The document discusses the development of a mobile application called SwissEventMap for collecting crowd-sourced information. It identifies six key problem areas in using social media for crisis management: (1) availability of technical systems and infrastructure, (2) economic and social reach, (3) information quality, (4) legal issues, (5) innovation costs, and (6) challenges with institutional adaptation. It argues that context-specific solutions are needed and keys areas to focus on include technology, innovation, finances, and organizational integration of social media with existing systems.

1. Mobile Application for collecting
5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
crowd-sourced information
Prof. Hans-Jörg Stark,
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern
Switzerland,
Institute of Geomatics Engineering
Switzerland
hansjoerg.stark@fhnw.ch

2. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Experts-Workshop 5.9.2013
• Representatives of Administration (Cantons), Media,
Infrastructure-provider, Software, Academia
• Focus: Networking
Giroux, Jennifer, Roth, Florian and Herzog, Michael. Crisis Mapping in Switzerland:
A Stakeholder Analysis. Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich (2013).
http://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-009920644

3. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
SwissEventMap
Prototype Implementation
http://sem.see--you.ch

4. http://sem.see--you.ch
5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
SwissEventMap
Prototype implementation
Aggregated
hotspots for better
readability

5. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
SwissEventMap
Prototype implementation
Reserved information-channel
for authorized /
administrative information
http://sem.see--you.ch

6. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
SwissEventMap
Prototype implementation with an
integrated NewsReader:
http://sem.see--you.ch

7. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Integration into existing Systems
SwissEventMap NARIS

8. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Webbased Twitter Analysis

9. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Communication and Analysis

10. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
πάντα ῥεῖ - Changing environment
• Loss of information monopoly by authorities
• Application of social media in many areas of crisis-management
– Preparedness
– Response
– Recovery
– Mitigation
• But: Authorities hold a sceptical view

11. Six Problem Areas
● Availability of technical systems and infrastructure
5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
● Economic and social reach / covering
● Information-Quality
● Legal aspects and insecurities
● Innovation costs
● Institutional adaption problems

12. Problem Area I:
Availability of technical systems and infrastructure
5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
● No redundancy in case of large black-outs
● Incomplete coverage of mobile communication
infrastructure in rural areas
● Measures to strengthen resilience of technical
infrastructure is expensive

13. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Problem Area II:
Economic and social reach / covering
● Limited social coverage of social media – with no
perspective on completion of coverage
Only complementary
application for alarming
 sufficient for mapping
and crowdsourcing
information

14. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Problem Area III:
Information-Quality
● Safety authorities prefer accuracy to speed of
information in the area of information-management
● Fear of false-positives with crowd-sourced information
● Little awareness of risks of false-negatives
● Establishing a „human-sensor-network“ is cumbersome

15. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
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Problem Area IV:
Legal aspects and insecurities
● Liability issues with crowd-sourced information
● Data privacy and protection
● Licensing issues

16. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Problem Area V:
Innovation costs
● Lack of sufficiently educated personnel
● Financial pressure on economising public
administration
● Difficult condition for implementation of central
technical solution in a national-federal structure
environment
ARC Social Media Situation Room |Quelle: ARC

17. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Problem Area VI:
Institutional adaption problems
● Traditional top-down one-way communication
● Conservative mindset of leadership towards innovation
● Innovation-resistant organisational structures

18. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Solution
Need for context-specific solutions:
• Federal vs. central organisation
• Dataprotection and privacy regulations
 Solutions must be (re-)defined regionally / nationally

19. 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
www.grforum.org
Results and Outlook
• Problems and obstacles are generally global
• Solutions must be found in a regional/national context
• Key-Points are:
• Technology
• Innovation
• Finances
• Organisations
• Approach: Connect keyplayers
• Integration of social media and population in drills

20. Thank-you for your attention!!
5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2014
‘Integrative Risk Management - The role of science, technology & practice‘ • 24-28 August 2014 • Davos • Switzerland
Prof. Hans-Jörg Stark
http://sem.see--
hansjoerg.www.grforum.stark@org
fhnw.ch you.ch