Italy: The platform for the social network analysis of emergencies is just arrived

Beta 80 Group, 2nd of October 2014

The social networks can be a useful tool to face quicker and more efficiently catastrophic events such as earthquakes or floods, in all stages of the life cycle (Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Mitigation). So “Torcia” is born (a platform for the cooperative management of emergencies), created by a project funded by Regione Lombardia and which includes Alcatel-Lucent, Beta 80 Group, Politecnico di Milano university, Politecnico di Milano university foundation, and other Italian partners. The focus of the application is the semantic search engine that works automatically and filters irrelevant information. The semantic engine interfaces with geospatial tools to locate and warn about the emergency on the basis of the collected data. Web 2.0 users become leading actors on the social networks by providing georeferenced information that makes the emergency easier to manage. In fact, the project takes full advantage of these technologies by setting up a platform for collecting, rationalizing and interpreting the information that members of the public put on the web, and sharing it with the safety authorities.