benefit from information on flood risks, and the different participants may change their perception and consider cooperating in improving resilience.
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Anastasia Moumtzidou, Marios Bakratsas, Stelios Andreadis, Anastasios Karakostas, Ilias Gialampoukidis, Stefanos Vrochidis, et al. (2020). Flood detection with Sentinel-2 satellite images in crisis management systems. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1049–1059). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The increasing amount of falling rain may cause several problems especially in urban areas, which drainage system can often not handle this large amount in a short time. Confirming a flooded scene in a timely manner can help the authorities to take further actions to counter the crisis event or to get prepared for future relevant incidents. This paper studies the detection of flood events comparing two successive in time Sentinel-2 images, a method that can be extended for detecting floods in a time-series. For the flood detection, fine-tuned pre-trained Deep Convolutional Neural Networks are used, testing as input different sets of three water sensitive satellite bands. The proposed approach is evaluated against different change detection baseline methods, based on remote sensing. Experiments showed that the proposed method with the augmentation technique applied, improved significantly the performance of the neural network, resulting to an F-Score of 62% compared to 22% of the traditional remote sensing techniques. The proposed method supports the crisis management authority to better estimate and evaluate the flood impact.
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Anastasios Karakostas, Stefanos Vrochidis, Yiannis Kompatsiaris, Boris Kantsepolsky, Jürgen Moßgraber, Stamatia Dasiopoulou, et al. (2018). beAWARE: Enhancing Decision Support and Management Services in Extreme Weather Climate Events. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1136–1139). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: In every disaster and crisis, incident time is the enemy, and getting accurate information about the scope, extent, and impact of the disaster is critical to creating and orchestrating an effective disaster response and recovery effort. The main goal of beAWARE framework is to provide support in all the phases of an emergency incident. More specifically, we propose an integrated solution to support forecasting, early warnings, transmission and routing of the emergency data, aggregated analysis of multimodal data and management the coordination between the first responders and the authorities.
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André Dittrich, & Christian Lucas. (2013). A step towards real-time analysis of major disaster events based on tweets. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 868–874). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: The most popular micro blogging platform Twitter has been the topic of a variety of research papers related to disaster and crisis management. As an essential first step and basis for a real-time methodology to exploit Twitter for event detection, localization and ultimately semantic content analysis, a functional model to describe the amount of tweets during a day has been developed. It was derived from a corpus of messages in an exemplary area of investigation. To satisfy the different daily behavior on particular days, two types of days are distinguished in this paper. Moreover, keyword-adjusted data is used to point out the potential of semantic tweet analysis in following steps. The consideration of spatial event descriptions in relevant tweets could significantly improve and accelerate the perception of a disaster. The results from the conducted tests demonstrate the capability of the functional model to detect events with significant social impact in Twitter data.
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André Sabino, & Armanda Rodrigues. (2011). Understanding the role of cooperation in emergency plan construction. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In this paper we describe a proposal for information organization for computer supported cooperative work, while working with spatial information. It is focused on emergency response plan construction, and the requirements extracted from that task. At the centre of our proposal is the analysis of the structure of the cooperative workspace. We argue that the internal information representation should follow a spatial approach, tying the structure used to manage users with the structure used to manage information, suggesting the use of different spaces to represent the information. The gain we expect from this approach is the improved capacity to extract information on how people are cooperating and their relationship with the information they are working with. The ideas are introduced while focusing on real life emergency planning activities, where we discuss the current shortcomings of the cooperation strategies in use and propose a solution.
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André Sabino, Rui Nóbrega, Armanda Rodrigues, & Nuno Correia. (2008). Life-saver: Flood emergency simulator. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 724–733). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper proposes an agent-based simulation system for Dam Break Emergency Plan validation. The proposed system shows that integrating GIS data with an agent-based approach provides a successful simulation platform for the emergency plan validation process. Possible strategies to emergency plan modeling and representation are discussed, proposing a close relation with the actual workflow followed by the entities responsible for the plan's specification. The simulation model is mainly concerned with the location-based and location-motivated actions of the involved agents, describing the likely effects of a specific emergency situation response. The simulator architecture is further described, based on the correspondence between the representation of the plan, and the simulation model. This includes the involving characteristics of the simulation, the simulation engine, the description of the resulting data (for the later evaluation of the emergency plan) and a visualization and interaction component, enabling the dynamic introduction of changes in the scenario progression.
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André Simões, Armanda Rodrigues, Patricia Pires, & Luis Sá. (2011). Evaluating emergency scenarios using historic data: Flood management. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The evaluation of an emergency scenario is often based on the use of simulation models. The specificity of these models involves the need for a complex evaluation of the problem domain, including the physical conditions behind the considered threat. Based on emergency occurrences data, provided by the Portuguese National Civil Protection Authority, we are currently developing a methodology for evaluating a real situation, based on past occurrences. The aim is to develop a platform that will enable the evaluation of a risk scenario based on existing civil protection data. The methodology under development should enable the evaluation of different scenarios based on the collected available data. This will be achieved thanks to the facilitated configuration of several aspects, such as the geographical region and relevant properties of the considered threat. In this paper, we describe the methodology development process and the current state of the platform for risk evaluation.
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Andrea Bellucci, Alessio Malizia, Paloma Díaz, & Ignacio Aedo. (2010). Framing the design space for novel crisis-related mashups: The eStoryS example. 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: Web 2.0 can be viewed as a platform where users can develop their own web applications. It is also characterized by a vast amount of user-generated contents presenting spatial and temporal components, by means of associated metadata. These metadata has been successfully exploited to generate map-based mashups (web applications gathering data from different sources) facing different kind of crisis situations, ranging from natural disasters (earthquakes, wildfires, floods...) to human-made disasters (terrorist attacks, school shootings, conflicts...). The social and collaborative dimensions of the Web 2.0 can be also exploited for managing crisis-related information. We present here a survey of current crisis-related mashups we employed to extract design dimensions and provide a conceptual framework that can be used: A) to understand current systems and; b) to design next generation of crisis-related mashups. We propose the eStoryS system as an example of application developed following the design principles presented in this paper. On the basis of our analysis, we believe that the design dimensions posited here provide useful insights for the design of novel web mashups in the emergency management domain.
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Andrea Capata, Andrea Marrella, Ruggero Russo, Manfred Bortenschlager, & Harald Rieser. (2008). A geo-based application for the management of mobile actors during crisis situations. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 219–229). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The widespread availability of network-enabled handled devices has made the development of pervasive computing applications an emerging reality particularly suitable for managing emergency/disaster situations. Moreover in emergency management scenarios, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are gaining momentum for their capacity to capture, analyze and manage geo-referenced data. In this paper we discuss an architecture designed to support rescue teams operating in outdoor environments and equipped with mobile devices working in a P2P fashion within a Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET). Our system has been designed to effectively address the on-field working persons' need for geographic information that cannot be supplied by conventional paper-based maps. Our approach provides a transparent access to geo-information and to GIS functionalities, and it addresses issues specifically relevant to emergency management scenarios in open fields.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Kartikeya Bajpai, Bernard J. Jansen, & John Yen. (2011). Seeking the trustworthy tweet: Can microblogged data fit the information needs of disaster response and humanitarian relief organizations. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Message data has, as yet, not been adopted by large-scale, international humanitarian relief organizations in an instrumental fashion. While the largest of these organizations have adopted messaging as part of their Public Relations functions, few have used any form of message data originating in the field, at the time of disaster. The message data being contributed by bystanders and those affected by a disaster, as it is happening, has largely been deemed as unverifiable and untrustworthy, and thus construed as unsuitable for incorporation into established mechanisms for organizational decision-making. In this paper, we describe the discursive barriers to the use of microblogged data by Humanitarian NGOs during times of disaster. We present data and findings from a study involving representatives from thirteen humanitarian organizations. Our analysis suggests that the organizational barriers, both in terms of function and structure, and the data itself, form barriers to organizational use of microblogged data. We propose three socio-technical solutions to surpassing adoption bottlenecks, namely bounded microblogging, microblogged data as contextual data, and/or use of computational solutions.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Kathleen A. Moore, & Nichloas J. Johnson. (2013). Beyond the trustworthy tweet: A deeper understanding of microblogged data use by disaster response and humanitarian relief organizations. In J. Geldermann and T. Müller S. Fortier F. F. T. Comes (Ed.), ISCRAM 2013 Conference Proceedings – 10th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 770–779). KIT; Baden-Baden: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie.
Abstract: In this paper we present findings from interviews conducted with representatives from large international disaster response organizations concerning their use of social media data in crisis response. We present findings in which the barriers to use by responding organizations have gone beyond simple discussions of trustworthiness to that of more operational issues rather than mere data quality. We argue that the landscape of the use of microblogged data in crisis response is varied, with pockets of use and acceptance among organizations. We found that microblogged data is useful to responders in situations where information is limited, such as at the beginning of an emergency response effort, and when the risks of ignoring an accurate response outweigh the risks of acting on an incorrect one. In some situations, such as search and rescue operations, microblogged data may never meet the standards of quality required. In others, such as resource and supply management, microblogging data could be useful as long as it is appropriately verified and classified.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Nicklaus A. Giacobe, Nicolas LaLone, & Pamela J. Soule. (2015). Scaling 911 Messaging for Emergency Operation Centers During Large Scale Events. In L. Palen, M. Buscher, T. Comes, & A. Hughes (Eds.), ISCRAM 2015 Conference Proceedings ? 12th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Kristiansand, Norway: University of Agder (UiA).
Abstract: In this paper we imagine that one day soon, mass crisis events will result in thousands of people trying to get emergency help multiple via multiple mediums. Public Access Service Points and 911 Centers will not be able to meet the demand of text-message calls for help during a large scale disaster. While 911 dispatchers will need to respond directly to each individual text message, we present the development and testing of a system that aims to provide this data, in real-time, directly to emergency managers during a large-scale crisis. The system is designed to accept, sort, triage and deliver hundreds of direct text messages from the PSAP and provide them directly to emergency management staff, who can leverage their content. In the hands of the emergency manager, these data can be used to inform resource allocation decisions, enhance their operational situational awareness, and potentially improve the response to the crisis.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Nicolas LaLone, Elizabeth MacDonald, Reid Priedhorsky, & Hall Hall. (2014). Crowdsourcing rare events: Using curiosity to draw participants into science and early warning systems. 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. 135–144). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: This research presents a centralized boundary object website and mobile app focused on allowing participants to participate in developing an early warning system through space weather and the beauty of the aurora borealis. Because of the beauty and majesty of auroral activity, people will seek information about when and where these unpredictable events occur. This activity, commonly referred to as nowcasting, can be combined with scientific data collected from observatories and satellites and serve as an early warning system with potentially far greater accuracy and timeliness than the current state of the art. We believe that long-term engagement with a citizen science tool will help bridge the many social worlds surrounding the aurora borealis and lead to the development of an early warning system that may correlate the visibility of the northern lights to violent space weather. We hope this will lead to other real time crowdsourced early warning systems in the future.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Nicolas LaLone, & Hyun-Woo Kim. (2014). Run amok: Group crowd participation in identifying the bomb and bomber from the Boston marathon bombing. 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. 265–274). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: In this paper we tell a version of the story of the bombing of the Boston Marathon. At first, two online groups gathered images, video and textual information concerning the bombing of the Boston Marathon and shared these with the FBI and amongst themselves. Secondly, these groups then created mechanisms to conduct their own investigation into the identities of the perpetrators. Finally, the larger national media followed the results of these online group investigations and reported these as fact to a national audience. We choose Twitter as our data repository and conducted quantitative analyses of tweets sent during the Boston Bombing. The implications for not incorporating public crowd participation within the standard operating procedures of emergency services may result in either a loss of public confidence in the slow-moving nature of official response to uncontrollable, dangerous and irresponsible public and media participation that exacerbates the negative effects of any disaster.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Pedro Antunes, Victor A. Bañuls, Kathleen Moore, & João Porto de Albuquerque. (2016). 13th ISCRAM Conference Proceedings Introduction (A. Tapia, P. Antunes, V.A. Bañuls, K. Moore, & J. Porto, Eds.). Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Abstract: The theme of ISCRAM 2016 is Resilience. Resilience has become a popular topic in emergency response and crisis management. This edition will highlight the exploration of the various facets of resilience when applied to Crisis and Emergency Management. The purpose of ISCRAM 2016 is to stimulate discussions that enable the design of resilient systems in the domain of crisis management.
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Andrea Kavanaugh, Francis Quek, Steven D. Sheetz, & B. Joon Kim. (2010). Cell phone use with social ties during crises: The case of the Virginia Tech tragedy. 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: Many proposed technological solutions to emergency response during disasters involve the use of cellular telephone technology. However, cell phone networks quickly become saturated during and/or immediately after a disaster and remain saturated for critical periods. In this study, we investigated cell phone use by Virginia Tech students, faculty and staff during the shootings on April 16, 2007 to identify patterns of communication with social network ties. We administered an online survey to a random sample from our pool to capture communications behavior with social ties during the day of these tragic events. The results show that cell phones were the most heavily used communication technology by a majority of respondents (both voice and text messaging). While text messaging makes more efficient use of bandwidth than voice, most communication on 4/16 was with parents, since the majority of the sample is students, who are less likely to use text messaging. Our findings should help in understanding how cell phone technologies may be utilized or modified for emergency situations in similar communities.
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Andrea Kavanaugh, Steven D. Sheetz, Riham Hassan, Seungwon Yang, Hicham G. Elmongui, Edward A. Fox, et al. (2012). Between a rock and a cell phone: Communication and information technology use during the 2011 Egyptian uprising. 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: Many observers heralded the use of social media during recent political uprisings in the Middle East even dubbing Iran's post election protests a “Twitter Revolution”. We seek to put into perspective the use of social media in Egypt during the mass political demonstrations in 2011. We draw on innovation diffusion theory to argue that these media could have had an impact beyond their low adoption rates due to other factors related to demographics and social networks. We supplement our social media data analysis with survey data we collected in June 2011 from an opportunity sample of Egyptian youth. We conclude that in addition to the contextual factors noted above, the individuals within Egypt who used Twitter during the uprising have the characteristics of opinion leaders. These findings contribute to knowledge regarding the role of opinion leaders and social media, especially Twitter, during violent political demonstrations. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Andrea Marrella, Massimo Mecella, & Alessandro Russo. (2011). Collaboration on-the-field: Suggestions and beyond. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In disaster scenarios, emergency operators/first responders need to collaborate in order to reach a common goal. The use of mobile devices and applications in these scenarios is very valuable as they can improve collaboration, coordination, and communication amongst team members. But there are also risks involved while using these mobile applications, e.g., decreasing of performance. Most of the tasks are highly critical and time demanding, e.g., saving minutes could result in saving people's life. Therefore, it is unacceptable to use systems that lack proper interaction principles. In this paper, we provide some suggestions, in the form of lessons learned and/or hints for possible future research activities, on how to effectively support on-the-field collaboration of emergency operators. Such suggestions are based on the authors' experience in a recently concluded successful research project on the use of mobile devices for supporting first responders.
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