Riskr: a web 2.0 platform to monitor and share disaster information

Disaster management that uses Web-based technology to enhance user collaboration around disasters is an emergent field. A number of dedicated 'disaster portals' exist but do not integrate large social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These social networking sites can facilitate the analysis and sharing of collective intelligence around disaster information on a far greater scale by increasing accessibility to, and the use of, a disaster portal. This paper presents the ‘Riskr’ project, which applies a low-technological solution to creating a disaster portal fed by social networking messages and the strategies used in its development. The system has been implemented using Twitter and tested by users to determine the feasibility of having interoperability between social networks and disaster portals. Preliminary results suggest there is benefit in using Twitter as a middleware between users and the disaster services with 70.5% of the users able to estimate the location of a disaster (e.g., fallen powerlines, fire, etc) within a certain error margin. Furthermore, 95% of users were able to successfully adapt to using the system. The results from the Riskr project suggest that the combination of online services and interoperability between disaster portals and social networks can further enhance disaster management initiatives. Keywords-Web2.0, disaster management, social networks