FEMA App Adds Crowdsourcing for Disaster Relief

What's This?

By Dhiya Kuriakose2013-07-29 15:19:13 UTC

Certain apps — like ones that help you wake up or beat writers' block — make your everyday life easier. Others help out in times of disaster.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released an update to its Android app this morning (the iOS version is waiting for Apple's authorization). While the app was previously only a destination to receive information such as shelter locations, it's now more of a two-way street.

See also: Unlikely Tech Alliance Aids Recovery After Sandy

The app's major new feature is called "Disaster Reporter," which allows users to submit disaster-related images to be publicly hosted on the FEMA website. You can add short text descriptions to photos, which then go through a basic approval process to ensure images are relevant and do not disclose any user’s personal information. The images are then posted on a map for public viewing.

FEMA administrator Craig Fugate told Mashable the organization looked at ways to use social media to have conversations with communities impacted by disasters.

"The public is a resource and oftentimes the initial and first reports we get are people putting up information, from tweets, from Flickr," Fugate said. "Rather than waiting for that to come up, they would be doing that in the app that will allow it to be shared with other responders."

Authentication is key to the feature's success. The team at FEMA is well aware of the possibility of submissions of doctored footage. All pictures are required to be geo-tagged, and are then moderated to ensure they are not blatantly altered and don't include information that will put anyone at risk.

The team is very clear that the Disaster Reporter is not meant to replace any of FEMA's existing services. It's not a way to call for assistance; rather, it is simply a way to provide more data to the public during times of emergency.

The ability to upload pictures and receive data in almost-real time will be useful not only to the public, but also to first responders. The clean visual interface and basic instructions are optimized for user convenience and the terms of service clarify that any submitted data can become public.

The FEMA app is available for download in the Google Play store. The original app, without the Disaster Relief update, is available in the App Store.

Do you think crowdsourced data is the next big step in improving disaster relief? Share with us in your comments below.

Image: Flickr, Robert Pierce

Topics: apps, Apps and Software, disaster, fema, U.S., US & World