This week, the UN Foundation released a new report called "New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks," commissioned by the United Nations Foundation & Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership. The report, written by Diana Coyle (an economist at the University of Manchester) and Patrick Meier (co-director of the Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative), looks at innovation in the use of technology along the timeline of crisis response, from emergency preparedness and alerts to response and rebuilding. It profiles organizations whose work is advancing the frontlines of innovation, offers an overview of international efforts to increase sophistication in the use of IT and social networks in emergencies, and provides recommendations for how governments, aid groups and international organizations can leverage this innovation to improve community resilience.
Importantly, this report is written for the practitioner audience. It is heavy on case studies and examples from recent efforts at technology innovation and implementation, making it an interesting and valuable read for those who are searching for a broad, informative perspective on international measures to integrate technology into areas affected by crisis, disaster, and conflict. However, it draws very lightly from existing theoretical and academic research. As an empiricist, I find this to be its downfall. For instance, there is a significant lack of reference to the existing body of knowledge on alerts and warnings in disaster. This body of research spans more than 50 years of empirical research and is the basis for many warning programs and systems in the U.S. Acknowledgement or even attention to key studies would help to shed some light on human behaviors leading to evidence based practices for public alerts and warnings. This is evident in the section on Public Education and the Role of Media, where one interviewee suggests that formal public education campaigns are not very effective in changing preparedness behavior. Perhaps some attention to existing research would have explained what educational campaigns are successful and why.
Despite my critique about the lack of research supporting the claims made in this report, it is a very important document that delivers a summary of international efforts on the uses of new technologies for disasters and crisis response. By linking information access to community resiliency and then showing how new technology channels facilitate communication, the authors make a solid point that new information and communication technologies play a very important role in emergency management and disaster response and are a necessary ingredient for all effective communication strategies.
The UN Foundation invites people to submit questions to the author's of the report and other subject matter experts via Twitter (using the hashtag #tech4dev) or the UN Foundation's Facebook page.
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Importantly, this report is written for the practitioner audience. It is heavy on case studies and examples from recent efforts at technology innovation and implementation, making it an interesting and valuable read for those who are searching for a broad, informative perspective on international measures to integrate technology into areas affected by crisis, disaster, and conflict. However, it draws very lightly from existing theoretical and academic research. As an empiricist, I find this to be its downfall. For instance, there is a significant lack of reference to the existing body of knowledge on alerts and warnings in disaster. This body of research spans more than 50 years of empirical research and is the basis for many warning programs and systems in the U.S. Acknowledgement or even attention to key studies would help to shed some light on human behaviors leading to evidence based practices for public alerts and warnings. This is evident in the section on Public Education and the Role of Media, where one interviewee suggests that formal public education campaigns are not very effective in changing preparedness behavior. Perhaps some attention to existing research would have explained what educational campaigns are successful and why.
Despite my critique about the lack of research supporting the claims made in this report, it is a very important document that delivers a summary of international efforts on the uses of new technologies for disasters and crisis response. By linking information access to community resiliency and then showing how new technology channels facilitate communication, the authors make a solid point that new information and communication technologies play a very important role in emergency management and disaster response and are a necessary ingredient for all effective communication strategies.
The UN Foundation invites people to submit questions to the author's of the report and other subject matter experts via Twitter (using the hashtag #tech4dev) or the UN Foundation's Facebook page.
