Emergency! Web 2.0 to the Rescue!

Kawin Thoncompeeravas

Image: map.sdsu.edu

2007 San Diego Fires

- 7 fires lasting 5 days

- 23 civilian injuries

- 89 firefighter injuries

- Consumed 370,000 acres (13% of county)

- Destroyed 1,600 homes

- Excess of $1.5 Billion in damage

- Largest single fire evacuation in U.S. History involving 45 shelters

“easily one of the worst fires in the history of the state of California”

Volunteers generally ignored- Volunteers sometimes compound the chaos of a

disaster

- Thus, disaster officials sometimes discourage participation

- However, sociological research on disaster situations repeately recornize the value of volunteers in providing

- physical and emotional assistance

- timely information

Collaboration- San Diego State University (Geography Department &

Visualization lab)

- Coordinated by Ming-Hsiang Tsuo

- KPBS (Local Public Broadcasting Station) - Leng Caloh

- Google

- Web 2.0 yielded unexpected emergent behavior

- Secret to success with Web 2.0 is agility in the face of surprise

- Question: What do people most want to know?

- Answer: Where the fire is!

Google MyMap

- Fire Perimenters, Evacuation Routes, Shelters, and first Aid Locations

- Highest Ranked link to the query “San Diego Wildfires”

- Google added the KPBS Fires MyMap as a featured link on its search pages

- Up to date info for family members world wide

- Geography Professor at SDSU

- Overheard people wanting printable maps

- Additionally, created a temporal progression of fires

Other Web 2.0

- KPBS twitter account to provide updates on evacuation, fire developments, and shelter information, particularly which ones were open and which were full.

- Further functions on MyMap included the zoom function requiring fire perimeter lines be translated into coordinate based renderings.

- With the abundance of information, too many icons created a major interface-design problem. Google pre-released a newer version of the MyMap Application in order to facilitate the effort.

- Paramount issue was not accuracy but getting the information out there. Disclaimers about this was announced and any errors or problems were corrected by the public.

Web 2.0 in the San Diego Fires

- Increases the possibility of unexpected volunteers and their networks

- Requires personal commitment from volunteers. Volunteers cannot be preplanned.

- Though cannot be controlled or commanded, volunteers can help gather information and coordinate assistance

- Because Web 2.0 tools make actions and actors visible, quick bites of information is readily shared, with little effort facilitating communication

Lessons Learned

- Effectiveness depends on technical and organizational infrastructure to support serendipity

- Pre-planned serendipity

- Culture of experimentation and innovation necessary

- Capacity for people to connect before and during an event

- The ability to format data in ways that are reusable by others

- Leveraging search engines to increase public visibility.

- Visibility and volunteer motivation achieved through being part of cross-linked network within a community not just through a single extraordinary effort

Question

•What map service did SDSU utilize?

•Mapquest

•MyMap

•Thomas Guide

•Mapblast