Sv Chi 6

Microblogging During Two Natural Hazards Events: What Twitter May Contribute to Situational Awareness

ColoradoUniversity of

Colorado at Boulder

Sarah ViewegKate Starbird

Amanda L. HughesLeysia Palen

Social Media & Emergency

Facebook, Community Websites, Online Forums

2007 VT Shootings

2007 Southern California Fires

2008 NIU Shootings 2008 Sichuan

Earthquake

Situational Awareness

“All knowledge that is accessible and can be integrated into a coherent picture, when required, to assess and cope with a situation”

- Sarter & Woods, 1991

Studying Twitter

“Twitter space”

TweetTweet

TweetTweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

TweetTweet

Tweet

Tweet

TweetTweet

Sample

Search Terms

RR Floods: March 8 – April 27Search Terms: red river, redriver

Returned: 13,153 tweets

OK Fires: April 8 – 13Search Terms: oklahoma, okfire, grass fire, grassfire

Returned: 6674 tweets

Unique Users

RR Floods: March 8 – April 27

Returned: 4983 unique Twitter users

OK Fires: April 8 – 13

Returned: 3852 unique Twitter users

Twitter User Tweet StreamUser Tweet Streams

Matches Search Terms

User Tweet Streams

But what are they talking about here?

User Tweet Streams

User Streams

RR FloodsReturned: 4,592,466 tweets

OK FiresReturned: 1,986,091 tweets

Threshold

Users with >3 tweets that include a keyword

On-topic: From MWCFD: Eastwood addition, a lot of damage. Part has power, part doesn't. Won't open it back up

Off-topic: My Horoscope for today: Your hard work always pays off -- although it might take longer than you want it to.

Local Individuals

Final Data Sets

RR Local Individual set:

19,162 tweets49 unique Twitter users

OK Local Individual set:

2779 tweets46 unique Twitter users

Geo-location Information

65mph winds in Newcastle Oklahoma - Turner Turnpike closed down because of low visibility

25th street past 40th ave in Fargo has been closed

Geo-Location Information

Differences between RR and OK

Wildfire vs. Flood

“Impact” vs. “Warning”

Location Referencing

Tweets that include information that use one place as a reference for another or the mention of a location via a landmark

We are on the western central edge of town, so we are a fair distance from any water for now.

Could see flames above the trees two miles away from my house

Markedness

The river is now over 40 feet and there has been a breach in the dike; neighborhood a few blocks south of us is evacuating.

The Sheyenne River went up 10 feet in 12 hours…

Implicature

Current Red River level in Grand Forks is 45.57 feet

More than 7 grass fires on going, house burns near Childress Tx

Guard will send helicopters to assist in #OKFires near Velma

Situational Updates

WarningPreparatory ActivityFire/Hazard LocationFlood LevelWeatherWindVisibility

Evacuation InformationVolunteer InformationAnimal ManagementDamage/Injury reportsRoad ConditionsAdvice - emergency - information space

Differences in Situational Updates

OK Fires higher in:

Fire Line/Emergency LocationWindEvacuation InfoDamage/Injury

RR Floods higher in:

Flood LevelPreparatory ActivityWeatherVolunteer Info

Tweets with Geo-location and Situational Update information are more likely to be re-tweeted

Re-Tweets

Situational Awareness Features

Bottom-up communication of information

Information people orient around

Possibility to collate information and get an idea of the “big picture”

Warning(hazards-focused)

Warning(hazards-focused)

Response to Warning

Response to Warning

Preparation (pre-warning)

Preparation (pre-warning)

personal

community

personal

community

EvacuationEvacuation ShelteringSheltering Animal Management

Animal Management

Damage & InjuryDamage & Injury

AdviceAdvice

preparation

possible exploitatio

n

info spac

e

Other Environmental

Conditions

Other Environmental

Conditions

weather

visibility

road

Hazards Location (pre-warning)

Hazards Location (pre-warning)

general

relative

precise

personal location

specific location

historical hazard

... ...

...

Personal:

@user It can start anywhere - a simple spark can burn down a whole neighborhood. I watered the yard and roof and hope for the best

Community:

Red in Fargo jumped a foot overnight now @34 and rising. Urgent call for sandbagging volunteers. Head to the Dome or call 476-4000

Response to Warning

Warning(hazards-focused)

Warning(hazards-focused)

Response to Warning

Response to Warning

Preparation (pre-warning)

Preparation (pre-warning)

personal

community

personal

community

EvacuationEvacuation ShelteringSheltering Animal Management

Animal Management

Damage & InjuryDamage & Injury

AdviceAdvice

preparation

possible exploitatio

n

info spac

e

Other Environmental

Conditions

Other Environmental

Conditions

weather

visibility

road

Hazards Location (pre-warning)

Hazards Location (pre-warning)

general

relative

precise

personal location

specific location

historical hazard

... ...

...

Precise:

At least a dozen houses have burned east of Lake Draper. Area includes land between SE 119 to SE 149 & Hiawassee & Anderson Rds

Relative:

We R on the edge of the city hre, but 20-30 miles from the fires

Hazards Location

Contribute to Situational Awareness

Why Does This Matter?

One way to tackle the problem of managing crises is to look at how people communicate about them

Primes us for thinking about how to extract information and shape behavior

Thank You!

Project EpicEmpowering the Public with Information in Crisishttp://epic.cs.colorado.edu/

Acknowledgements:

This work is supported by NSF IIS-0546315 and IIS-0910586