SMERST 2013: Social Media and Semantic Technologies in Emergency Response
15-16 April 2013, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom 
(http://www.disaster20.eu/smerst2013/)
 
This conference aims to bring together researchers and practitioners in 
Emergency Response and Humanitarian Disasters who are interested in Social 
Media and/or Semantic Technologies. We seek both academic studies as well as 
practical applications and use cases across both areas of interest.
 
Social Media: The last few years have seen an explosive growth in the use of 
social media in all kinds of disasters (Fukushima, Australian Floods, Haiti, to 
name but a few). Most recently and dramatically has been the use of social 
media as well as a wide collection of Web 2.0 systems in the response to 
Hurricane Sandy. While a great deal has already been written on the use of 
social media in disasters and emergencies there is a continuous flow of new 
developments, further creative ways that people are using these technologies to 
help themselves in disasters. Equally, there is a growing use by emergency 
managers of social media to communicate in real time with the public and in 
some cases to establish two way dialogues. There is still much to be learnt in 
terms of best practice and in terms of the effectiveness both for authorities 
and the public in using these technologies. Topics of interest include, but are 
not limited to the following:
 
The use of social media technologies to communicate and engage with the public 
during a disaster, including case studies on the use of these technologies for 
responding to emergencies and disasters
Building resilience and protecting critical infrastructure through social media
Qualitative and quantitative studies on the use of social media for responding 
to emergencies and disasters
Understanding trust and the veracity of communication using social media
Policies and guidelines for the use of social media technologies for responding 
to emergencies and disasters
The barriers to adoption of new technologies for responding to emergencies and 
disasters
The potential for Web 2.0 technologies to support disaster and emergency 
response
 
Semantic Web and Structured Data: The explosion of data in semantic web formats 
since the introduction of the Linked Data principles, and the corresponding 
growth of open data initiatives in the UK, US and now in many other countries 
both point to an opportunity for emergency and disaster systems to be built 
which integrate structured data, build on semantic technologies and provide new 
services for emergencies and disasters. Data silos currently exist between 
organisations who share responsibility for emergency response and the 
opportunity now arises to reduce these barriers in view of the technologies 
available. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:
 
System Interoperability:
the use of open source software, including the compatibility of different 
systems
Data interoperability:
exchange and sharing of information between organisations
Ontologies and schemas:
modelling of the disaster domain
ontology-based data integration of heterogeneous data
evaluation of ontologies for disasters and emergency response
Data Sets for emergencies and disasters
Data set requirements and practical experiences
Linked open data design.
The use of Geodata:
use of OpenStreetMap
use of LinkedGeoData
Other Geodata and related applications
 
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be made through Easychair via this link: 
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=smerst2013
There are two types of submissions:
Full papers of up to 6 pages in length.
Use case descriptions. Only an abstract of approx. 300 words is required.
Abstracts can be submitted directly within the Easychair submission system. 
Full papers should use either the Easychair latex template, or the Easychair 
Word template, both of which can be found here. Instructions for submission are 
as follows:
1. Following the link above, if you have an account, log in to Easychair, 
otherwise follow the instructions to create an account by clicking “sign up for 
an account”.
2. Follow the links to make a new submission.
 
Key Dates
Academic papers – 20 January 2013
Practical applications and use cases – 27 January 2013
Decision for acceptance – 20 February 2013
 
Conference Chairs:
Dr. Christopher Brewster, Aston University, [email protected]
Professor Duncan Shaw, The University of Warwick, [email protected]
 
Programme Committee:
Mohamed Bakillah, Universitaet Heidelberg, Germany
Connie M. White, Columbia College, USA
Tomi Kauppinen, University of Muenster, Germany
Matthew Rowe, Lancaster University, UK
Frederick Maier, University of Georgia, USA
Vitaveska Lanfranchi, University of Sheffield, UK
Tom Heath, Talis, UK
Simon French, University of Warwick, UK
Geert-Jan Houben, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Steven Ray, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been sent this email because you are a registered member of the 
Disaster Resilience mailing list:

This is a 'lightly' moderated list.

If you wish to send a message to the list 'reply' or post to: 
[email protected]

If you wish to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list go to: 
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/disaster-resilience and follow the 
subscribe/unsubscribe instructions

For more options, visit this group at: 
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/disaster-resilience

- The Disaster Resilience list aims to develop knowledge and understanding of 
the complex term, resilience; and to identify the key dimensions of resilience 
across a range of disciplines and domains. - The creation of this list is 
linked to the FP7 project, emBRACE: Building Resilience Amongst Communities in 
Europe www.embrace-eu.org - emBRACE is jointly co-ordinated by Prof Debby Sapir 
(Universite Catholique De Louvain) and Dr Maureen Fordham (Northumbria 
University) - This DISASTER-RESILIENCE discussion list was launched on 13 
October 2011, International Day for Disaster Reduction 
http://www.unisdr.org/2011/iddr/. The List is managed by Maureen Fordham, John 
Twigg and Hugh Deeming - The emBRACE project has received funding from the 
European Community‘s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant 
agreement n° 283201. The European Community is not liable for any use that may 
be made of the information shared on this list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Reply via email to