DARPA is holding a $40,000 dollar contest on the use of Social Media during a disaster. The purpose of the CLIQR Quest Challenge competition is to find critical resources that responders might need during a disaster. This is using Social Media as a crowd source rather than a powerful way to communicate with the public during times of disaster. Crowd Sourcing can not only be used to identify resources but to identify areas that need assistance rapidly. Social Media was used in Haiti and Chile after their devastating earthquakes to identify the areas with the most damage and where resources were needed, it was so accurate that the Marine Corp and the Coast Guard used it to identify where to deploy their assets. It was used before the earthquake in Japan to warn millions of people of the earthquake. The Japanese government used the fact that earthquakes produce P waves that travel faster than the quake itself and can give up to a minutes warning. Using the P wave of the earthquake the Japanese sent thousands of text messages to millions of people in the effected areas giving them up to thirty seconds warning to take cover. Then after the quake it was used to identify the areas where help was needed the most. Social Media has many uses in emergency management and is going to prove to be a vital one as it use becomes more widespread.
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