Emergency Social Data Summit Crowdsources Social Data via Twitter Chat

According to the American Red Cross (ARC), today’s communication paradigm has changed the way people interact with one another. In this highly digitalized age of social media, it is not surprising that people turn to online channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube to connect to a broader population, sourcing data and manpower as they see fit.

In line with this networking trend, ARC’s Emergency Social Data Summit (ESDS) has looked to crowdsourcing for additional, time-sensitive social data. Using the Twitter Chat platform, people could contribute by joining the roundtable discussion. All they have to do is use the hashtag topic #crisisdata on Twitter.

ESDS’ website itself is strongly anchored on crowdsourcing. It features a range of roundtable discussions targeting existing social issues, as well as suggestions on how to address them. How effective this strategy is still remains to be seen. However, it cannot be denied that having a wider range of data from a diverse community can offer a more holistic perspective to current issues.