Using social network data to track information and make decisions during a crisis
Project Members
Student: David Hersh Advisors: Julia Taylor, Victor Raskin
Student: David Hersh Advisors: Julia Taylor, Victor Raskin
Abstract
Social network use has dramatically increased in recent years, causing a surge in the amount of data people publicly share. Many share events of their lives on a daily basis, and get much of their news from social networks. So when a crisis occurs, such as a school shooting, many people in the affected area report what is going on through their social networks, allowing others to get firsthand accounts of the situation as it progresses. This information is often available before official information is, making it a valuable resource for anyone who needs to know the most up-to-date information on the crisis. In this research, we take the first steps toward the development of a system that extracts crisis information from social networking data in real time, allowing the system’s users to have a consistently up-to-date version of the situation.