Media Info
Available Media Info
Press Release
Comments from Partners Providing Data
<Press Release>
September 12, 2012
Press Release
Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop Committee
Announcing the Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop
The Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop Committee (co-sponsored by Twitter Japan K.K. and Google Japan Inc.) will be holding the Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop starting September 12, 2012.
Participants in the workshop will use actual data from immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake to investigate how large amounts of information were transmitted and distributed via television, newspapers, and the Internet at the time. The goal is to use the results of this investigation to propose measures for the appropriate distribution of information and to develop prototypes of related services in preparation for future disasters.
In addition to the workshop's sponsors, the following partners will also be participating by providing data: The Asahi Shimbun Company, JCC Corp., ZENRIN DataCom Co., Ltd., Japan Broadcasting Corporation, Honda Motor Company, Ltd. and Rescuenow. Inc. The information provided by all eight parties includes all Japanese-language Tweet data from the week after the earthquake, search trends, newspaper articles, NHK broadcast text data, summaries of all televised information related to the disaster from the six key stations in Tokyo, data about traffic congestion in the disaster-struck regions, data on roads traveled in eastern Japan, railroad operations information, emergency information, and disaster status summaries.
Research institutions, companies, groups, or developers who wish to analyze this data for the purpose of service development can participate by accessing the workshop's official website (https://sites.google.com/site/prj311e/) and agreeing to the Terms of Participation. Participating groups are asked to present the results of their research and development (or an interim progress report) at the presentation session on October 28, 2012.
Professor Fumihiko Imamura of Tohoku University's International Research Institute of Disaster Science, who is participating in this project as part of a research team, had this to say about what can be expected from the workshop:
"The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 marked one of the largest earthquakes and tsunamis on record, resulting in profound and wide-ranging devastation. In addition, the unprecedented effects of the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident are still being felt. Now that a year and a half has passed, we must reexamine this disaster from a variety of viewpoints to determine the answers to the following questions: What kinds of phenomena (both natural and social) occurred? Why did the damage affect such a large area? (What was the damage expansion process?) What kind of countermeasures (crisis response measures) were required? And what kinds of advance measures were effective? (What was the effectiveness of investing in preventative measures?)
"It is our hope that the 'Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop' will allow us to visualize and perform a multifaceted analysis of the individual phenomena (big data) that occurred over the seven days following the disaster, making it possible to clarify the flow of information after the disaster and the interrelationships involved. In turn, this will allow us to clarify new issues and problems and to discuss the role of information not only in national crises faced by the Japanese, but in future disasters around the world."
(End of Document)
<Overview of the Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop>
Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop
Official Website: https://sites.google.com/site/prj311/
Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/Shinsaidata
Official Google+ Page:https://plus.google.com/106953763881679431557/
Official Hashtag: #shinsaidata
Sponsor: Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop Committee
Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop Committee Co-Sponsors
Twitter Japan K.K.
Google Japan Inc.
Partners (in alphabetical order)
The Asahi Shimbun Company
Honda Motor Co., Inc.
Japan Broadcasting Corporation
JCC Corp.
Rescuenow. Inc.
ZENRIN DataCom Co., Ltd.
List of Partners and Shared Data (in alphabetical order)
<Comments from Data Sharing Partners> (in alphabetical order)
The Asahi Shimbun Company
We transmitted a great deal of news about the Great East Japan Earthquake, which brought unprecedented devastation to the Sanriku area. But how did that news spread, and what effect did the Internet and social media have on it? We believe that this will be a significant project that will clarify how this information gets transmitted. We will be providing text data from Asahi Shimbun newspaper articles from the week following March 11 and look forward to learning more about how information is transmitted in a disaster.
Honda Motor Company, Ltd.
Honda Internavi used data collected from online car navigation systems to map roads traveled and released this info the day after the earthquake. It also used services such as Google Earth and the Google Crisis Lifeline Map to share it widely, which proved useful for emergency evacuations and for planning routes to deliver supplies to the affected areas.
We hope that this project will result in many people researching new applications for our road data, making it possible to prevent or reduce damage from disasters in the future.
Japan Broadcasting Corporation
The Great East Japan Earthquake caused unprecedented damage, and we believe that this project will help clarify how information is transmitted in this kind of disaster, such as how the information in our broadcasts is conveyed and how mass media and social media are involved.
We hope that by providing data related to our disaster-related broadcasts, it will be possible to learn how to prevent and mitigate damage from future disasters.
JCC Corp.
It is hard to overstate the shock of last year's Great East Japan Earthquake. And because the Japanese people will continue to reside on these islands, we must prepare for the unfortunate possibility that another major disaster will occur in the future.
The Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop is a significant endeavor in which data from the major mass media and social media sites will be analyzed with the help of third-party researchers with the goal of creating new mechanisms and alliances. Our company intends to do whatever we can to contribute to the success of this project.
Rescuenow. Inc.
Rescuenow is involved in the collection and distribution of crisis management information at the micro level, and so we hope that the workshop will make it possible to take a devastating experience like the Great East Japan Earthquake and learn about the kinds of information that are exchanged in disasters, allowing us to start creating systems for sharing that information.
ZENRIN DataCom Co., Ltd
The Great East Japan Earthquake resulted in enormous, widespread damage. But thanks to advancements in IT technology, data from the Internet and global locational information were collected and put to use at that time.
As a company dealing with locational information, we agree with the goals of this project and are happy to participate and provide the data we have. We hope that analyzing our data in conjunction with the participants' expertise will make it possible to come up with new ways to prevent and mitigate damage in future disasters.
<Contact Information for Media Representatives with Inquiries about the Workshop>
Great East Japan Earthquake Big Data Workshop Committee
project311_staff@googlegroups.com