Disaster Platform - Helping communities build resilience to disasters via social networking, gamification and relationship building

In today’s world of accelerating climate change effects, a community's capacity to plan for and build resilience to disasters, homeland security threats, and extreme weather is of increasing importance. The ability of public safety organizations and local governments to effectively communicate with community members in emergency situations is critical, especially in the immediate aftermath of large-scale events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Virtual Social Media Working Group (VSMWG), “Social media and collaborative technologies have become critical components of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery” (P. 4). Existing social media platforms face many challenges regarding effective disaster-related communication such as the dissemination of rumors and false information, undermining of authority and the promotion of terrorist acts (Alexander, 2013). Characteristics of false information often include forms of emotional exploitation, uncertainty of the facts, and/or trending topic discussions that hijack conversations for an intended profit or malicious intent. This type of false information can create mayhem and confusion in the aftermath of a disaster and cause further distress to vulnerable community members (VSMWG, 2018). GoodGames will prove the feasibility of a disaster-focused social networking platform to help mitigate the negative effects of current social media platforms and build community resilience to disasters, homeland security threats, and extreme weather (particularly extreme heat). This platform will help community members effectively communicate with one another, public safety organizations and community leaders before, during and after a disaster-related event. The platform will be designed with disaster-related communication as the primary intention and with the location and security features currently lacking in popular social media platforms. Furthermore, the platform will be designed with game aspects that are proven to enhance community engagement, strengthen connections to local authorities and educate community members on disaster preparedness and response measures. A solo casual game will be incorporated into the platform with the intention of helping to educate and empower community members about disaster-related scenarios (with extreme heat initially being the primary focus) so that they can better prepare for, and build resilience to, future disasters.