A New Generation DMS For Supporting Social Sensemaking

Individuals and communities affected by disasters are exposed to massive material and immaterial trauma. While material (tangible) trauma are instantaneous and evident (and thus they are treated immediately by rescuers), immaterial (intangible) ones are subtle and mounting over the time. In particular, in the aftermath of the disaster, affected people lose their world of meaning and need to interact and to exchange information and experience to develop a new social sensemaking process. This paper describes EagleVox, an information system designed to support multidirectional (top-down, bottom-up, peer-to-peer) and multimodal communication within disaster-prone communities (involving citizens, rescuers, and institutions).