Crisis 2.0 in the Australian Context

In the face of disasters and emergencies, Internet-enabled mobile phones (or 'Smartphones'), coupled with Web 2.0 social networks are swiftly becoming not only a means to personally chronicle the events being experienced, but are also being used to disseminate information, educate and inform civilians. The aim of the i-Survive project was to investigate the use of mobile social media during recent Australian disaster and emergency situations. Participants in the pilot study were representatives of key community stakeholders in the crisis event. The quantitative and qualitative findings of from the study's survey questionnaire will be discussed in this paper. Participants' extended qualitative responses to the follow up interviews and the digital artefacts contributed will be detailed in two separate papers.