SBIR Phase I: Enhancing the Viability of Emergency Alerting over Social Media via a Collaborative Computer-Aided System for Handling Incoming Citizen Messages

SBIR 第一阶段：通过处理传入公民消息的协作计算机辅助系统，增强社交媒体紧急警报的可行性

• 批准号: 1248867
• 负责人: Hisham Kassab
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: MobiLaps
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1248867&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Enhancing; Viability; Emergency

The innovation is a software engine that empowers emergency managers to analyze and process the high volume of incoming citizen messages (e.g., inquiries, calls for help, etc.) on the emergency manager's social media site(s) (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), typically experienced after an emergency alert is issued over one or more social media sites. The core of the Internet-connected software engine consists of two algorithms: a multivariate matching algorithm and a natural language processing algorithm. The matching algorithm optimally selects, based on a number of parameters, other emergency managers who can collaborate with the affected jurisdiction's emergency manager on handling the incoming messages. The natural language processing algorithm is employed to reorder incoming messages based on an intelligent keyword-driven prioritization method. The reprioritization is necessary since certain messages warrant more immediate attention than others.The broader/commercial impact of the innovation will be the societal benefit of enhancing the nation's emergency notification capability and effectiveness, which in turn bolsters the nation's emergency preparedness and response efforts, potentially saving lives during life-threatening emergencies. Emergency managers currently using social media for emergency alerting will attest to its power as an alerting tool in terms of reaching targeted citizens quickly, inexpensively, and with detailed information; while immediately establishing two-way communication with citizens for the purpose of receiving requests for assistance as well as eyewitness and first-hand accounts of situational developments. Yet, the same emergency managers will warn that the already large number of incoming messages is growing as more citizens join their social media accounts, which will eventually make it unviable/unsustainable for emergency managers to manually process all the incoming messages, especially during period after the alert is issued, when their efforts are focused on responding to the emergency incident. The proposed activity is aimed at developing an intelligent collaboration-based system that will keep the social media message-processing workload manageable during emergency response periods. The insurance-inspired business model for the service ensures affordability to emergency managers and commercial success for the business.

这项创新是一个软件引擎，使应急管理人员能够分析和处理大量传入的公民信息（例如，查询、求助等）在紧急情况管理者的社交媒体站点上（例如，Facebook、Twitter），通常在一个或多个社交媒体网站上发布紧急警报后经历。互联网连接的软件引擎的核心由两个算法组成：多元匹配算法和自然语言处理算法。匹配算法根据多个参数以最佳方式选择可以与受影响司法管辖区的应急经理协作处理传入消息的其他应急经理。自然语言处理算法被用来重新排序传入的消息的基础上，智能关键字驱动的优先级方法。由于某些信息比其他信息更需要立即关注，因此重新确定优先级是必要的。创新的更广泛/商业影响将是提高国家紧急通知能力和有效性的社会效益，这反过来又会加强国家的应急准备和响应工作，可能在危及生命的紧急情况下挽救生命。目前使用社交媒体进行紧急警报的应急管理人员将证明其作为警报工具的力量，可以快速，廉价和详细的信息到达目标公民;同时立即与公民建立双向沟通，以接收援助请求以及目击者和第一手资料事态发展。然而，同样的应急管理人员将警告说，随着越来越多的公民加入他们的社交媒体账户，已经大量的传入消息正在增加，这最终将使应急管理人员手动处理所有传入消息变得不可行/不可持续，特别是在发出警报之后的时间段内，当他们的努力集中在响应紧急事件时。拟议的活动旨在开发一个基于智能协作的系统，使社会媒体信息处理工作量在应急期间保持可控。该服务的保险业务模式确保了应急管理人员的可负担性和业务的商业成功。