May 26, 2006 - Earthquake Information Dissemination Workshop

8:30-5:00 University of California at Irvine

CalIT2 Researchers from RESCUE-ITR (Responding to Crises and Unexpected Events – Information Technology Research) is hosting a one day workshop on Customized Information Dissemination for Real-Time Seismic Alerts. The workshop is to be held on the University of California at Irvine campus on May 26, 2006.

The goal of the RESCUE project is to radically transform the ability of responding organizations to gather, manage, use, and disseminate information within emergency response networks and to the general public. Depending upon the severity of the crisis, emergency response may involve numerous organizations including multiple layers of government, public authorities, schools and school districts, commercial entities, volunteer organizations, media organizations, and the public. These entities work together to save lives, preserve infrastructure and community resources, and to reestablish normalcy within the population. The efficacy of response is determined by the ability of decision-makers to understand the crisis at hand and the state of the available resources to make vital decisions. The quality of these decisions in turn depends upon the timeliness and accuracy of the information available to the responders.

The RESCUE project is an interdisciplinary effort that brings computer scientists, engineers, social scientists, and disaster science experts together to explore technological innovations in order to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time during crisis response The purpose of this workshop is to bring together key stakeholders who provide and receive information regarding earthquake warnings and information alerts that effect schools in the greater Los Angeles area and to discuss issues pertaining to the technological and social feasibility and impediments of rapid information dissemination.

We have three goals for this meeting:

  1. To update researchers and stakeholders on state of the art developments in earthquake alert and warning since the conclusion of the TriNet study (2002).
  2. To introduce and explain the goals and plans for public information dissemination within RESCUE.
  3. To discuss issues pertaining to public information dissemination from the fields of earthquake engineering science, social science, information technology, state and local policy-makers, emergency managers, schools/school districts, parents and community members, etc.

Participants include a select group of engineers, earth scientists, social scientists, computer scientists, and policy experts, private organizations, and potential consumers of alert information, and we hope to move forward in the development of earthquake early warning and information dissemination systems as a result of this workshop.