Crisis Informatics

Abstract

This short piece highlights some of the key themes in my primary research interest, crisis informatics (also referred to disaster informatics) an emerging, interdisciplinary area of study. " Crisis informatics' was first coined in a paper that I presented in 2006 entitled " Using research to aid the design of a crisis information management course " presented at the Association of Library & Information Science Educators (ALISE) conference, San Antonio, USA. It is broadly defined as the interconnectedness of people, organizations, information and technology during crises/ disasters. Crisis informatics examines the intersecting trajectories of social, technical and information perspectives during the full life cycle of a crisis: preparation, response, and recovery. It is a growing field of inquiry and requires integrative and collaborative efforts from many disciplines in order to achieve effective and efficient crisis/ disaster preparedness and response. Crisis informatics strives for socially and behaviorally informed development of ICT for crisis situations [1]. The many diverse actors and agencies involved in a crisis/ disaster: citizens, victims, government and non-government agencies, increase the amount of information produced in a crisis. Information overload occurs from official and multiple unofficial citizen generated content. The integration and coordination of information created and disseminated through informal and formal channels is a key challenge in crisis informatics. The pervasiveness of social media tools and the subsequent increase in informal communication have heightened this problem. The proliferation of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Person Finder, Google Crisis Response, Youtube, Flickr are changing the face of managing information in crisis situations. These tools are used to: send personal messages, retrieve local information to communities, find missing people, coordinate relief efforts, organize volunteer groups and to mobilize. By harnessing the collective power of citizens and engaging communities in their own response and recovery, social media has the potential to transform crisis management. Official and unofficial sources of information are now present and shared on the same social platforms, for example during Hurricane Sandy,