Participatory Design for the Social Media Needs of Emergency Public Information Officers

ABSTRACT This paper describes the design, execution, and results of a participatory design workshop with emergency public information officers (PIOs). During the workshop, PIOs and researchers explored ideas and designs for supporting the social media needs of PIO work. Results indicate that PIO perceptions of social media have changed as they have learned to incorporate activities of the public into their work, yet they still struggle with issues of trust and liability. Based on workshop design activities, the paper offers a set of design recommendations for supporting the social media needs of PIO work practice such as the ability to monitor, document, and report social media activity

Diffusing Crisis Management Solutions through Living Labs: Opportunities and Challenges

Despite increasing focus on user involvement among the developers of crisis management technologies, the diffusion of these solutions in target user communities is slow. This paper discusses to what extent the Living Lab approach, based on open innovation and co-creation between users and developers, could facilitate the diffusion of crisis management solutions. Our analysis shows correspondence between the core principles of the Living Labs approach and the user interaction focus in development research in ISCRAM. However, the task urgency and criticality of crisis situations limits the possibility for testing and experimenting with technology in real use situations. Instead, the main distinguishing principle of the Living Lab approach is the nature and scope of stakeholder involvement. By creating an arena where community stakeholders participate equally with developers and researchers in sharing ideas and testing new technological solutions, chances for successful diffusion of these solutions in real use practice could be strengthened

Diffusing Crisis Management Solutions through Living Labs: Opportunities and Challenges

ABSTRACT Despite increasing focus on user involvement among the developers of crisis management technologies, the diffusion of these solutions in target user communities is slow. This paper discusses to what extent the Living Lab approach, based on open innovation and co-creation between users and developers, could facilitate the diffusion of crisis management solutions. Our analysis shows correspondence between the core principles of the Living Labs approach and the user interaction focus in development research in ISCRAM. However, the task urgency and criticality of crisis situations limits the possibility for testing and experimenting with technology in real use situations. Instead, the main distinguishing principle of the Living Lab approach is the nature and scope of stakeholder involvement. By creating an arena where community stakeholders participate equally with developers and researchers in sharing ideas and testing new technological solutions, chances for successful diffusion of these solutions in real use practice could be strengthened

Examining the information dissemination process on social media during the Malaysia 2014 floods using Social Network Analysis (SNA)

This article is based on a study which examined the information dissemination process on the social media during the Malaysia 2014 floods by employing the Social Network Analysis. Specifically, the study analyzed the type of network structure formed and its density, the influential people involved, and the kind of information shared during the flood.The data was collected from a non-governmental organization fan page (NGOFP) and a significant civilian fan page (ICFP) on Facebook using NodeXL.The two datasets contained 296 posts which generated different network structures based on the state of the flood, information available, and the needs of the information.Through content analysis, five common themes emerged from the information exchanges for both fan pages which helped in providing material and psychological support to the flood victims. However, only 5% of the networks' population served as information providers, and this prompted the need for more active participation especially from organizations with certified information. Based on the findings presented and elaborated, this article concluded by stating the implications and recommendations of the study conducted

Designing social media analytics tools to support non-market institutions: Four case studies using Twitter data

This research investigates the design of social media tools for non-market institutions, such as local government or community groups. At the core of this practice-based research is a software tool called LocalNets. LocalNets was developed to collect, analyse and visualise data from Twitter, thereby revealing information about community structure and community assets. It is anticipated that this information could help non- market institutions and the communities with which they work. Twitter users send messages to one another using the ‘@mention’ function. This activity is made visible publicly and has the potential to indicate a Twitter user’s participation in a ‘community structure’; that is, it can reveal an interpersonal network of social connections. Twitter activity also provides data about community assets (such as parks, shops and cinemas) when tweets mention these assets’ names. The context for this research is the Creative Exchange Hub (CX), one of four Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Under the theme of ‘Digital Public Space’, the CX Hub facilitated creative research collaborations between PhD researchers, academics and non-academic institutions. Building on the CX model, this PhD research forged partnerships between local councils, non-public sector institutions that work with communities, software developers and academics with relevant subject expertise. Development of the LocalNets tool was undertaken as an integral part of the research. As the software was developed, it was deployed in relevant contexts through partnerships with a range of non-market institutions, predominantly located in the UK, to explore its use in those contexts. Four projects are presented as design case studies: 1) a prototyping phase, 2) a project with the Royal Society of Arts in the London Borough of Hounslow, 3) a multi-partner project in Peterborough, and 4) a project with Newspeak House, a technology and politics co-working space located in London. The case studies were undertaken using an Action Design Research method, as articulated by Sein et al. Findings from these case studies are grouped into two categories. The first are ‘Implementation findings’ which relate specifically to the use of data from Twitter. Second there are six ‘situated design principles’ which were developed across the case studies, and which are proposed as having potential application beyond Twitter data. The ‘Implementation findings’ include that Twitter can be effective for locating participants for focus groups on community topics, and that the opinions expressed directly in tweets are rarely sufficient for the local government of community groups to respond to. These findings could benefit designers working with Twitter data. The six situated design principles were developed through the case studies: two apply Burt’s brokerage social capital theory, describing how network structure relates to social capital; two apply Donath’s signalling theory – which suggests how social media behaviours can indicate perceptions of community assets; and two situated design principles apply Borgatti and Halgin’s network flow model – a theory which draws together brokerage social capital and signalling theory. The principles are applicable to social media analytics tools and are relevant to the goals of non-market institutions. They are situated in the context of the case studies; however, they are potentially applicable to social media platforms other than Twitter. Linders identifies a paucity of research into social media tools for non-market institutions. The findings of this research, developed by deploying and testing the LocalNets social media analytics tool with non-market institutions, aim to address that research gap and to inform practitioner designers working in this area

The Role of Law Enforcement-Community Communication in Disaster Readiness

A lack of effective communication structures within local communities could have devastating consequences during an emergency. Therefore, the key problem addressed in this study was that the most effective methods (channels) of communication between law enforcement officials and the general public in the event of a natural disaster has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to weigh the benefits of three types of communication media—social media, radio, and word-ofmouth— to provide a framework for promoting effective communications between local government emergency responders and civilians. This single case study focused on a large county in the State of Virginia. The chosen instruments were a survey of 25 community leaders and semistructured interviews with 10 members of local governance and law enforcement (all participants were over the age of 30). Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo software. Additionally, supporting documentation from open-access governmental or law enforcement websites were collected and analyzed. Collated data and findings were compared across the surveys, interviews and documentation. The notions of community resilience, adaptive capacity and coping capacity were the theories used to frame this research. Six themes emerged from the data, these were (a) involving the public, (b) availability of public information, (c) being more proactive than reactive, (d) collaboration among stakeholders, (e) proper emergency management system, and (f) avoiding miscommunications. The results are relevant to local government officials and law enforcement leaders when they consider various methods of communication. This will assist law enforcement officials to organize the community and minimize damage in the event of a natural disaster

Ein Framework für den teilautomatisierten Verifikations- und Integrationsprozess für Daten aus sozialen Netzwerken im Umfeld der zivilen Sicherheit

In den Projekten „SpeedUp“ und „unired“ wurde untersucht, wie durch mobile IT-Systeme Behörden und Organisationen mit Sicherheitsaufgaben (BOS) bei der Abarbeitung eines Massenanfalls von Verletzten unterstützt werden können. Da auch der Nutzen von Social Media (SM) in solchen Situationen wissenschaftlich diskutiert wird, entstand der Wunsch nach einer Erarbeitung des aktuellen Stands von Forschung und Praxis. Eine entsprechende Recherche zeigt, dass bereits zwar breit geforscht wird, jedoch eine Nutzung in der Praxis in Deutschland kaum erfolgt. Einer der Hauptgründe ist das geringe Vertrauen in nutzergenerierte Informationen. Bevor die Entscheidungsfindung bei BOS durch SM beeinflusst werden kann, muss es möglich sein, den Wahrheitsgehalt von Daten strukturiert bewerten zu können. Diese Dissertation widmet sich der Entwicklung einer IT-Lösung, die Mitarbeiter von BOS dabei unterstützt, Informationen aus SM strukturiert zu bewerten. Die zu untersuchenden Thesen lauten: 1. Der Verifikationsprozess für Inhalte aus SM im Umfeld der zivilen Sicherheit lässt sich trotz seiner hohen Dynamik in ein formales Prozessmodell überführen. 2. Der formalisierte Prozess der Verifikation im Umfeld der zivilen Sicherheit lässt sich durch eine IT-Lösung geeignet unterstützen. 3. Eine IT-Lösung für den Verifikationsprozess kann so konzipiert werden, dass trotz der hohen Dynamik von SM-Plattformen und der starken Heterogenität dieser ein allgemeingültiges Framework realisierbar ist, das zudem die verfügbaren Daten in einen integrierten Datenbestand überführt. Zur Bearbeitung der Thesen wurde zunächst ein logisches Prozessmodell für den Verifikationsvorgang entwickelt. Aufbauend auf diesem erfolgte der Entwurf einer integrativen Datenhaltung. Prozess- und Datenmodell sind Grundlage des „Framework bridged“, das wesentliche Funktionalitäten für eine IT-Unterstützung des Verifikationsvorgangs bereitstellt und ein allgemeingültiges Framework mit integrativer Datenhaltung realisiert