2007 Southern California Wildfires Research Jeannette Sutton CU Boulder, Natural Hazards Center April 8, 2008

Traditional Communications Processes Hazard monitored, detected, Data collected and analyzed Predictions created Officials interpret information Decision is made to communicate with stakeholders Linear model…

Incident Command – Structured Flow of Communications

Communication Channels Public  Agencies Agencies  Agencies Agencies  Public Public  Public

“Twitter-quake” Increased use of peer to peer communications technologies in recent disaster events Includes microblogs such as Twitter Photosharing sites such as Flickr To what extent is this occurring, how, by whom?

Social Media Borrowed from Robert Scoble, scoblizer.com

Wildfire Quick Response Research connectivIT research lab at the University of Colorado under the leadership of Dr. Leysia Palen Archiving of web based data Twitter Flickr Facebook Public forums Field research (Oct 26-Nov 1) Dr. Irina Shklovski, UCI postdoc face to face interviews in multiple Southern California counties Fires began Oct 22; evacuations occurred immediately in some areas. Irina was in the field on Oct 26 and a good part of the following week. Difficulties with field research Getting access to shelters (Red Cross) or disaster assistance service centers (FEMA). 2) Language barriers with non-English speakers 3) Distance from shelter to shelter (travel required from Irvine) 4) Evacuation orders were being lifted throughout the week – difficult to find interviewees

Wildfire Survey Research Purpose - to understand how information technology (IT) users used IT during the Southern California wildfires Focus – the general public; peer to peer communications; obtaining, generating and sharing information The idea behind the survey is to understand how the general public obtains information about emergencies, whether traditional media outlets are sufficient and whether people who seek information beyond traditional outlets benefit from the kinds of information they find. We are also interested in whether the general public produces and shares information about the disasters, and if so, what kind of information is commonly shared and why. Is there benefit to sharing? Is there a perceived benefit?

Wildfire Survey Research - Methods Subject recruitment Personal and professional contacts Social media sites Flickr Facebook Myspace Twitter Public forums - Non-representative snowball sample

Survey Research Qualifiers to participate in survey Over age 18 Residing in Southern California at the time of the wildfires Additional questions asked of those who evacuated versus those who did not

Survey Questions What IT are used on a daily basis for communication and information sharing and retrieval? What IT were adopted during the wildfires and why? What IT were useful for finding out what kind of information and why?

Survey Questions Were there synergistic technology use examples? – did some technologies motivate other technology uses to a larger extent? What kind of information was sought out and through what sources Traditional media versus publicly generated content What kind of content was generated online; by the public; how; and why?

Data Analysis What role might new technologies play in future disaster response? Emergent technologies Innovative uses of existing technologies What role is the public playing in the creation and dissemination of information in disaster? Benefits of creating content? Perceived benefits?

Data Analysis – Looking Forward… Document improvised behaviors in disaster response Describe qualities of Information Technology use Establish the first data point on what will be some longer-term trend data. Predict and design for the future

Contact Us Jeannette Sutton, University of Colorado, Natural Hazards Center suttonj@colorado.edu Leysia Palen, University of Colorado at Boulder, connectivIT research lab palen@cs.colorado.edu Irina Shklovski, postdoctoral researcher, UCI School of Information and Computer Science Irina.s@uci.edu

Questions?