Crisis in a Networked World

TLDR

Crises and disasters involve complex social arrangements that are reshaped by pervasive information technology and heightened terrorism concerns, leading to evolving disaster response practices that are still being understood. The study investigates how public computer‑mediated communication and information sharing during and after the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech crisis influence emergency response and inform e‑Social Science methods. The University of Colorado is creating a sociologically informed research area and developing ICT tools for crisis informatics.

Abstract

Crises and disasters have micro and macro social arrangements that differ from routine situations, as the field of disaster studies has described over its 100-year history. With increasingly pervasive information and communications technology and a changing political arena where terrorism is perceived as a major threat, the attention to crisis is high. Some of these new features of social life have created changes in disaster response that we are only beginning to understand. The University of Colorado is establishing an area of sociologically informed research and information and communications technology development in crisis informatics. This article reports on research that examines features of computer-mediated communication and information sharing activity during and after the April 16, 2007, crisis at Virginia Tech by members of the public. The authors consider consequences that these technology-supported social interactions have on emergency response and implications for methods in e-Social Science.