Crowdsourced Emergency Information

Crowdsourced Emergency Information

Martin Tomko

Maurits van der Vlugt, Keren Flavell, Anthony Joseph, Daniela Fernandez,

and many others

Emergency

“A serious, unexpected, and dangerous situation requiring immediate action.”

Life | Health | Property | Environment

Emergency Lifecycle

• Preparation

• Warning

• Impact

• Response

• Recovery

Emergency Information

Content:• Accountable• Timely• Accurate• Unambiguous• Relevant• Updateable

Delivery:• Targeted• Accessible• Robust

The Expert Approach

Saturday 7/02/2009 bushfires

burnt the equivalent of 1 million football fields, displaced 7,500 people across 78

townships, resulting in 173 dead and 2000 houses lost.

Information Breakdown

000 overloadedSlow and overwhelmed response

No trustworthy alternative informationMisdirected and late evacuations

From VicAlerts RHOK 2011

Authoritative Information Channels

Content:• Accountable

+• Timely

-• Accurate

+• Unambiguous

+• Relevant

-• Updateable

-

Delivery:• Targeted

-• Accessible -• Robust

-

Missing Information Stream

• From people to agencies• Supportive information (not incidents, but context)• Responsiveness (change happens)• Resilience (self-help)• Impact reduction vs hazard mitigation

There is a need for change […]

Empower communities with Timely, Relevant

and Tailored information

Craig Lapsley, VIC FSC

”

”

Crowdsouring

“Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a "crowd"), through an open call.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing

Crowdsouring

Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen de Pázmánd, cca 1770

Crowdsouring

Crowdsourced Emergency Information

Bridging the Ecosystems

Stats

QLD Flood crisis• 1 month• 100,784 reports• 213021 unique visitors over 2

weeks, 50% over 2 days (11-12th Jan)

• ~500,000 pageviews

Stats

Sinsai.info Japan)• 10K/30K users/day (Avg/Peak)• 30K/200K requests/day (Avg/Peak)• 3000 user reports in first week, 7000 in first

month

Crowdsourced Information Channels

Content:• Accountable

-• Timely

+• Accurate

+/-• Unambiguous

-• Relevant

+• Updateable

+

Delivery:• Targeted

+• Accessible +• Robust

+

Crowdsourced Project Characteristics

• Short-term Operation • Disaster-specific• Ad-hoc core team of volounteers • Short-term active moderators• Information flow and tools established during emergency• Platform development in bursts

Crowdsourced Emergency Information

Social Media Data Deluge

Example Tweets:#irene [#your primary tag] information for primary tag #loc gps coordinates #src where the information came from

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(201

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Social Media Data Deluge

Stage Input features Output features Disaster type

Preparation Agency feeds + Community resources + guidelines

Subscription to SMS + App + Feed

BushfiresFloodsCyclonesPests

Warning Agency feeds + App SMS, App, Map, Feed BushfiresFloodsEpidemics & PestsCyclones and Weather

Impact Agency feeds and Twitter monitoring + App

SMS, App BushfiresFloodsUnrest

Response Twitter submissions and monitoring + App

SMS, App, Map BushfiresFloodsEpidemics & PestsCyclones and WeatherUnrest

Recovery Twitter and Email submissions

Map, Feed BushfiresFloodsEarthquakeTsunamiCyclones and WeatherUnrest

Helping neighbours help their neighbours

Characteristics

Most projects• Short-term Operation • Disaster-specific• Ad-hoc core team of

volounteers • Short-term active

moderators

BushfireConnect.org• Ongoing operation• National coverage• Stable core team +

volounteers• Long term but latent

moderators

Bushfire Connect

• Community Powered

• Community Resilience

• Integrate Crowd Sourced and Official Information

Citizen Reports

• SMS• Web form• Emails• Twitter• Smartphone

Incident Alerts – OPT IN

• SMS• Email• RSS…• APP

Crowdsourced Emergency Systems Challenges

• Data Mining and (Geo)Information Retrieval• Information synthesis, Mood detection• Usability• De-centralised dissemination• Load balancing• Social dynamics and motivation• Team organisation • Vandalism

www.bushfireconnect.org

ushahidi

http://bushfireconnect.org/feed/

@bushfireconnect https://www.facebook.com/bushfireconnect

0429 883 485 info@bushfireconnect.org#bushfireconnect

ushahidi

Volounteer Coordinator PositionTechnical Implementation Coordinator

System AdministratorModerators

martin.tomko@gmail.com