Crisis Informatics for Everyday Analysts: A Design Fiction Approach to Social Media Best Practices

Abstract

The importance of social media usage during crisis has been well established in academic and practitioner communities. Yet, the promise of rendering insights from social media for responders in a consistent and reliable manner remains a challenge and accepted standards of practice have yet to emerge. Inspired by a May 2017 workshop consisting of 15 Crisis Informatics practitioners from 3 continents, we imagine a training curriculum aimed at developing the necessary skills to harness social media data during a crisis. We call the recipients of that training Crisis Informatics Research Technicians (CIRT). We offer this design fiction to stimulate a conversation among Crisis Informatics scholars, Human-Computer Interaction scholars, crisis response professionals, and the public on best practices, tools, limitations, and ethics of using social media to improve crisis response.