SCIENCE 10 PERFORMANCE TASK

As a student, how can you use technology in bringing awareness to the community on
ways to reduce damage of hazardous geological events?

Many studies have shown that increasing usage of social media will have a negative impact on a person in general. However,
social media have been used spontaneously by citizens to enhance resilience and solidarity in affected communities. There is an
opportunity to tailor the current citizen-led initiatives to enhance collective intelligence in disasters and make sure the information
provided is as reliable as possible.

The term “social media” refers to Internet-based applications that enable people to communicate and share resources and
information. The emergence of this new communication channels represents an opportunity to broaden warnings to diverse segments of the
population in times of emergency. These technologies have the potential to prevent communication breakdown through reliance on just one
platform and thereby to reinforce the diffusion of warning messages but also present policy makers with new challenges.

The use of social media for emergencies and disasters on an organizational level may be conceived of as two broad categories.
First, social media can be used somewhat passively to disseminate information and receive user feedback via incoming messages, wall
posts, and polls. A second approach involves the systematic use of social media as an emergency management tool. Systematic usage
might include using the medium to conduct emergency communications and issue warnings; using social media to receive victim requests
for assistance; monitoring user activities and postings to establish situational awareness; and using uploaded images to create damage
estimates, among others.

Risk and crisis communication can help increase societal resilience in pre-crisis, crisis and post crisis phases. In pre-crisis phase,
organizations can develop capacity to filter social media for monitoring and situation awareness. This includes developing key indicators
about current situations, either by a dedicated team, volunteer scanners of social media, or a technological application that can grasp trends
and early warning signals. This also requires organizing the crisis communication staff, establish clear validation procedures, pre
messaging, and preventing crisis by performing risk awareness social media campaign. Finally, institutions have to be positioned in the
social media and blogosphere as trusted sources and identify who the other trusted sources are. In crisis phase, organizations need to
provide real time objective facts to avoid keeping the public in the dark or relying on other non-reliable sources, and to mobilize IT
volunteers via online technology community to improve crisis mappings and situational awareness. They have to mitigate rumors and
misinformation as quickly as possible to avoid negative retweets, and to set priorities regarding targeted audiences according to available
resources. And lastly, in post crisis phase, an organization can use the social media to communicate about recovery and reconstruction, to
improve stress management and to contribute to lessons learned.

Technology can go where people cannot and where rescue efforts puts the lives of responders at risk, it breaks down barriers to
enable connectivity when we need it most. In times of disaster, basic connectivity is a form of aid that connects people to the resources
critical for survival and enables humanitarian organizations to quickly deliver life-saving information. Mobile solutions, social media and
digital communities provide a new way for organizations and their beneficiaries to communicate. Today, through the proliferation of
mobile and social media solutions, relief communications have evolved to the benefit of all. In many cases, technology is the easiest part.
The challenge is to create a long-term, digital foundation for humanitarian organizations that enables them to invest in, test and scale
technology solutions prior to disasters so they are prepared when they need it the most. While technology cannot replace the vital resources
people need in disaster – food, water, shelter, or comfort from loved ones - it is transforming disaster relief efforts and paving the way for
an evolving approach to international aid: one that can reach more people, faster, and help communities to develop resilience for when the
next disaster strikes. If there's a silver lining to those ominous dark clouds, it's that technology may help us to better withstand the
destructive ravages of powerful winds.