Final Report Summary - COSMIC (The COntribution of Social Media In Crisis management) Executive Summary:The world of communication and information technology is developing at a vast rate. This is a threat as well an opportunity for risk and crisis managers in government and industry. There are currently a host of existing and emerging new media applications that can contribute to crisis management activities; however, their perceived effectiveness is less clear. COSMIC intends to answer this by studying the effects of such new media in crisis management and in particular:▪ To explore new and emerging communication technologies and applications and provide an insight into the most effective ways to utilise them to promote the enhanced safety and security of citizens in crisis situations.▪ To assist better communication and information gathering for authorities and first responders.▪ To examine the potential roles and ethics regarding citizen participation in emergency response.▪ To produce guidelines that will assist authorities and first responders in deploying new and emerging communication technologies and applications to better protect citizens in crisis situations.▪ To disseminate the findings to wider audiences and to seek the opinion of stakeholders working in the field via two dedicated workshops.The structure of the workplan of the project included addressing of all these objectives during the first reporting period, with final results appearing in the second period (end of the project) in the form of updated reports of existing deliverables and a further round of dissemination workshops and conferences.Project Context and Objectives:The aims and objectives of the project included:➢ To explore new and emerging communication technologies and applications and provide an insight into the most effective ways to utilise them to promote the enhanced safety and security of citizens in crisis situations.➢ To assist better communication and information gathering for authorities and first responders.➢ To examine the potential roles and ethics regarding citizen participation in emergency response.➢ To produce guidelines that will assist authorities and first responders in deploying new and emerging communication technologies and applications to better protect citizens in crisis situations.➢ To disseminate the findings to wider audiences and to seek the opinion of stakeholders working in the field via two dedicated workshops.With the exception of the guidelines (WP6), the structure of the workplan of the project provided for addressing most of these objectives during the first reporting period, with final results appearing in the second period (end of the project) in the form of updated reports of existing deliverables and a further round of dissemination workshops and conferences.Project Results:For the whole of the project, results were achieved in the areas below:▪ Mapping crises (WP1), which enhanced comprehension of the types of crises that European Member States are exposed to and the way they impact the security of citizens. We identified six types of crises to which European Member States have been exposed to, namely flood, extreme temperature, storm, wildfire, earthquake and man-made disasters, with impact on societies, critical infrastructure, the environment and government. We found that during crises citizens have a strong desire to help and are rarely passive, often exhibiting remarkable pro-social behaviour. Societal dynamics is largely dependent on the time it takes for a crisis situation to develop and on the magnitude of the crisis, but not on its type. Typical examples of case studies analysed showed that social media communication can and has been able to benefit both citizens and emergency response organisations alike. Communication challenges throughout Europe were found to present similar patterns despite differing organisational structures.▪ Mapping the use of current technologies (WP2), which discussed telecommunication technologies as products that are ready to be deployed and as technology components and services that can be used or further developed. Eight distinct case studies (Boston Marathon Bombing, 2013, U.K. Heatwave, 2013, Gezi Park Protests, 2013, Sandy Superstorm, 2012, Colorado Wildfires, 2012, U.K. Floods, 2012, Haiti Earthquake, 2010, and Xynthia Storm, 2010) suggested that in the majority of crisis situations, social media were used quite extensively, but that there is generally also a high risk of misuse of social media in crisis situations. To this end, a number of potential misuses of communication technologies such as misinformation, misrepresentation, propaganda, surveillance and censorship were investigated. Another finding was the striking shortage of effort on the authorities’ side to draw conclusions on the use of social media and try to incorporate them in their own formal standard crisis response mechanisms.▪ Mapping the use of emerging technologies (WP3), which examined ways in which these can be used before, during and after a crisis. We provided a list of 27 specific emerging relevant technology areas and applications, such as citizen journalism, cloud, crowdsourcing, data mining and big data, decision support, open data, and “organic” or smartphone sensor networks, and the opportunities and risks they entail. We also focused on policies, standards and privacy and security issues in the context of mass utilisation of emerging technologies and information gathering/sharing via social media and subsequently examined the use of new technologies to satisfy strategic communication goals of relevant stakeholders during crises. These were supplemented by typical scenarios on how new technologies can potentially meet these inter-connected strategic goals.▪ Emergency communication by the public (WP4), which utilised a mix of methods to study the three roles that citizens may assume in emergency communications: as social activists, as first responders, and as citizen reporters. We also addressed the ethical dimensions of communicative opportunities that new media bring, and offered recommendations for how these ethical issues can be adequately addressed.▪ Stakeholder analysis and engagement (WP5), which established a continuously updated database of over 2000 stakeholders including representatives from 43 countries, the majority of which are experts from Ministries; Police Departments; Red Cross and NGOs; Fire Departments; Emergency Services; Universities; Mountain Rescue services and others. The consortium have also established the COSMIC advisory board of three individuals representing research and civil society organisations.▪ Guidelines (WP6), aimed at ordinary citizens and public and private organisations, were developed targeting the most effective use of ICTs so as to enhance the safety and security of European citizens prior and during crises. These have been accompanied by a set of recommendations for future research. The development of the guidelines and the recommendations is a product of the second year of the project. A special section in the project’s website has been dedicated to a reader-friendly and accessible presentation of the guidelines, using an “accordion” type of scheme.ETHICS AND PRIVACY ISSUESCOSMIC involved no specific ethics, privacy and data protection issues. As referred to in Deliverable 8.7 the needs of COSMIC regarding data privacy and protection only require the upkeep of a file with personal information of participants to events organised by the project. This file contained names, affiliations and contact details, voluntarily supplied by the participants.Such data was supplied to the project consortium under the conditions referred to in the DoW document and in Annex II in particular regarding consent and information on the purpose of the collection of this data.Appropriate notifications were submitted to the Hellenic Authority for the Protection of Personal Data by the Coordinator before the start of the project. The acknowledgement of receipt and the extract from the relevant legal framework can be found in D8.7.A more detailed account of the S&T resulst is attached as a pdf named: COSMIC_S&T_Results_Final_Review_2015.pdfPotential Impact:With the aid of its activities and a considerable number of dissemination events, COSMIC is expected to be of assistance to decision makers, law enforcement and first responders in using new technology to optimise risk communication, information gathering, security communication in times of crisis and communication in relation to humanitarian aid. This is likely to have an impact in the quest of the European community to ensure that optimal use of available and evolving technologies does benefit European society and does contribute positively to emergency response. Our consultation exercises also assisted industry and decision makers in matching preparedness or response “needs” to available or soon-to-be-available solutions.COSMIC will also have an impact on European competitiveness via two streams. First, it will create a market for European products by examining how newly available technologies can assist responders. Second, it will ensure that the economic and social effects of disasters are both mitigated in the first place, and that European societies and economies recover quickly from crises that do occur. We aspire to increase first responders’ preparedness by identifying successful information gathering and communication technologies and applications that can be mobilised in the event of a crisis. Through our studies and case studies we have the potential to contribute to citizens’ preparedness by making them more aware on where and how trusted information can be communicated, thus helping the response authorities and the community. Last but not least, we expect to raise public awareness on the use of social media regarding internal security, personal exposure threats and assistance systems during and after crises operating at local, regional, national and EU level.We regard as a major achievement the development of guidelines/policies for the effective use of new communications media by stakeholders in crisis management. The workshops organised around this goal and extensive stakeholder involvement led to the discovery of open issues in the field and the formulation of future research programmes.As a result of the project’s recommendations, the European industry will also benefit from new markets for their technology. We hope that states, local authorities and first responders will be encouraged to adopt technologies and applications to assist them with effective communication systems and procedures in crises, possibly leading to increased profits for European companies. Our findings provided information on how technologies or media can lead to a more efficient use of resources, in crisis-related fields such as law enforcement, search and rescue, and emergency health care.Dissemination activitiesBased on the specifications produced by PSCE, ED has developed the COSMIC website which went online in M3. The address is www.cosmic-project.eu.The website was totally redesigned and restructured by ED in January 2015. Among the numerous changes, we mention that it has become responsive to a variety of media such as tablets and mobile phones, the main menus show hanging sub-menus and a separate section has been devoted to the presentation of the first version of the guidelines in a reader-friendly way, using an “accordion” type of structure.Brochures and Posters As foreseen in the DoW, PSCE has launched an internal tender in order to select a company that would offer the most advantageous offer, both in terms of price and quality, to design, print and deliver the set of COSMIC brochures and printers. After consultation with all project partners, PSCE provided the text for the brochures and posters which were consequently distributed to project partners. These dissemination items were handed out during all stakeholder engagement workshops as well as during third parity events listed under Task 7.4 below. The remaining ones will be used in the final conference. The brochures and posters are also available for download on the project website under the “Working documents” section.Social mediaSince the beginning, COSMIC has been actively using its Twitter and LinkedIn account in the context of the stakeholder engagement strategy process detailed in WP5. Following the mid-term assessment of these channels, project partners decided to change its LinkedIn “User” account into a LinkedIn “Group” in order to make it more accessible for stakeholders. Thanks to this action, COSMIC partners obtained valid input to the preparation of guidelines.Project partners have established a dedicated official hashtag for the COSMIC conference in Istanbul (#cosmicista2014), COSMIC Workshop in Gothenburg (#cosmicgot2014) as well as the final conference in Brussels (#COSMIC2015).Press releasesAs part of its engagement strategy, the consortium prepared and published eight press releases. These aimed to elicit participation and generate interest in COSMIC and related events, draw attention to published reports or drive interested parties to sources such as the project website and make them a useful tool in support of other engagement and dissemination strategies. Cooperation with other projectsTo amplify its messages, COSMIC set up close connections with the past and ongoing projects dealing with the similar subject in order to exchange information, increase the number of stakeholders and support its social media communication. In particular COSMIC approached and cooperated with the projects listed below.1. iSAR+: http://isar.i112.eu/2. PPDR-TC Study: http://i-sense.iccs.ntua.gr/teams/sensors/218-PPDR-TC3. OPTI-Alert: http://www.opti-alert.eu/4. ATHENA: http://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/athena5. EMERGENT: http://www.fp7-emergent.eu/6. SLANDAIL: http://slandail.eu/project7. TACTIC: http://www.tacticproject.eu/8. POP-Alert: http://www.pop-alert.eu/9. FORTRESS: http://fortress-project.eu/Other dissemination channelsPSCE has been regularly informing its constituency and other relevant stakeholders about the progress of the project. This was done mainly via its “Flash news” (email) service as well as the PSCE Newsletters.Participation in third-party workshops and conferencesCOSMIC partners actively participated (i.e. presented papers, presentations and posters or contributed to the proceedings) in the following third-party workshops and conferences attended by relevant stakeholders:• 7th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC 2014), Big Data, Intelligence Management and Analytics Workshop in London (09/12/2014)• Pop-Alert stakeholder workshop in Brussels (27/11/2014)• PSCE Conference in Paris (25/11/2014)• European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) 2014 conference in Lisbon (12-15/11/2014)• Emergency Services: Themes in Planning, Response and Recovery’ conference, at Nottingham Trent University, (11/11/2014)• 9th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security (CRITIS) 2014 in Limassol (13-15/10/2014)• European Conference on Social Media (ECSM) 2014 in Brighton (10-11/7/2014)• The 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2014) in Pennsylvania (18-21/05/2014)• H2020 event dedicated to the secure societies programme in Athens (28/01/2014)• The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) Conference in Berlin (30/11/2013)In addition, the following events were organised directly in the framework of the project:• The regional stakeholder engagement workshop in Thessaloniki (15/02/2014) • The regional stakeholder engagement workshop in Nijmegen, the Netherlands (27/02/2014)• The international stakeholder engagement workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden (21/05/2014)• The international conference in Istanbul, Turkey (04/09/2014)• The local stakeholder engagement event in Thessaloniki (to take place on 22/02/2015)The output from these events is summarised below:Conferences:• Kotsiopoulos I., “Social Media in Crisis Management: Role, Potential and Risk”, 7th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC 2014), Big Data, Intelligence Management and Analytics Workshop, London, UK, 9th December 2014 – paper to appear in the IEEE series of conference proceedings.• Kotsiopoulos I., Watson H., and Groenendaal J., “COSMIC Guidelines for the use of social media for public organizations”, 9th December 2014, presentation of slides at the event above• Kotsiopoulos I., Baruh L., Papadimitriou A., “Utilizing Social Media Data for Enhancing Decision Making during Emergencies”, short paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security, COncORDE Special Session: Coordination Mechanisms and Decision Support in Emergency Environments, Limassol, Cyprus, 15th October 2014.• Baruh, Lemi and Watson Hayley, “Using Twitter for What? A Segmentation Study of Twitter Usage During Gezi Protests”, European Conference on Social Media ECSM 2014, Brighton, UK, 10-11 July 2014. [Forthcoming]• Haluk Mert Bal and Salvatore Scifo, "Reporting Crisis: Motivations, Perceptions and Professionalism in Citizen Journalism Practices from Gezi Park", accepted for presentation in the ECREA 2014 conference in Lisbon• Watson, H., and Rachel L. Finn, “Social media and the 2013 UK heat wave: opportunities and challenges for future events”, Proceedings of the 11th International ISCRAM Conference, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, May 2014. • Watson, H., Baruh L., Finn R. L., and Salvatore Scifo, “Citizen (in)security?: social media, citizen journalism and crisis response”, Proceedings of the 11th International ISCRAM Conference, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, May 2014. [Forthcoming]• Watson, H. and Wadhwa, K. – Panel Member – “Ethical, legal and social implications of IT Supported Emergency Response (ELSI)”, 11th International ISCRAM Conference, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, May 2014. • Watson, H., and Wadhwa, K., “COSMIC: The Contribution of Social Media to Emergency Management - State of the Art in Media Communication”, TIEMS International Conference on Public Alerting and Social Media during Crisis and Disasters, 20 October – 1 November 2013, Berlin, Germany. [Poster & presentation] http://tiems.info/About-TIEMS/workshop-berlin.html • Watson, Hayley, and Finn, Rachel L., “Privacy and ethical implications of the use of social media during a volcanic eruption: some initial thoughts” Proceedings of the 10th International ISCRAM Conference, Baden-Baden, Germany, May 2013.Book chapters:• Baruh, Lemi; Scifo, Salvatore; and Watson, Hayley “Misuse of Information Technologies and Reliability of Information in New Media During Emergencies”, in Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, DBA, Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (3rd Ed), IGI Global. [Forthcoming, Spring 2014]• Watson, Hayley; and Wadhwa Kush, “Independent citizen journalism and terrorism: from blogs to Twitter”, in Chris Atton (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media, Routledge. [Forthcoming]• Watson, Hayley; and Wadhwa Kush, “The Evolution of Citizen Journalism in Crises: From reporting to crisis management”, in Allan, Stuart and Thorsen, Einar. (eds.), Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives Vol. 2, Peter Lang. [Forthcoming]Other:• Watson, H. The COSMIC project, The International Emergent Management Society (TIEMS) Newsletter, Issue 20, March 2014. http://tiems.info/images/TIEMS%202014%20Newsletter%20March.pdf • Watson, H and Wadhwa, K. “The evolution of citizen journalism in emergency management”, Emergency Management Magazine, October 2013. http://www.emergencymgmt.com/training/Citizen-Journalism-Emergency-Management.html?page=2& Final conferenceThe final COSMIC conference took place on 26 February 2015 in Brussels. The meeting venue was agreed and booked. Over 50 stakeholders attended the conference. PSCE organised weekly teleconferences in order to ensure the coordinated approach with regards to the building of the programme, sending of the invitations, promoting activities and arranging the logistics aspects.List of Websites:www.cosmic-project.euContact:Dr. Ioannis Kotsiopoulos (Coordinator)EUROPEAN DYNAMICSioannis.kotsiopoulos@eurodyn.com Documents connexes final1-cosmic-s-and-t-results-final-report-2015.pdf
