[NEW REPORT] Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support

After a long effort by the DHS Virtual Social Media Working Group (VSMWG), the report Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support was just released on Tuesday.  I was very happy to be a part of developing this report among many other talented people.  

“The report introduces ways social media platforms can be used for situational awareness in public safety. It addresses various challenges associated with the use of social media for situational awareness, the integration of social media within the operational environment, and identifies areas requiring further consideration, research, and development.”

The report also discusses issues that extend well beyond social media.  The report highlights many of the issues we face related to disaster information management as a whole.  If you have questions about big data, social data, data interoperability, this report is your primer.

“[The report] also identifies critical areas requiring further consideration and research to address key technology, process, and policy gaps, including:”

• "Information Application: The ability to access, share, search, verify, contextualize, and manage available information. This concept also includes the identification of essential elements of information in social media as they relate to traditional public safety information requirements. 
• Privacy, Legal, and Security Challenges: There are several challenges associated with the use of social media for situational awareness, especially with regards to user privacy and the use of personally identifiable information (PII); the need to remove details when sharing information across multiple partners; and the security of networks, platforms, tools, and data. 
• Data and Open Standards: To truly enhance situational awareness, social media must be integrated, both technically and contextually, within the larger information environment and into the public safety operational workflow. Additional considerations include event detection, data formats, data models, ontologies, semantic and linked data, automation, and artificial intelligence. 
• Technology Development: Challenges associated with the use of third-party platforms, analytics tools, the development of operational requirements, the ability to geo-locate information published to social media, spatial-temporal characteristics (disparate and virtual communities, time decay of posts, etc.), and integration with NextGen911 will require further research. "

The DHS VSMWG also published a great report in May 2013: Lessons Learned: Social Media 
and Hurricane Sandy.  This group is doing great things and trying to push the ball forward with social media and technology.  

I hope you take the time to read through this report.  Look forward to you comments and feedback!

What Should Researchers Know About First Responders?

I have been invited to speak next Thursday on a panel at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Academic Research Symposium.  The title of the panel is "Social Media Research for First Responders and Analysts" and it's goal is "...to help researchers understand what operational capability gaps need to be filled."

In hopes of informing my panel talk, I want to ask you what should researchers know about the operational needs of first responders?  Especially as it relates to social media!

I am excited about this workshop because it starts to put practitioners with academics in hopes of aligning the priorities of both worlds.  In fact, a new term is emerging called the "pracademic."  The pracademic has experience as both a practitioner and an academic and chooses to work to align the worlds so that academic research can be as applicable as possible.  Patrick Meier captures this well as "scholar-practioner" in Advice to Future PhDs from 2 Unusual Graduating PhDs.

Some prior practioner-based gap analysis work has already been done on this by DHS's Virtual Social Media Working Group (of which I am a member).  In June of this year, the VSMWG released Lessons Learned: Social Media and Hurricane Sandy.  The report highlighted many of the success and learning points regarding social media.  On page 29, it highlights a number of technology, process, and policy gaps requiring further attention.  The major themes included:

• Big Data
• Compliance and Requirements
• Funding
• Standards, Training, and Guidance
• Policy and Process
• Partnerships
• Technology, Tools, and Features

I will undoubtedly speak to these gaps, but other feedback and thoughts would be helpful and greatly appreciated!