Zain Asghar

Smartphones, Disasters, and Knowledge Management:
An Examination of Field Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination

Abstract

GLOBAL RESPONSE AND RELIEF EFFORTS TO THE 2011 JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI, AND THE 2010 HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE HAVE ILLUMINATED THE NEED FOR NEW COLLABORATIVE MODELS TO FACILITATE EFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO INTERNATIONAL CRISES AND CONFLICTS. INTO THE LIMELIGHT, THE RELATIVELY NEW PHENOMENON OF “CROWD SOURCING”, DEFINED AS THE ACT OF OUTSOURCING TASKS, TRADITIONALLY PERFORMED BY AN EMPLOYEE OR CONTRACTOR, TO AN UNDEFINED, LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE OR COMMUNITY (A CROWD), THROUGH AN OPEN CALL, HAS EMERGED. AS WITNESSED IN RECENT YEARS, DISASTER RESPONSE MEASURES DRAW A CROWD CONSISTING OF A WIDE DEMOGRAPHIC POPULATION, OFTEN COMPOSED OF A MYRIAD OF CIVILIAN, MILITARY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, RESCUE WORKERS, WORKING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH PEOPLE REPRESENTING GOVERNMENT AND NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS SPANNING THE LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL. THIS CROWD IS OFTEN EQUIPPED WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY (SMARTPHONES). THIS FACT, COUPLED WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF CELLULAR AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS, HAS INCREASED THE SPEED AND QUANTITY AT WHICH INFORMATION ABOUT A DISASTER SITE AND THE RESULTING HUMAN SUFFERING REACHES THE REST OF THE GLOBE.

The relief efforts in Japan and Haiti emphasized the need for implementing knowledge management practices to more effectively leverage the sheer amount and corresponding proliferation and dissemination of data attributable to crowd sourcing. The challenges presented by the increased need for knowledge sharing and collaboration across a non-homogenous crowd with potentially widely varying culture, language, expertise, and priorities is readily apparent. Incompatible data often renders disaster site data unusable or requires too much time to convert for the crowd – which includes first responders - to effectively use and share.

The United States sponsors a variety of disaster management and

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