Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is among the three most prominent causes of death in industrialized nations. Therefore, experts are calling for solutions, including IT-systems to mobilize volunteers.... Show More

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is among the three most prominent causes of death in industrialized nations. Therefore, experts are calling for solutions, including IT-systems to mobilize volunteers. SCA emergencies require immediate action and advanced first aid skills. As of today, emergency services are often unable to arrive at the victim in time, and laypeople on the scene frequently fail to conduct resuscitation properly. One approach to solve this problem is to rely on skilled volunteers, who are alerted by smartphone apps. Among others, German researchers are currently developing a crisis response system with a crowd tasking app. It aims to help reduce the effects of large-scale events, but also of ad-hoc incidents including SCA. This paper describes an approach to determine the potential of the system to increase the survival rate of SCA illustrated based upon data from Germany. Its concept was analyzed by experts and benefited from their feedback.

Radiation measurements are key information for risk communication in post-nuclear accident situations. Among the different social media platforms, Twitter offers automated accounts which have been... Show More

Radiation measurements are key information for risk communication in post-nuclear accident situations. Among the different social media platforms, Twitter offers automated accounts which have been used to share the readings, but often in an incomplete way from the perspective of data sharing and risk communication between citizen and radiation experts. In this paper, the authors investigate the requirements for radiation measurements, by analysing the perceived usefulness of several metadata items that may go along the measurement itself. They carried out a benchmark of existing usages, and conducted a survey with both experts and lay citizens. They thus produced a set of guidelines regarding the metadata that should be used. Furthermore, they created a prototype of a software tool to publish complete measurements and metadata containing suitable information for both experts and citizen based on the requirements.

Although online social media has been recognized as a source of information that is potentially relevant for humanitarian organizations, it remains to demonstrate positive impact. The authors argue... Show More

Although online social media has been recognized as a source of information that is potentially relevant for humanitarian organizations, it remains to demonstrate positive impact. The authors argue that relevant information isn't yet incorporated effectively into decision-making because the key role of humanitarian situation assessment experts and their methodologies hasn't been sufficiently recognized and incorporated into information systems design. In particular, the authors focus on the content moderation process (i.e. on examining, correcting and enriching data and controlling its dissemination) and argue that existing systems, which often follow a human-is-the-loop approach, either lack automation support or flexibility. In contrast, they present an interactive, semi-automated content moderation workflow and an instantiating prototype that follows the human-is-the-loop approach and centers on assessment experts. The evaluation of the new system practitioner interviews and serious games suggests that it offers good compatibility with experts' work practices, moderation quality and flexibility.

Availability and access to information is critical for a highly effective response to an ongoing event however, information reported by citizens is based on their context, bias and subjective... Show More

Availability and access to information is critical for a highly effective response to an ongoing event however, information reported by citizens is based on their context, bias and subjective interpretation, and the channel of communication may be too narrow to provide clear, accurate reporting. This can often lead to inadequate response to an emergency, which can in turn result in loss of property or even lives. Excessive response to an emergency can also result in a waste of highly resources. The authors' solution to address this problem is to make the citizen act as a camera for the control room by exploiting the user's mobile camera. The system is designed to provide a live view of the citizen's immediate surroundings, while control room personnel can provide instructions. In this paper, the authors introduce their approach and share initial insights from a focus group validation session and then four evaluations with users within a separate but closely related domain. They discuss their observations, evaluation results and provide a set of recommendations for the Emergency Response domain.