research-article

Finding community through information and communication technology in disaster response

Authors:

Irina Shklovski,

Jeannette SuttonAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '08: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

Pages 127 - 136

https://doi.org/10.1145/1460563.1460584

Published: 08 November 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Disasters affect not only the welfare of individuals and family groups, but also the well-being of communities, and can serve as a catalyst for innovative uses of information and communication technology (ICT). In this paper, we present evidence of ICT use for re-orientation toward the community and for the production of public goods in the form of information dissemination during disasters. Results from this study of information seeking practices by members of the public during the October 2007 Southern California wildfires suggest that ICT use provides a means for communicating community-relevant information especially when members become geographically dispersed, leveraging and even building community resources in the process. In the presence of pervasive ICT, people are developing new practices for emergency response by using ICT to address problems that arise from information dearth and geographical dispersion. In doing so, they find community by reconnecting with others who share their concern for the locale threatened by the hazard.

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Ru SParzniewski SBreen KHeyland LFarhat LWu H(2025)Voice for the Voiceless: Amplifying Animal Issues in Disaster Management and MediaNatural Hazards Review10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-220326:1Online publication date: Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-2203
Méndez-Muros SAlonso-González MPérez-Curiel C(2024)Disinformation and Fact-Checking in the Face of Natural Disasters: A Case Study on Turkey–Syria EarthquakesSocieties10.3390/soc1404004314:4(43)Online publication date: 23-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14040043
Stone J(2024)The Sharing of Pandemic-Related Information From U.S. Government Twitter AccountsAmerican Politics Research10.1177/1532673X24126308852:5(467-483)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X241263088
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Finding community through information and communication technology in disaster response

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '08: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

November 2008

752 pages

ISBN:9781605580074

DOI:10.1145/1460563

General Chairs:
Bo Begole
PARC, USA
,
David W. McDonald
University of Washington, USA

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 08 November 2008

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https://doi.org/10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-2203
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https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14040043
Stone J(2024)The Sharing of Pandemic-Related Information From U.S. Government Twitter AccountsAmerican Politics Research10.1177/1532673X24126308852:5(467-483)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X241263088
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