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Reading a Master\u2019s thesis isn\u2019t a typical hobby of mine, but when one of my work\u2019s interns said that his was on crowdsourcing for disaster preparedness, I had to get a copy. I finally had a chance to read it coming back from France on a 3-hour train \u2013 plenty of time to focus on it. Why the interest? Well, for one, crowdsourcing has become an increasingly interesting area of work both technically and socially, where people have the ability and tools now to volunteer, share, and coordinate themselves (online) for collecting, analyzing and distributing information. And, two, I\u2019ve spent the better part of my career finding innovative ways for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), like GIS, mobile phones, websites and applications, social media, to solve a problem.<\/p>\n The 62-page dissertation and research<\/a> tries to answer the question: \u201cHow does crowdsourcing play a role in disaster preparedness and what are the issues it has to address?\u201d While the end of the dissertation does address the issue and suggests that ICTs and crowdsourcing can have a role in preparing for disasters, I thought the journey through the paper was a lot more interesting and raises many questions that I\u2019ve faced when looking at how communication and information management can be applied in a way to solve a problem, whether its reducing the risk of disasters, preparing for one, or more broadly how to change behaviors.<\/p>\n We can probably have long discussions for each one of these questions (feel free to leave a comment!), but the fact is that there still tends to be a disconnect between the \u201cquantitative\u201d and \u201cqualitative\u201d communities, or \u201ctechies\u201d versus \u201cnon-techies\u201d.<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s a power thing – in my experience the \u201cnon-techies\u201d don\u2019t have a high appreciation of the people who collect, analyze, and develop information management systems, yet it\u2019s these \u201ctechies\u201d who are creating the platforms and systems that we all need to use to do our work \u2013 think email, Facebook, contact directories, websites, databases, etc.<\/p>\n At the same time, \u201ctechies\u201d also need to realize that people with \u201csoft skills\u201d and who can communicate and negotiate with clients have a key part to play in answering the questions listed above.<\/p>\n Maybe that\u2019s why infographics are so popular these days and are important in bridging this gap \u2013 they help address 3 things<\/a>: information overload, decreasing attention spans, and making information more appealing and easy to share. They take the complexity of data and turn it into something interesting for the \u201cnon-techies\u201d and public to understand. At the same time, it takes a bit of skill from both \u201ctechie\u201d and \u201cnon-techie\u201d worlds to make it happen.<\/p>\n Check out this video from Column Five<\/a> which gives a pretty good summary of why we need infographics!![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/18-BITS-popup.jpg\" "\\"Rounding")
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