MobileActive.org

Opportunities for participation by members of the public are expanding the information arena of disaster. Social
media supports “backchannel” communications, allowing for wide-scale interaction that can be collectively
resourceful, self-policing, and generative of information that is otherwise hard to obtain. Results from our study of
information practices by members of the public during the October 2007 Southern California Wildfires suggest that
community information resources and other backchannel communications activity enabled by social media are gaining
prominence in the disaster arena, despite concern by officials about the legitimacy of information shared through such
means. We argue that these emergent uses of social media are pre-cursors of broader future changes to the institutional
and organizational arrangements of disaster response.

"When danger arises, the rule in normal situations is for people to help those next to them before they help themselves."

Achieving interoperable communication across governmental agencies and jurisdictions remains a challenge and is
simply taking time to implement. Initiatives to support agency interoperability continue. However, community
responders remain in need of two-way device quick response tactics. SMS text-messaging is one viable
interoperable communication technology that provides a bottom-up approach while offering benefits for everyday
use. This research in progress studies the use of a web-based SMS text-message training application, designed to
simulate two-way SMS text-message exchange. Speech Act Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior are
leveraged to carefully measure SMS text-message exchange. The overarching crisis scenario takes the role of the
local community responder. Initial qualitative pilot results are presented and discussed, including next steps for this
ongoing research.

Reliable communications can be a matter of life-and-death during an emergency or crisis.
First responder communication system interoperability, coverage, and flexibility are among
the most critical issues evident from events such as the terrorist attacks of September 11
2001, the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, and Hurricane Katrina.
Murray State University and research partners are addressing these issues under grants from
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Cooperating with government officials and first
responders, the team has prototyped, demonstrated, and operated robust yet affordable
mobile communications systems particularly well suited for field operation in rural
environments and small communities. Work has progressed beyond demonstrations to
deployments with first responders for actual emergencies, and initial sales of the systems.
The developed system is called the Man-portable and Interoperable, Tactical-Operations-
Center (MITOC). MITOC is a suite of mobile communications gear that upon arrival at an
emergency is quickly transfigured into a robust communications infrastructure including
satellite communications, wireless LANs, Internet access, radio interoperability, VoIP, and
other services essential for organizing and executing crisis response.
Work is currently focused on: the integration of rapidly expandable coverage using mesh
network technology that stretches the MITOC wireless bubble right to the site of an
emergency; advanced services and applications; and integration into other emergency
response systems. This paper describes requirements for mobile communications for
emergency management; the current capability of MITOC; initial manufacturing and sales of
the current system; and future research directions.

This paper presents descriptive accounts of time-critical organizing in the domain of emergency response. Patterns of mobile phone interaction in such work is analyzed showing how the dyadic exchange of mobile phone numbers between the actors plays an important role in the social interactions in the organizing and sensemaking of the emergency. Enacted sensemaking is used as an analytical framework. Implications for design of emergency response information technology are outlined and discussed.

This HPG Briefing Paper reports on a study into
the role that remittances play in crises. This
work explored how affected people use
remittance income to survive and recover from
crises, the effect that crises can have on
remittance flows and the way that humanitarian
responses consider the role of remittances. The
study was based on a review of relevant
literature, as well as detailed case studies in
Haiti, Pakistan, Somaliland, Sudan, Indonesia
and Sri Lanka. The study concludes that, while
remittances should not be seen as a panacea or
substitute for humanitarian action, there is clear
potential for humanitarian actors to do more to
explore the complementarities between
emergency relief and people’s own efforts to
support friends and family in times of crisis.

A spate of natural disasters and other emergencies during 2003-2005 has prompted new interest
in how technology can help enhance our security. This report assesses the impact that the widespread
availability of mobile phones has had on the recovery from specific disasters and atrocities, such as the
Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the summer floods in central Europe, and terrorist attacks
in Istanbul and London.

Reliable communication systems are one of the key success factors for a successful first response mission.
Current crisis response communication systems suffer from damaged or destroyed infrastructure or are just
overstressed in the case of a large scale disaster. We provide an outline for a distributed communication
approach, which fulfills the requirements of first responders. It is based on a layered network topology and
current technology used in research projects or already established products. In addition, we propose a testing
framework for the evaluation of a crisis response communication system

This presentation provides an overview of the InSTEDD Global Platform for Early Disease Detection, Reponse, and Evaluation. The summary includes reviews the proportion of infections detected and proposes addressing these challenges by adopting a social network and cognitive model approach. The approach facilitates: Early identification of potential health threats and verification, assessment, and investigation of threats in order to recommend measures (public health and other) to control them. The presentation describes the indicator and event-based hybrid surveillance approach and gives two examples of collaborative testing in the field.

This paper takes a look at the potential evolution of mobile technology and services over the next ten years and discusses an mServices framework for building and deploying diverse mobile services. The paper also looks at the challenges of such an endeavor and the steps needed to achieve the vision.

The report suggests how mobile devices will be used for much more than voice communications in the coming years in mHealth, mGovernance, mEnterprise, and mPublic Safety. Supporting the projections are: a mapping of mobile penetration, mobile ecosystem dynamics and deployment and adoption of mobile technology in the developing world. The report summarizes the building blocks of a mobile services platform and concludes with an emphasis on public-private partnership and the innovative business models that will accompany these changes.