#qldflood

No matter where you live, natural disasters are apart of every country.Fires rip through Australia’s forests, tornados destruct America and earthquakes give New Zealand the shakes. Natural Disasters are apart of nature and are hard to predict. Recent years has seen the rise of using crowdsourcing during natural disasters. Social media and mobile technologies have transformed the landscape of emergency management.

To further look at crowdsourcing in disasters let's firstly examine what is crowdsourcing?. It can be defined as the outsourcing of job functions to groups of people who operate independently and who are willing to provide their services in exchange for experience, recognition or low rates of pay (Business Directory 2017). Companies are now using social media and internet forums to invite them to participate on specific projects (Business Directory 2017).Now to put this in the case of disaster then it would be using digital technologies like social media or popular crowdsourcing websites to distribute information and manage these emergencies when most other communications are down.

So what is the most common medium in disasters?

Social media is rapidly becoming the primary source of information and intelligence during disasters. When cell phones are down, social media such as twitter, instagram and facebook can still transmit information because a smaller bandwidth is needed for the communication. Social media is currently being used to  gather data to determine situational

awareness and planning emergency response (Armstrong 2015). This technology allows for disaster affect citizens to produce real time, local information on critical events. In 2012 American Red Cross launched its digital operations centre. It is dedicate to being a  social media monitoring platform dedicated to humanitarian relief (Poblet et al. 2015) . More locally, Australia’s Government Crisis Coordination Centre has now started to monitor social media as a new source of data form which allows for crisis coordinators to obtain awareness of developing situations (Poblet et al. 2015) . This idea of crowd sourcing information from social media is becoming increasingly popular and many emergency services now have apps/use social media to release warnings and updates. The U.S Navy is currently funding a software prototype to crowd-source situational awareness during disasters (Armstrong 2015). It is currently in very early stages so the meantime we are using various digital platforms in these situations.

Let’s look at an example;

In Australia the ABC is one of the leading organisations people turn to when facing natural disasters. I am a  Queensland baby and everytime we faced a possible flood or cyclone, the ABC would be the only news we would listen to for its accuracy. In 2012 South-East Queensland faced flooding and Facebook and Twitter played a crucial role in the crisis (Bruns et al. 2012, pp.7). On twitter the hashtag #QldFloods quickly became the main method for people to find out information and pass on the information to others. Users were able to use this hashtag to share photos and bigger media companies like the ABC were able to retweet emergency services updates to reach a large audience (Bruns et al. 2012, pp.7). I actually remember this flooding and how my family used this hashtag and twitter to get information.

On an end note I believe that crowdsourcing during disaster is a positive way to get warnings and updates out.

Do you think crowd sourcing in disasters is positive?

Feel free to reply your thoughts on the matter.

References

Business Directory 2017, What is Crowdsourcing?, WebFinance, viewed 18th April 2017, http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/crowdsourcing.html

Armstrong, D 2015, Crowdsourcing a useful tool during disasters and emergencies, viewed 18th April 2017, http://community.iaclea.org/blogs/leland-darryl-armstrong/2014/12/09/crowdsourcing-a-useful-tool-during-disasters

Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods’, pp 7-10. Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Crawford, K., Shaw, F. (2012)

Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K, Shaw, F 2012, Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation, viewed 18th April 2017, https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-6273089-dt-content-rid-34295491_2/courses/2017-HS1-MDA20009-220271/Bruns%20Burgess%20%26%20Shaw_Qld%20floods-and-%40QPSMedia_2012.pdf

The occurrence of crises around the world has been no more prevalent in the 21st century than throughout history, however the immediacy to which we become aware of a crisis certainly has.

Prior to the constant flow of information that the internet affords, the public were informed of a crisis after it happened, whereas now we hear about a crisis as it’s happening. Hence, whilst the use of social media during a crisis undoubtedly presents a number of issues, including the potential of generating misinformation, if managed appropriately, can serve as a highly valuable communication tool for delivering accurate and timely information to the public in an emergency. This idea whereby the public or crowd come together to find and provide information and access to important resources, is known as crowdsourcing (Goodrich 2013).

                                               (Hopkins 2011)

Furthermore, crowdsourcing in times of crisis involves the public’s use of social media and other online platforms such as government sites and emergency response services, to find and disseminate vital information for the people and communities affected throughout and after a crisis (Bruns et al. 2012, p.7). For example, research conducted on the 2011 South East Queensland floods evaluated the effectiveness of social media platforms such as, Facebook and Twitter in communicating regular responses and updates to the communities affected. Key findings of the research indicated that Twitter, especially the hashtag #qldfloods, was a significant success in its ability to extensively reach individuals, as 50-60% of messages from this hashtag were found to be retweets (Bruns et. al, 2012, p.7). This suggested that the public successfully facilitated the constant flow of communication through the passing on of vital information to the community.

Despite this, additional research into crowdsourcing found that albeit its value in contributing to public health and safety, it remains crucial for social media platforms to put protective barriers in place to ensure information received can be verified for its authenticity (Ford 2012). Ford (2012) uses the example of Ushahidi, the crowdsourcing tool developed in Kenya, in response to the post-election violence in 2008, to illustrate the challenges that software developers and online platform organisers face in accessing reliable and credible information from publics. While Ushahidi was deemed a success in providing a voice for those suppressed, it also gave rise to false reports of violence which at the time were impossible to verify (Ford 2012). This demonstrates the importance of ongoing refining of crowdsourcing platforms to safeguard the health and safety of the community it aims to protect. 

Crowdsourcing in times of crisis carries significant advantages in helping and supporting communities in need, by providing accessible, timely, and often reliable information to publics. However, online communication platforms and organisations known to be accessed in times of crisis, must have relevant safeguards in place to ensure the disseminated material and information sources remain reliable and credible.

References

Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, pp. 7-10, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

ABC has been making significant changes to adopt various type of crown sourced information in its reports of recent crises such as Queensland floods and Black Saturday bushfires. Starting in the 2008 brushfires, the network quickly recognised the advantage of social media in timely updating emergency situations. They then utilised various established news accounts across multiple countries, channels and divisions on the major social networks to fill the public in what happen in time of disasters. The result was, needless to say, more comprehensive and instant insight of the provinces.

The social media is, owing to its natures, usually considered unofficial and less creditable source. However, upon acknowledging the vitality of the mass’s communication, ABC has been embracing the social network as one of their main channel, apart from TV, radio and such, especially in disasters’ bulletins in which sometimes timeliness, not reliability is the key. The national broadcaster does not use social media as a supplement to traditional ways of broadcasting but a standalone platform which, alongside the web and on air programs, offers higher broadcast availability and instant feedbacks from the audience. ABC editors think the most effective way to get community responses is to make concise, to the point questions and more importantly, information has to be consistent as well as updated. Although it is indeed a challenge, they managed to maintain a huge number of followers as a very active community.

Today was a very humbling experience for me. I completely and utterly enjoyed getting the river mud on me, cleaning, running goods that survived the flood upstairs, and fighting water with water. The only way to clean up the mud off the walls and floors and furniture is with water. Volunteering is probably the most selfless thing a young person can do nowadays. I highly recommend it. 

Seeing people help out complete strangers for no reward, no recognition, nothing, risking their health, etc, is such an incredible thing to see. People that have had their houses inundated are in shock and are devastated. For most, it's their only living space. They've lost so much. They need anyone with a heart and a smile (and usually who are good at lifting or cleaning) to go help. It will mean tonnes to those people, and they'll never forget you.