Special Issue on How to do IT more Carefully: Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) in IT Supported Crisis Response and Management

摘要

It seems clear that 'technology that provides the right information, at the right time, and in the right place has the potential to reduce disaster impacts' (Koua, MacEachren, Turtun, Peza-nowski, Tomaszewski, & Frazier, 2010:255). In a century of disasters (eScience, 2012) where nothing is so certain as that another crisis is around the corner and emergency response services are under intense pressure to produce more efficient, collaborative and effective responses and plans, investment in information technology (IT) is often seen as pivotal. Enquiries into the implications of ever deeper integration of IT into emergency response and management for humanity, justice, liberty, and the social contract between societies and emergency responders may seem a burden, but design that is sensitive to ethical, legal and social issues(ELSI) is also recognised as critical to leveraging the potential of new technologies. If emergency services are to utilise (and to control media operated) Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS), for example, if they should engage the public with the help of social media, or share information between different agencies and information systems in line with data protection laws, technologies must support awareness of ELSI and practices of addressing them. This is a complex challenge.