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One of the scentific grand challenges addressed by the group is the understanding of the dissemination scenarios. We are indentifying and studying the role of factors involved in decision making to enable decisions regarding when, what and whom to warn to avert the usual problems of normalcy bias and over-response.
This problem is addressed by studying the four following technological and sociological areas:
This scenario deals with with the emergency situations created by an earthquake. The group is investigating on real-time seismic alerts, short term alert technologies that can be used to predict the fact that an earthquake is going to happen up to 40 seconds before the actual shake reaches densitly popolated areas. These techniques are currently being studied in the State of California to implement a system able to notify the population about the impending danger.
On May 26, 2006 , RESCUE, assisted by the Natural Hazards Center , hosted an Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) Workshop at the UCI Campus. Key findings include the following:
These findings apply to dissemination of information to the public in multiple ways. First, there is a clear indication that earthquake early warning is possible with the technologies that can now be made available. Second, we are more aware of the organizational issues surrounding information dissemination. For instance, it will be imperative that in the event of a quick onset hazard with little warning, information must reach individual users rather than get tied up in bureaucracy and organizational hierarchy. Additionally, we recognize that there will be various phases of hazard impact and therefore customized messages will need to be developed that address protective measures that can be taken at different points of time prior to and post impact. This affirms the role of IT techniques for customization in this scenario. In addition to the various key findings, this workshop afforded an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate student researchers to learn about the various aspects of earthquake early warning systems. They were introduced to the complexity of the problem which extends beyond technological capabilities to the social aspects of policy development and liability issues.
Workshop:
Earthquake Information Dissemination Workshop. May 26, 2006. UCI Campus.
In the wake of disasters, previous researchers have identified emergent systems among groups and organizations. Due to phenomena such as mass convergence to the impact site, the need for improvisation in a changing environment, and the presence of conditions that exceed the capabilities of the pre-existing response system. When existing organizational networks are unable to cope with an event, emergent multi-organizational networks (EMONs) develop to meet the needs of the affected community. Relatively little is known, however, regarding the structure of such networks, or the determinants of interaction with them. Using data collected from the Sept 11 th WTC attacks, this effort analyzes the multi-organizational networks that formed after the WTC attacks and develops a methodology for extracting EMONS that can be applied in practice. Such analyses apply to dissemination of information to the public since they help explain which organizations have the greatest ability to distribute information to the community at large due to their role and place in the network structure. For instance, specific non-profit or non governmental organizations can serve to link local organizations with diverse constituencies and vulnerable populations that otherwise would not be reached through more traditional channels.
The goal of this effort is to understand the information diffusion process on hypothetical population of persons within a region. In this preliminary work, the network is loosely typical of what one might expect from telephone contacts; vertices are scaled by the expected completeness of the information they would be expected to receive from a serially transmission process (e.g., word of mouth) in which each concept has a chance of being lost during each iteration. Factors studied include the number of steps from the point of origin and the time to first contact the node.
Publications:
Information Transmission Through Human Informants: Simulation
Gabriel Lawson; Carter Butts;
North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science Meeting, June 2004, Pittsburgh , PA, 2004-06
Recent crisis events around the world have drawn new attention to the role information communication technology (ICT) can play in improving warning and response activities. ICTs are enabling emergency responders as well as members of the public to develop new ways in which to respond to a crisis. Members of the public (through ICT) are not only playing a more active role in seeking information but also in providing information to each other and to formal crisis response and management teams. Drawing on disaster social science research, we consider the role of public participation in disaster and how ICT is extending this participation, particularly in the form of citizen-to-citizen communications. We reviewed information dissemination and consumption activities in cases of recent disasters, showing how low- and high-tech citizen communications vary in part depending on the physical, temporal, and spatial characteristics of disaster.