Social Media and Semantic Technologies in Emergency Response (SMERST 2013)

SMERST 2013: Social Media and Semantic Technologies in Emergency Response
15-16 April 2013, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom (http://www.disaster20.eu/smerst2013/)
 
This conference aims to bring together researchers and practitioners in Emergency Response and Humanitarian Disasters who are interested in Social Media and/or Semantic Technologies. We seek both academic studies as well as practical applications and use cases across both areas of interest.
 
Social Media: The last few years have seen an explosive growth in the use of social media in all kinds of disasters (Fukushima, Australian Floods, Haiti, to name but a few). Most recently and dramatically has been the use of social media as well as a wide collection of Web 2.0 systems in the response to Hurricane Sandy. While a great deal has already been written on the use of social media in disasters and emergencies there is a continuous flow of new developments, further creative ways that people are using these technologies to help themselves in disasters. Equally, there is a growing use by emergency managers of social media to communicate in real time with the public and in some cases to establish two way dialogues. There is still much to be learnt in terms of best practice and in terms of the effectiveness both for authorities and the public in using these technologies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:
 
The use of social media technologies to communicate and engage with the public during a disaster, including case studies on the use of these technologies for responding to emergencies and disasters
Building resilience and protecting critical infrastructure through social media
Qualitative and quantitative studies on the use of social media for responding to emergencies and disasters
Understanding trust and the veracity of communication using social media
Policies and guidelines for the use of social media technologies for responding to emergencies and disasters
The barriers to adoption of new technologies for responding to emergencies and disasters
The potential for Web 2.0 technologies to support disaster and emergency response
 
Semantic Web and Structured Data: The explosion of data in semantic web formats since the introduction of the Linked Data principles, and the corresponding growth of open data initiatives in the UK, US and now in many other countries both point to an opportunity for emergency and disaster systems to be built which integrate structured data, build on semantic technologies and provide new services for emergencies and disasters. Data silos currently exist between organisations who share responsibility for emergency response and the opportunity now arises to reduce these barriers in view of the technologies available. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:
 
System Interoperability:
the use of open source software, including the compatibility of different systems
Data interoperability:
exchange and sharing of information between organisations
Ontologies and schemas:
modelling of the disaster domain
ontology-based data integration of heterogeneous data
evaluation of ontologies for disasters and emergency response
Data Sets for emergencies and disasters
Data set requirements and practical experiences
Linked open data design.
The use of Geodata:
use of OpenStreetMap
use of LinkedGeoData
Other Geodata and related applications
 
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be made through Easychair via this link: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=smerst2013
There are two types of submissions:
Full papers of up to 6 pages in length.
Use case descriptions. Only an abstract of approx. 300 words is required.
Abstracts can be submitted directly within the Easychair submission system. Full papers should use either the Easychair latex template, or the Easychair Word template, both of which can be found here. Instructions for submission are as follows:
1. Following the link above, if you have an account, log in to Easychair, otherwise follow the instructions to create an account by clicking “sign up for an account”.
2. Follow the links to make a new submission.
 
Key Dates
Academic papers – 20 January 2013
Practical applications and use cases – 27 January 2013
Decision for acceptance – 20 February 2013
 
Conference Chairs:
Dr. Christopher Brewster, Aston University, C.A.Brewster@aston.ac.uk
Professor Duncan Shaw, The University of Warwick, Duncan.Shaw@wbs.ac.uk
 
Programme Committee:
Mohamed Bakillah, Universitaet Heidelberg, Germany
Connie M. White, Columbia College, USA
Tomi Kauppinen, University of Muenster, Germany
Matthew Rowe, Lancaster University, UK
Frederick Maier, University of Georgia, USA
Vitaveska Lanfranchi, University of Sheffield, UK
Tom Heath, Talis, UK
Simon French, University of Warwick, UK
Geert-Jan Houben, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Steven Ray, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
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