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Paul Jaeger Recognized by Office OF VP for Research

Community Response Grids: Trusted Information in a Crisis

Paul T. Jaeger, assistant professor in the College of Information Studies and director of the Center for Information Policy and Electronic Government (CIPEG), is working with other Maryland researchers to develop an interface that integrates the Internet with mobile technologies to provide quicker and more widespread information during a large-scale emergency. Known as Community Response Grids, or CRG’s, these Web-based systems can create interactive communication mechanisms able to reach citizens and first responders simultaneously.

Building on research in human-computer interaction, social networks, policy, trust and information needs in emergencies, researcher from CIPEG (www.cipeg.umd.edu) and the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil) are developing a prototype CRG for the University of Maryland campus. “We are trying to leverage all of the different technologies that are already in use today-cell phones, text messaging, PDA’s, wireless e-mail and landline internet access-so that the public can immediately access trusted information they can use in the event of a crisis situation,” Jaeger says.

The Office of the Vice President for Research had provided funding to develop the prototype CRG, and Jaeger expects that federal agencies involved in homeland security and public safety will be very interested in looking at the university’s test-bed CRG. “First we want to see how this might work in the context of the campus, and that will allow us to determine how we can make this work on a much broader scale like a large city.” Jaeger says.