Maurer, FrankChokshi, Apoorve2015-05-272015-11-202015-05-272015http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2270With the ubiquity of smartphones and the use of social media, people can share information with a population once reserved to traditional media (e.g. print, television, or radio). This combination has empowered citizens to use social media to share and disseminate information during emergencies, like the 2013 Southern Alberta floods and Bermuda Shorts Day 2014. Social media’s increased use during emergencies presents an interesting challenge for emergency operations centre personnel who need to filter and assess information before deciding if, how, and when to act, often in parallel with handling information from other sources. Though commercial tools exist, they are not designed with emergency management personnel in mind. This thesis presents Piu, a Twitter-based social media tool supporting both emergency planning and emergency response phases of emergency management. Piu was designed, built, and subsequently evaluated through a series interviews with emergency operations, campus security, and crisis communication experts.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Computer Sciencecrisis managementEmergency managementemergency operationssocial media analyticscrisis informaticsmaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/25585