This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests.
Guoliang Xue is a Professor of Computer Science at Arizona State University. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota in 1991. His research has been supported by the US Army Research Office (ARO) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). He is the Area Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications for the Wireless Networking area, and an Editor of IEEE Network Magazine. He is a TPC Member of ACM CCS’2015, a TPC Member of AsiaCCS’2015, an Area TPC Chair of IEEE CNS’2015, and the Vice President for Conferences of the IEEE Communications Society (2016-2017). He is an IEEE Fellow.
Information Filtering in Social Media During Disasters
Disaster relief systems are built upon the assumption that information provided by volunteers is accurate. In recent years, social media have become widely used tools to assist in disaster relief. This essay brings to light the various types of unwanted data and their characteristics. Drawing on the case of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the essay shows how social media can support as well as impede relief efforts. The essay concludes with suggestions regarding how to ‘filter’ information so as to help make social media a more effective disaster relief tool.
