The virtual community in crisis

The virtual community in crisis 

A virtual community is a term first introduced by HowardRheingold. It is defined as a ‘community of people who share common interests, ideas, and feelings within collaborative networks over the internet. In general there are two types of communication among virtual community members: message postings and real-time chat. The population of people who participate all around the world in virtual communities is growing rapidly (Rheingold 1998).

A clear example of Howard Rheingold’s virtual communities in action can be found on social media site Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging site that has grown from 30 million users in 2010 to 218 million users in 2013 (Lee 2013). It allows people to come together and form as a group. Twitter’s hashtag feature is a vital component in this process of uniting people with common interests.

One area twitter has become crucial and effective is its use as a communication tool in crisis situations such as natural disasters and large scale protests. As an advance alert system Twitter was a crucial communication tool for people caught in Tsunami and earthquake in Japan 2011; protestors in Libya and Egypt 2011; 2009 Iranian election protests and much more. Twitter users were first to respond to the Haitian earthquake and the miracle Hudson plane landing (Cross 2011, p.59).

The use of twitter in a crisis was crucial in dealing with bushfires recently when firefighters in New South Wales used twitter to rapidly map and thus respond very quickly. Software called ‘Emergency SituationAwareness (ESA)’ was developed by scientists to sound alarms when a cluster of words in tweets on twitter are recognized as an emergency, this was very effectively used in response to these fires (Skynews 2013). 

In response to this increased need Twitter recently introduced the ‘Twitter Alerts’ feature. This service was launched with the aim of bringing users one step closer to getting accurate and important information communicated quickly during emergencies and natural disasters, and when other services for communication are not available. When authorised accounts mark tweets as alerts they appear differently on timeline (indicated with an orange bell) and are pushed through SMS notifications to mobiles of users. Priority access is given to law enforcement and public safety agencies; emergency management services; city and government agencies. This service is a great addition and will be of importance in communication between people and organisations in the event of crisis situations (Coyne 2013).

Overall the use of twitter to spread information and communicate in real-time has made virtual communities a vital component in future response to crisis situations and disasters in societies.

References:

Coyne, B 2013, ‘Introducing twitter alerts’, Twitter Media Blog, 25 September, viewed 7 December 2013, <https://blog.twitter.com/2013/introducing-twitter-alerts>.

Cross, M 2011, Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter are Transforming Popular Culture, Praegar, EBL Ebook Library.

Howard Rheingold 2013, Rheingold.com, viewed 7 December 2013, <http://rheingold.com/>.

Lee, T 2013, ‘Twitter’s growth, in two charts’, The Washington Post, 3 October, viewed 7 December 2013, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/03/twitters-growth-in-two-charts/>.

Rheingold, H 1998, The Virtual Community, Howard Rheingold, viewed 7 December 2013, <http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html>.

Skynews 2013, ‘Firies use twitter to fight bushfires’, Skynews.com.au, 24 October, viewed 7 December 2013, <http://www.skynews.com.au/tech/article.aspx?id=918082>.