PUBLIC RESPONSE
TO ALERTS AND WARNINGS
USING SOCIAL MEDIA
REPORT OF A WORKSHOP ON CURRENT
KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH GAPS
Committee on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media:
Current Knowledge and Research Gaps
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by the Department of Homeland Security with assistance from the National Science Foundation under award number IIS-1118399. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-29033-3
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-29033-3
This report is available from:
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
National Research Council
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Additional copies of this report are available from:
The National Academies Press
500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360
Washington, DC 20001
(800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313
Copyright 2013 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC RESPONSE TO ALERTS AND WARNINGS USING SOCIAL MEDIA: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH GAPS
ROBERT E. KRAUT, Carnegie Mellon University, Chair
ALESSANDRO ACQUISTI, Carnegie Mellon University
JON M. KLEINBERG, Cornell University
LESLIE LUKE, San Diego County Office of Emergency Services
RICHARD G. MUTH, State of Maryland Emergency Management Agency
LEYSIA PALEN, University of Colorado, Boulder
TIMOTHY L. SELLNOW, University of Kentucky
MICHELE WOOD, California State University, Fullerton
Staff
JON EISENBERG, Director, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
VIRGINIA BACON TALATI, Associate Program Officer
ERIC WHITAKER, Senior Program Assistant
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
ROBERT F. SPROULL, Sun Labs, Chair
PRITHVIRAJ BANERJEE, Hewlett Packard Company
STEVEN M. BELLOVIN, Columbia University
JACK L. GOLDSMITH III, Harvard Law School
SEYMOUR E. GOODMAN, Georgia Institute of Technology
JON M. KLEINBERG, Cornell University
ROBERT E. KRAUT, Carnegie Mellon University
SUSAN LANDAU, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
PETER LEE, Microsoft Corporation
DAVID E. LIDDLE, US Venture Partners
DAVID E. SHAW, D.E. Shaw Research
ALFRED Z. SPECTOR, Google, Inc.
JOHN STANKOVIC, University of Virginia
JOHN A. SWAINSON, Dell, Inc.
PETER SZOLOVITS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PETER J. WEINBERGER, Google, Inc.
ERNEST J. WILSON, University of Southern California
KATHERINE YELICK, University of California, Berkeley
Staff
JON EISENBERG, Director
VIRGINIA BACON TALATI, Associate Program Officer
SHENAE BRADLEY, Senior Program Assistant
RENEE HAWKINS, Financial and Administrative Manager
HERBERT S. LIN, Chief Scientist
LYNETTE I. MILLETT, Associate Director
ERIC WHITAKER, Senior Program Assistant
ENITA A. WILLIAMS, Associate Program Officer
For more information on CSTB, see its website at http://www.cstb.org, write to CSTB, National Research Council, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001, call (202) 334-2605, or e-mail the CSTB at cstb@nas.edu.
Preface
Following an earlier workshop organized by a separate National Research Council (NRC) committee that explored the public response to alerts and warnings delivered to mobile devices,1 the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Science and Technology Directorate asked the NRC’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board to convene a workshop on the role of social media in disaster response. Held February 28 and 29, 2012, the workshop was organized by the Committee on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media: Current Knowledge and Research Gaps. The resulting report points to potential topics for future research and possible areas for future research investment by DHS and others and describes challenges facing disaster managers seeking to incorporate social media into regular practice.
One of the first workshops convened to look systematically at the use of social media for alerts and warnings, the event brought together social science researchers, technologists, emergency management professionals, and other experts on how the public and emergency managers use social media in disasters. The workshop explored (1) what is known about how the public responds to alerts and warnings; (2) the implications of what is known about such public responses for the use of social media to provide alerts and warnings to the public; and (3) approaches to enhancing the
__________
1 National Research Council. Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Summary of a Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2011.
BOX P.1
Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee will oversee development and facilitation of a workshop that convenes experts from across the nation in the fields of alerts and warnings, social media, and privacy. The workshop will examine the use of and public response to social media for alerts, identifying past and current research and future research needs. It will also explore potential privacy implications of issuing alerts and warnings via social media. The workshop will use a mix of individual presentations, panels, breakout discussions, and question-and-answer sessions to develop an understanding of the relevant research communities, research already completed, ongoing research, and future research needs. Key stakeholders will be identified and invited to participate. An unedited (verbatim) transcript of the event will be prepared. A report summarizing what transpired at the workshop will be prepared.
situational awareness of emergency managers. It also considered how officials monitor social media and the privacy considerations that result. The complete statement of task for the workshop is provided in Box P.1.
This report summarizes presentations made by invited speakers, other remarks by workshop participants, and discussion during parallel breakout sessions. In keeping with the workshop’s purpose of exploring an emerging topic, this summary does not contain findings or recommendations. Nor, in keeping with NRC guidelines for workshop reports, does it necessarily reflect consensus views of the workshop participants or the responsible committee. In addition, these summaries should not be taken as remarks made solely by the scheduled session speakers, because the discussions included remarks offered by others in attendance, and the summaries of the workshop sessions provided in the chapters of this report are a digest both of the presentations and of the subsequent discussion.
Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of background information on the alerting process and public response as well as current understanding of social media use. Chapters 2 through 5 provide integrated summaries of the session presentations and the discussion that followed, organized by topic. Chapter 6 summarizes the research questions identified during the breakout sessions and subsequent plenary discussion. Appendix A
presents the workshop agenda, and speaker biosketches are provided in Appendix B. Appendix C provides biosketches of the committee and the staff.
Robert E. Kraut, Chair
Committee on Public Response to
Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media:
Current Knowledge and Research Gaps
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Robert Dudgeon, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management
Prabhakar Raghavan, Google
Ellis Stanley, Independent Consultant, Roswell, Georgia
Clarence L. Wardell III, CNA Safety
Duncan Watts, Microsoft Research
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the material presented, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Ruzena Bajcsy, University of California, Berkeley. Appointed by the National Research Council,
she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Contents
1 FUNDAMENTALS OF ALERTS, WARNINGS, AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Current Knowledge About Public Response to Alerts and Warnings
Social Media Use by the Public During Disasters
Barriers to Incorporating Social Media into Emergency Management
Technology Development for the Use of Social Media in Emergency Management
Technologies for Developing Situational Awareness from Social Media
Observations of Workshop Participants
2 CURRENT USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN EMERGENCIES
Use of Social Media by the Los Angeles Fire Department
Use of Social Media by WCNC, Charlotte, to Provide Weather Information
Studying Twitter Use to Understand How People Communicate
Problem Solving with Social Media
Standby Task Force: Volunteer Networks During Disasters
Observations of Workshop Participants
4 CREDIBILITY, AUTHENTICITY, AND REPUTATION
Computational Claim Verification
Applying the “Citizen Science” Model to Disaster Management
Observations of Workshop Participants
5 PRIVACY AND LEGAL CHALLENGES WITH THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Legal and Policy Perspectives on Privacy and on Government Monitoring of Social Media
Privacy Protection in the Context of Programs for Citizen Reporting of Threats
Legal Perspective on First-Responder Responsibilities
Observations of Workshop Participants
6 RESEARCH GAPS AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES
Message Content and Dissemination
