Communications of the ACM
Going Viral with Emergency Warnings
San Diego State University is teaming up with San Diego County to put viral messaging research into practice with a new Twitter-based emergency warning system.
Credit: San Diego State University
San Diego State University (SDSU) researchers are developing a new social media-based platform to allow San Diego County's Office of Emergency Management Services to spread disaster messages and distress calls quickly and to targeted geographic locations. "We want to use technology to make emergency warnings go viral," says SDSU professor Ming-Hsiang Tsou.
SDSU is working with the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to develop software and tools to improve the county's ability to use social media for disaster communication and response. "This social media technology developed by Professor Tsou adds another innovative tool to our ability to react during an emergency and even get out ahead of something before it becomes a problem," says San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts.
The project is based on the idea that hugely influential social media users are a key component of viral messages. For example, if Twitters users with a lot of followers retweet some emerging Internet meme, the meme is much more likely to go viral. The SDSU researchers plan to implement this concept into emergency warning systems by reaching out to the top 1,000 Twitter users in San Diego County and asking them to agree to retweet the county's emergency messages. "If we have 1,000 highly influential volunteers retweeting these messages, almost everybody in San Diego will get the message," Tsou says.
In addition, county officials will use the platform to monitor social media for rumors and false information originating from other channels.
From San Diego State University
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