New Users in Times of Crisis (and Revolution)

As part of our recent work investigating the Twitter Userbase, we have collected data on accounts registered around the 2011 triad of natural disasters; the Queensland Floods (January), Christchurch Earthquake (22 February) and Tokyo Earthquake & Tsunami (11 March). By looking at new accounts registered between 1 January 2011 and 30 April 2011, we are …

Researching Social Media in Times of Crisis

I’ve just returned home from the Social Media in Times of Crisis conference at the State Library of Queensland, which we organised together with our ARC Linkage partners at the Eidos Institute, and I’m pleased to report that it was a very stimulating and successful event – at one point, the associated hashtag #SMTC13 even …

Social Media in Times of Crisis 2013: Register Now!

Our research into the use of social media for crisis communication, which produced last year’s report on the use of Twitter during the 2011 Queensland floods and a variety of other outputs (on the Christchurch earthquakes, Hurricane Sandy, and other events), continues at pace, even if there haven’t been a great many updates about it …

Recent media coverage: Twitter data ownership and the 2013 #qldfloods

I’m writing this from Cambridge (MA, USA; not UK), where I’m a few days into my stint as a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research New England. I’m thrilled to be able to spend some quality time with the Social Media group here, including long-time colleagues like Kate Crawford (who has worked with us on our …

Our Work Featured by the Australian Research Council

It’s not every day that your work gets an acknowledgment from the most important research funding and evaluation authority in the country – but today is one such day: our research into the use of Twitter in the 2011 south east Queensland floods has been highlighted in the 2011/12 Annual Report of the Australian Research …

Twitter and Crisis Communication from #qldfloods to #sandy

My recent trip to a number of European conferences and other research events also provided an opportunity to present some of our ongoing work on the use of social media in crisis communication – as our ARC Linkage project with the Queensland Department of Community Safety and the Eidos Institute begins in earnest, this will …

Talk about Disasters Workshop

Our fabulous colleague (and co-author of the Queensland floods report) Frances Shaw came up to Brisbane this week to participate in a crisis communication workshop at Griffith University. Here are her impressions from the workshop, and her presentation: On 25 and 26 June I represented the Mapping Online Publics team at the Talk about Disasters …

Twitter, the Queensland Floods, and the ABC

And finally for our series of conference presentations over the past couple of weeks, here’s our talk from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association conference in Brisbane last week. This was a bit of a strange one, as the conference schedule meant that we had to present it three times – Jean did the first one, and …

Twitter and Disaster Resilience: Lessons from #qldfloods and #eqnz

We’re doing quite a few presentations of our crisis communication research at the moment. A few days after our ANZDMC presentation, I flew down to Melbourne to run a workshop on social media and disaster resilience together with Chris Fisher from the Queensland state Department for Community Safety, as part of the Disaster Resilient Communities …

CCI Report on #qldfloods and @QPSMedia in the 2011 Floods

It’s difficult to believe that one year ago, significant parts of Brisbane were inundated by floodwaters; thankfully, there has been no repeat of the flood crisis this year. One of the few good news stories to emerge from the disaster was the – overall, very successful – way in which social media such as Twitter …