Are crisis platforms supporting citizen participation?

Information systems are central to disaster management, and getting the right information to everyone is fundamental. Besides research, digital systems for disaster management have gained a central role in public and private disaster management organizations. The blogging and social media platforms popularized a decade ago were built around a user-generated content model in which users are not only readers but also producers of information, and their use is now pervasive. During a natural disaster crisis, massive amounts of information are generated via social media, including messages of caution and advice, information about affected individuals, infrastructure damage, volunteering and donations, among others. Based on a review of the literature and a systematic analysis of crisis platforms, we assess the ways in which participation is defined, propose a participation categorization, and evaluate the role that digital platforms may play in supporting community resilience for crisis and extreme events. The present study reviews what kinds of participation crisis computing projects are offered to the citizens of the regions they are scoping, and will evaluate how crowdsourcing is framed and how it is made available to citizens.