In July 2013, G&H participated in a two-day workshop hosted and facilitated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) looking at social media for public safety, including its applications, research, and to discuss technology, process, and policy gaps. Participants included officials from government agencies, researchers from the academic community, and users of social media from disaster response agencies. The workshop focused on four main topics, including operational, social science, visual and data analytics, and technical challenges to:

Discuss and share information about various efforts relating to the use of social media in public safety by response organizations and academic institutions;
Identify and discuss priority operational needs and research gaps; and
Develop research questions for further consideration.

DHS and NGA have released a report summarizing the workshop, available here.