Crisis Informatics 27 Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology– June/July 2010 –Volume 36, Number 5 Mobile Live Video in Emergency Response: Its Use and Consequences by Jonas Landgren and Fredrik Bergstrand Stacy Surla is the Bulletin’s associate editor for IA. She serves on the IA Institute Board of Directors and is a past chair of the IA Summit. She can be reached at T echnology-drivenchangeoforganizationsingeneralandsocietyat largeseemstoaccelerateataneverincreasingspeed.Therewillsoon befewplacesthatarenotcoveredbyvariousnovelformsofinformation technologyservices.Thisisalsotruefortheemergencyandcrisisresponse domain.Inthelast10years,professionalresponseorganizationshaveinvested heavilyininformationtechnologytoprovidebettermeanstocommunicate andtostayupdatedindynamicresponsework.Robustradiosystemsand newinteractivemapsystemsareinplaceforvehiclenavigationaswellasin commandcenterenvironments,givingtheresponseactorsdetailed informationaboutlocations,buildings,potentialrisksandavailableresources. Nowwealsoseetheemergenceofmobilelivevideosolutionsthatallow professionalresponseactorsnotonlytotellsomeoneaboutwhatisgoing onbutalsotoreallyshowwhatishappeningonaspecificlocation.These solutionsareaconsequenceoftheongoingdevelopmentandglobaldiffusion ofadvancedconsumermobiledevices.Peopleingeneralcannowbroadcast livevideoatalowcostdirectlyfromtheircellphones.Havinglive-video broadcastingcapabilitiesonamass-scaleisbothpromisingandperhaps disturbing.Someonemighthereadd,"Yes,butwehavehadCCTV[closed circuittelevision]forawhilesowhatisnewaboutthis?"Mobilelive-video solutionsdifferinsomerespectquitesharplyagainstpreviousfixed-video technology.Bydefinition, mobile livevideoismobile,which,inaresponse setting,meansfundamentaldifferencescomparedtofixedvideoinfrastructure intermsofflexibilityandavailability.Fromnowon,anyonecanbring broadcastingcapabilitiestolocationsthatwerepreviouslynotcovered. Havingthesecapabilitiesembeddedonuser-friendlyconsumerdevicesand particularlyoncellphonesmeansthatinmanycasestheycouldbereadily availablewhenasituationofinterestcomesabout. Akeyconsequenceofthisdevelopmentisthatalmostanyprofessional respondercannowbeequippedwithanordinarycellphoneinordertocapture eventsonanaccidentsiteandmaketheseimagesavailableforhigherincident managementincommandroomsettings.Studiesofearlyadoptershaveshown thatitismeaningfulaswellasappealingtobeabletomakethesituation visibleandtoshareaspectsoftheincidentsitewithpersonnelinremote locations.Theseearlyexplorationsoflivevideouseamongresponseworkers havebeenconductedusingordinaryconsumercellphoneswithadedicated, yetsmall,broadcastingapplication.Whenauserpressesthebroadcast button,theapplicationconnectstotheInternetandstartssendingastream ofpicturesandaudio.Thevideobecomesinstantlyavailableonaprotected website,oftenwiththefeatureofhavingthevideogeographicallypositioned. MobileVideoUseinEmergencyResponseWork Studiesoflive-videouseinresponseworkshowsthatvideobroadcasting takesplaceinseveralofthecorephasesofresponsework.Thefollowing threeexamplesillustratetypicaluseofvideoinresponsework. On-route traffic situation update. Theincidentcommanderstartsthevideo broadcastwhentherescueunitisleavingthegarageofthefirehouse.Along thesevento10minuteroutetotheaccidentsite,livevideoandgeographical positionareinstantlyavailableforthecommandcenteroperatorsaswellas forseniorcommanders.Theon-routevideoshowsimportantaspectsforthe commandcenterstaff,allowingthemtocontinuouslyupdateadditional rescueunitsaboutthetrafficsituationandtheneedtoidentifyalternative approachroutes.Ifanythingunexpectedweretooccurwhileonroutetothe incidentsite–forinstanceifthevehicleweretobeinvolvedinatraffic incident–thisinformationwouldalsobecapturedinthebroadcast. CONTENTS NEXT PAGE > NEXT ARTICLE > < PREVIOUS PAGE Special Section Jonas Landgren is a post-doctoral researcher and Fredrik Bergstrand is a doctoral student in the Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Jonas can be reached at jonas.landgren<at>gu.se. Fredrik can be reached at fredrik.bergstrand<at>gu.se.