Disaster Response: Remote

Definition:
Group of virtual volunteers, physically remote from an incident but collaborating to reduce suffering and provide situational awareness to any interested parties.
Volunteers may be members of existing organizations (SBTF, GIS Corps, HOT OSM) or interested individuals who have become alerted to an opportunity.

Types of Assistance:

• collect social media messages (Twitter, Facebook, Baidu)
• collect email and SMS messages
• collect news, RSS and transcribed radio or voice communications
• translate messages
• categorize messages
• determine geographic coordinates of a need or event
• provide cumulative effort impossible or inconvenient for single agencies
• generate image digitization for shared maps
• provide analytical assessment
• store communications
• supplement existing information networks

Technology

Standards Compliant database containing:

• event identification
• reporter details
• the Report
• available means of communication
• history of interactions regarding that report
• location coordinates
• multiple location names associated with that coordinate
• related reports
• time value (to track an events evolution)
• supporting or responding agencies (who has viewed it, who is responding)
• severity of event
• category (icon driven menu)
• media (photo, video, audio)
• URL groups (supporting organizations, coordinating documents, related web resources)
• URL description
• relevant feed generation (API or RSS etc.)
• tracking of message view or response