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ruenhongo

Conflict and Disaster Management in a Hyper-connected World - 18 views

Net308_508 collaboration social media disaster volunteering crisis movements microvolunteering communication twitter texting technology

started by ruenhongo on 23 Mar 12
  • ruenhongo
    #1 ruenhongo on 23 Mar 12
     
    Collins, S. (May 19, 2011). Conflict and Disaster Management in a Hyper-connected World - Cooperative, Collaborative, Real Time. Acidlabs. Retrieved from http://www.acidlabs.org/2011/05/19/conflict-and-disaster-management-in-a-hyperconnected-world-cooperative-collaborative-real-time/ (Accessed 16/03/2012)

    This article is very interesting and it contains a video to complement the text. I chose it because it showed how a movement can begin and empower people to make a change. Locals were empowered because they could have their voices heard by texting in to a specific number letting people know what is going on. It was also mentioned that people in the military sector needed to become familiarized in technologies so that they can communicate with people involved in the volunteering process.

    I also thought the dynamic of these movements was very important because it involved trust, having a strong relationship and are aimed to improving a worldwide knowledge as well as strengthening the capacity to respond quickly and efficiently. The people in need were using mobile phones in order to ask for help and the volunteers responded with what they need and where they are. One of the important tools that was created was crisis mapping and this was implemented in order for the volunteers to know where the crisis was anywhere in the world.

    The volunteers faced the challenge of interpreting the messages that were in different languages and during the earthquake in Haiti they found a way to put the texts online and volunteers from all over the world could translate it to make sure that all the messages that were coming in found assistance. This is a form of micro-volunteering which has helped people in Haiti, Libya, Japan and many more. The process of using twitter to let people know what is happening, finding the location on Google Maps and tracking, inspired a quick response to the people in need. The main aim in the article how it is organized is to gather the information, filter it and act on it.(297 words)
  • Jocelyn Workman
    #2 Jocelyn Workman on 07 Apr 12
     
    Collins article is a useful resource as it discusses the need to increase hyper-connectivity in civil-military responses, with government and non-government organisations engaging with the wider networked community to improve disaster response and management, particularly in Australia, United States and United Kingdom. Hyper-connectivity increases the capacity to gather, filter and act on emergent information from a wide range of sources (2011, p.3).

    This concept can be seen in the You Tube - 'Crisis mappers: Mobile technology helps disaster victims worldwide' (2011). Ushahidi, a Free and Open Source software and a Volunteer Technical Community (VTC), set up a network to provide situational awareness utilising readily available radio, mobile text, network tools and applications, volunteers and civil-military response groups, to collaboratively map crisis points online to provide timely aid to victims of the Haiti earthquake.

    Collins claims there are glaring gaps in the civil-military communities, with low levels of awareness of VTC's, of hyper-connectedness, of networked communities, and skill with use of social technologies (2011, p. 5-6). Yates and Paquette's study (2010) is evidence of this lack of skill as one of the authors was assigned to configure social media tools for the US military response team. Through the authors involvement, Wikis were developed collaboratively and cooperatively, for the sharing of information within and between agencies, reducing duplication of effort, saving time and improving the emergency response - the first time the US Government relied "on social media to coordinate knowledge and action between cooperating agencies" (p. 7).

    The Queensland Police Service displayed engagement with network communities and tools with their extensive use of Twitter and Facebook to broadcast accurate information and correct misinformation during the Queensland Floods and Tropical Cyclone Yasi of 2010/2011 (Freeman (2011).

    Collin's article is well referenced, substantially drawing on the literature to reinforce his case.

    References

    Collins, S. (May 19, 2011). Conflict and Disaster Management in a Hyper-connected World - Cooperative, Collaborative, Real Time. (Referenced version). Retrieved from http://acidlabs-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/Conflict%20and%20disaster%20management%20in%20a%20hyperconnected%20world.pdf

    Freeman, M. (2011). Fire, Wind and Water: Social Networks in Natural Disasters. Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 13 (2), 69 -79.

    Yates, D & Paquette, S. (2010) Emergency Knowledge Management and Social Media Technologies: A case Study of the 2010 Haitian Earthquake, International Journal of Information Management. 31 (1), p. 6-13. Retrieved from
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401210001453)

    YouTube Need to Know. (2011). Crisis Mappers: Mobile Technology Helps Disaster Victims Worldwide. Program: Need to Know. Uploaded by PBS . Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW7Vt5iunWE

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