Online Social Media in Crisis Events.

© 2008 Leysia Palen My research group at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studies the relationship between human behavior and information and communication technology (ICT). The group, the connectivIT lab, includes researchers who are interested in how ICT connects people with each other and the information they seek (http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/ connectivIT/). Our work is cross-disciplinary, with researchers possessing skills in empirical research, social theory development, and technology design. Our current, primary focus is on an area of research called crisis informatics, which examines the technical, social, and information aspects of disasters and crises. We believe that an informatics focus on matters of disasters is critical for the social good. With increasing attention from all sectors on disaster preparation, warning, response, and recovery, we hope that cross-disciplinary examination of information dissemination issues results in effective technology design and technology-related policy development for both official responders and members of the public alike. To that end, we collaborate closely with our colleagues at the University of Colorado’s Natural Hazards Center (http:// www.colorado.edu/hazards), an organization that conducts disaster research and serves as a worldwide information clearinghouse for social and behavioral disaster matters. Here, I report on a particular line of Online Social Media in Crisis Events