Overview

When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, an enormous amount of information was dispersed through social networking websites and the mass media. While much of it was accurate, there were also many falsehoods and rumors, emphasizing just how important information can be. How was misleading information conveyed, exactly? And what were the causes behind these mixups? Looking back at the data from the time of the disaster can shed light on this and more--including which services were truly needed, and what we can do to prepare for the next disaster.

For the "The Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop: Project 311," participants will be provided data that was produced during the week following the earthquake. They will reexamine this data, discuss what can be done to prepare for future disasters, and apply it to service brainstorming.

Shared Data

    • Asahi Shimbun newspaper articles from the week after March 11 (source: The Asahi Shimbun Company)

    • Google Insights for Search (source: Google Japan Inc.)

    • Text summary of television broadcasts made just after the Great East Japan Earthquake (source: JCC Corp.)

    • Tweets from the week after March 11 (source: Twitter Japan K.K.)

    • Transcripts of the audio broadcasted by NHK-G in the 24 hours following the disaster and a ranking of frequently used words (source: Japan Broadcasting Corporation)

    • Honda Internavi traveled roads data (source: Honda Motor Company, Ltd.)

    • Rescuenow's railroad operation information and various disaster-related information (source: Rescuenow. Inc.)

  • Traffic congestion statistics (source: ZENRIN DataCom Co., Ltd.)

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Workshop Overview

How to Register

To register, you must agree to the "Terms of Operation and Participation for the Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop" and then submit the required information. After registering, the Workshop Committee will contact you by email with information about how to submit an application for data use.

Agree to the Terms of Operation and Participation/Register

The Committee asks that you adhere to the following rules when participating in the workshop.

  • Participants are asked to actively exchange information and opinions with each other during the workshop period. When faced with a major disaster, people and organizations are very limited in what they can do on their own. Everyone's cooperation is required in order to pool our knowledge and produce results that will be useful during the next disaster.

  • Please understand that participants come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including disaster experts, data processing technicians, and researchers specializing in social analysis. Avoiding the use of specialized jargon during discussions should help promote collaboration among participants.

  • Please share your results during the presentation session that is planned for October 28. Keep in mind that incomplete results or things that did not go as expected may still serve as useful information for the future.

We will provide methods for exchanging information and opinions online, such as a mailing list, as well as opportunities for participants to discuss issues face-to-face. We ask that you make active use of both.

Online Discussions(Mailing List, etc.)

Offline Events(Presentation Session, etc.)