Crowdsourcing crisis information gathered via the Internet is not new to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Since 1999, the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program has been generating Community Internet Intensity Maps (CIIMs) using geographic data submitted to the Did You Feel It? website. This open call to the public is a notable example of how USGS facilitates the sharing of critical crisis information by members of the public not only to provide valuable data for earthquake research at USGS, but also to provide immediate situational awareness for emergency management stakeholders. CIIM is one of the early instances of “crowdsourcing,” consciously developed long before the coining of this term by Jeff Howe in 2006.
New opportunities and challenges are emerging as members of the public use pervasive information and communication technologies, including social media and social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and user-generated maps), to help in the immediate aftermath of major disasters. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program has already begun to investigate how to harness crisis data from the crowd via social media sites like Twitter to rapidly detect and characterize earthquake effects. However, as we increasingly have access to ever-growing streams of content online, how can crisis data from government agencies, satellite imagery companies, volunteer technical communities, disaster-affected populations, and the general public be integrated together to better facilitate emergency response, recovery, and mitigation efforts?
In this talk, Dr. Sophia B. Liu will discuss the opportunities and challenges with integrating official and crowdsourced crisis information based on the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and what has happened since this catastrophe, which was the tipping point for crowdsourcing and social media use in the crisis domain. Specifically, Dr. Liu will unpack the different interface challenges at the social, technological, organizational, and political levels. She will also discuss the meaning of “socially distributed curation” and its application to information management in the emergency domain.
About the Speaker
Sophia B. Liu, PhD is currently a Mendenhall Postdoctoral research fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey investigating crowdsourced geographic information around earthquakes. She works with Paul Earle at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado as well as Barbara Poore in Saint Petersburg, Florida through the National Geospatial Program and the Core Science Systems strategy. Specifically, Dr. Liu conducts research on the integration of official and crowdsourced geographic information pertaining to earthquakes. In May 2011, she received her PhD from University of Colorado, Boulder (CU) in the Technology, Media and Society interdisciplinary program at the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) Institute. In 2006, Dr. Liu was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Her graduate advisor was Professor Leysia Palen in the Department of Computer Science at CU directing Project EPIC (Empowering the Public with Information in Crisis) and the Connectivity Lab, where we conducted research in the emerging area of Crisis Informatics beginning in 2005 working at the intersection of social, technical, and informational aspects of crises and disasters. Her dissertation research focused on the use of social media pertaining to historically significant crises and the emergence of socially-distributed curatorial practices as a way of managing crisis information in the social media landscape. She has given numerous invited talks and guest lectures on the emerging use of social media during mass emergencies and historic disasters.https://profile.usgs.gov/sophialiu
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, Pakistan and the United States entered into a new counterterrorism alliance. Yet ever since then, the relationship between the two nations has been a rocky one. Today, this marriage of convenience seems to be approaching a breaking point. Can the troubled partnership be saved? Or will it dissolve in a messy divorce, as has happened in the past? Zahid Hussain, an award-winning Pakistani journalist and writer currently serving as the Wilson Center’s Pakistan Scholar, will address these and related questions in a discussion about one of the world’s most fraught bilateral relationships.
This event is organized by the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, and co-sponsored with the Middle East Program and International Security Studies.
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Zahid Hussain//Pakistan ScholarPakistan Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London.
5. The Transformation of Political Islam in The Arab Awakening: Who Are the Major Players? Rayburn, 9:30 am April 11
The Middle East Policy Council invites you and your colleagues to our 68th Capitol Hill Conference. Live streaming of this event will begin at approximately 9:30am EST on Wednesday, April 11th and conclude around noon. A questions and answers session will be held at the end of the proceedings. Refreshments will be served.
April 11, 2011. 9:30am – Noon
Rayburn House Office Building, Gold Room (Room 2168)
RSVP Acceptances only: (202) 296-6767 or info@mepc.org
Speakers:
John O. VollProfessor, Georgetown; Associate Director, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for
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Steven KullDirector, Program on International Policy Attitudes; Senior Research Scholar, University of Maryland |
Alexis ArieffAnalyst, Congressional Research Service |
Peter MandavilleDirector, Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, George Mason University |
Moderator:
Thomas R. Mattair
Executive Director, Middle East Policy Council
6. The Regional Implications of Shia-Sunni Sectarian Conflict In Middle East and South Asia, Georgetown University, 12:30 pm April 11
and
invite you to:
“The Regional Implications of Shia-Sunni Sectarian Conflict In Middle East and South Asia”
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featuring
Vali Nasr
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
12:30pm – ICC 270
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Over the past decade sectarianism has emerged as a major fault line in Middle east politics. Tensions between Shias and Sunnis have found new meaning in light of the Arab uprisings of the past year to define regional rivalries from the Levant to the Persian Gulf. The conflict in Syria, tensions in Bahrain, Lebanon and Yemen, simmering violence in Iraq and the larger regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia all tell of the growing importance of the sectarian divide.
Vali Nasr is Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, Senior Fellow at Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution, and a columnist at Bloomberg View. He served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011. He is the author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Middle Class and How it Will Change Our World (Free Press, 2009); The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future (W.W. Norton, 2006); and Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2006); as well as a number of other books and numerous articles in academic journals and encyclopedias. He is a Carnegie Scholar for 2006. He written for New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal,and The Washington Post, and has provided frequent expert commentary to media including CNN, National Public Radio, Newshour, Charlie Rose Show, Meet the Press, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report. He received his BA from Tufts University in International Relations, MALD from the Fletcher School of Law in and Diplomacy, and his PhD from MIT in political science in 1991.
Seating is limited.
Lunch will be served.
For directions to the Center and information on parking, please visit: http://acmcu.georgetown.edu/about/contact/
7. Global Security Forum 2012: Toward 2014: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the U.S. Role in the Region, CSIS, 11-12:15 April 11
The Global Security Forum 2012 is a forum on the top challenges facing U.S. and global security. In the coming years, U.S. Special Operations Forces are poised to take on new responsibilities and missions as they transition into a role as a truly “global force.” The panel will discuss the implications of this shift, the future of SOF, and proposed changes to the governing structure of these elite forces.
Toward 2014: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the U.S. Role in the Region
Anthony H. Cordesman,
Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, CSIS
Kori Schake,
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Amb. Ronald E. Neumann,
Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan
Moderator:
Robert Lamb,
Senior fellow and director of the Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation at CSIS
8. Azeris of Iran: Their Condition, Status and Future Prospects, SAIS, 5:30-7 pm April 11
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Amb. Jeffrey Feltman, Amb. Feisal Istrabadi, and Daniel Serwer for a discussion about the state of U.S.-Iraqi relations in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011. Panelists will explore both the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition of the U.S.-Iraqi partnership from a mainly military to a diplomatic one. What sort of working relationship is emerging between the U.S. and Iraqi governments? What kind of cooperation is taking place in the areas of domestic and regional security, diplomacy, trade, energy, and reform? How has the troop drawdown affected U.S. influence in Iraq and the region in general? Feltman, Istrabadi and Serwer will explore strategies and policies resulting from the new bilateral dynamics.
Bios: Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman has served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs since 2009. A career member of the Foreign Service since 1986, Ambassador Feltman served as principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from February 2008 to his present assignment, serving concurrently as acting assistant secretary of state for the Bureau since December 18, 2008. From July 2004 to January 2008, Ambassador Feltman served as the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon. Prior to his assignment in Lebanon he headed the Coalition Provisional Authority’s office in the Irbil province of Iraq, serving simultaneously as deputy regional coordinator for the CPA’s northern area. From 2001 until 2003, Ambassador Feltman served at the U.S. consulate-general in Jerusalem, first as deputy principal officer and then as acting principal officer. Other postings include Tunisia and Israel.
Ambassador Feisal Istrabadi served as deputy permanent representative for Iraq at the United Nations from 2004 to 2007. He is currently the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East at Indiana University-Bloomington where he is also University Scholar in International Law and Diplomacy. Prior to his diplomatic appointment, Ambassador Istrabadi served as a legal adviser to the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs during the negotiations for United Nations Security Council resolution 1546 of June 8, 2004, which recognized Iraq’s reassertion of its sovereignty. He was also principal legal drafter of Iraq’s interim constitution, the Law of Administration of the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period, and principal author of its Bill of Fundamental Rights. Before contributing to the reconstruction of Iraq, Amb. Istrabadi was a practicing trial lawyer in the United States for 15 years.
Daniel Serwer is a scholar at the Middle East Institute as well as a senior research professor of conflict management and a senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Formerly vice president for Centers of Peacebuilding Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (2009-10), he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance, and gender. He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP (1998-2009), where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and the Balkans. Serwer has worked on preventing inter-ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and has facilitated dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans. In 2006, he served as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group.
Moderator: Charles Dunne is the director for Middle East and North Africa Programs at Freedom House and a scholar at the Middle East Institute. He spent 24 years as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving overseas in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Madras, India. In addition, he was director for Iraq at the National Security Council from 2005-2007 and a foreign policy adviser to the director for Strategic Plans and Policy at the Joint Staff in the Pentagon (2007-2008).