Hasta La Ideas

In Part 3, we looked at how the US Military uses shared informational awareness to coordinate millions of troops through collaborative platforms. In this post, we’ll look at how mainstream technology—i.e.social media—is being adapted for disasters relief purposes.

Social Technologies for Disaster Response

Founded in 2008, Ushahidi was created as a website platform to track events in the wake of Kenya’s controversial presidential election by geolocating first-hand accounts of violence in Google Maps. Ushahidi made headlines after it was implemented during the Haiti Earthquakes to track emergencies, public health problems and other hazards. The platform represents a shift towards responders relying on on-the-ground, up-to-the-minute, crowd-sourced information.

Similarly, during July’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, residents in the city began circulating a Google Doc called “MumbaiHelp” that contained the “names, addresses, and phone numbers of residents who could offer their houses to stranded commuters.” Lastly, the virtual sense of community seen on websites like Facebook and Twitter can be applied to disasters, similar to what was recently seen during the mass protests in Egypt, where protesters organized and communicated via these websites.

The Evolving Role of Facebook

The benefits of using Facebook during disasters are largely about reaching a community, as “it’s not about the government helping the public; it’s about the public helping themselves… It’s peer-to-peer aid.” Facebook has recently hosted conference events with disaster relief agencies to “discuss the important role social media can play during crisis.”

Data from an American Red Cross survey showed that television, radio stations and social media are the main sources for information during an emergency, while Facebook was the “most commonly used channel for posting eyewitness information on an emergency.” The majority of respondents expect disaster response agencies to monitor and communicate through their social media sites so as to “respond promptly to any request for help posted there.” These expectations, though, are not likely to soon be met, as Red Cross faces an “enormous challenge to monitor the volume of social media traffic.”

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