Humanitarian Network

TwitterChat: Big Data, Big Opportunities for Disaster Response?

Aid workers and crisis-affected communities are increasingly exploiting new technologies to gather near real-time information to prepare for, prevent and handle disasters. OCHA’s new Humanitarianism in the Network Age (#HINA) report puts focus on these new developments.

With over 6 billion mobile phone subscribers globally, and one-third of the world’s estimated seven billion people accessing to the Internet, big data is increasingly gaining momentum as an information source for disaster response and early warning.

On Thursday 27 June at 9:00am EST / 3:00pm CET, join UN Global Pulse, Patrick Meier of the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), Nigel Snoad,  Product Manager, Crisis Response and Civic Innovation at Google, and OCHA’s Andrej Verity for a Twitter discussion on the opportunities, and challenges, of using #BigData for humanitarian response.

Get involved! Tell us what YOU think and share YOUR questions via hashtags #BigData #HINA

What’s it all about?

New information and communications technologies (ICTs) made it possible to map the impact of Typhoon Bopha (#Pabloph) in the Philippines in 2012 by categorizing over 20,000 social media messages in a database within 24 hours of the typhoon hitting; during the Great East Japan earthquake in 2011, social media use skyrocked - immediately after the quake, 11,000 tweets per minute were sent (the normal average for Japan is 3,000); and research by the UN Global Pulse Lab in Indonesia has shown how monitoring social media conversations can serve as early warning of crises, including jumps in the cost of food or fuel prices.

Image: QCRI/UNDP