Saving Lives with Big Data from Social Media in Emergencies

SAVING LIVES

with BIG DATANow... or #SOME day?

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Hashtags

#smwcph#smwcphUNCity

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• Danish government agency (Beredskabsstyrelsen)

• Main responsibility: EMERGENCIES

• Advising authorities and companies on crisis management, crisis communication and planning

• Training, exercises and education

• National and international operational disaster response

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The gvt agency perspective• 1.0: One way. The current classic public

communication paradigm – also applied to new platforms.

• 2.0: Two-way. Dialogue based. Allocating ressources to listening and dynamically adjusting comms to that. Answering questions live on social media.

• 3.0: Many to many. Supporting civil society’s crisis communication. Leaving the illusion that the epicenter of comms is our own platforms. Helping and strengthening citizen-to-citizen driven comms. Channelling peoples want to help.

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CHALLENGES• Accuracy• Bias • Trolling• Info overload• Privacy, ethics & security

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Two Strategies

• Find the needle• Reduce the haystack

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US Geological Survey

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Virtual Operations Support Teams

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Big data Big data

Automatic filters

Digital Volunteers

Crisis situation center

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Strategy #2

Reduce the haystack

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The ‘How to Help Using SoMe’ during emergencies• Spread confirmed info• Be critical• Fight rumors• Check out and use hashtags right• Use geolocation if you can• Be generous with info that others

might need

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The end

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Get in touchThomas Dybro LundorfHead of crisis comms dep. at the Danish Emergency Management AgencyMail: tdl@brs.dkTwitter: @BRStdlundorf