Dai Nishioka

User's Action and Decision Making of Retweet Messages towards Reducing Misinformation Spread during Disaster

The online social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has been used extensively during disaster and emergency situation. Despite the advantages offered by these services on supplying information in vague situation by citizen, we raised the issue of spreading misinformation on Twitter by using retweets. Accordingly, in this study, we conduct a user survey (n = 133) to investigate what is the user’s action towards spread message in Twitter, and why user decide to perform retweet on the spread message. As the result of the factor analyses, we extracted 3 factors on user’s action towards spread message which are: 1) Desire to spread the retweet messages as it is considered important, 2) Mark the retweet messages as favorite using Twitter “Favorite” function, and 3) Search for further information about the content of the retweet messages. Then, we further analyze why user decides to perform retweet. The results reveal that user has desire to spread the message which they think is important and the reason why they retweet it is because of the need to retweet, interesting tweet content and the tweet user. The results presented in this paper provide an understanding on user behavior of information diffusion, with the aim to reduce the spread of misinformation using Twitter during emergency situation.

Trust Issues in Disaster Communications

The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th, 2011 caused severe damage to the northern coast of the main island in Japan. Since then we have been working to help out the affected area in terms of IT support such as internetworking and providing PCs. Through our support activities we came across an interesting issue concerning collaboration with people from heterogeneous backgrounds. We call this problem disaster communications in this paper. We found that trust plays an important role in such communications. In this paper we report our experiences during our support activities and our findings.

Usability issues in security

Usability issues in security have been discussed such that users could use the security tools easier. On contrary we presume another aspect of usability issues in security; an interface which causes a slight disturbance and discomfort so that a user would be aware of security threats and risks. The idea is that we should not feel Anshin to be secure. Anshin is a Japanese indicating the sense of security. We need a risk-aware interface to notice an insecure situation so that we would install security countermeasures. It is a warning interface for the insecure situations. We show how we could implement such an interface in a mail system to prevent users from sending email messages to incorrect destination addresses.

Questionnaire Testing: Identifying Twitter User's Information Sharing Behavior during Disasters

The use of Twitter by citizens during catastrophic events is increasing with the availability of Internet services and the use of smartphones during disasters. After the Great East Japan Earthquake on 2011, Twitter was flooded with lots of disaster information, including misinformation that have been widely spread by retweet. Accordingly, we developed a questionnaire to investigate factors influenced people decision making to retweet disaster information they read from Twitter in disaster situations. We developed a questionnaire using brainstorming and KJ method and conducted a user survey (n = 57) to test the questionnaire items. Then, we analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and as a result, five factors derived from 38 question items which are: 1) Trustworthy information, 2) Relevance of the information during disasters, 3) Willingness to supply the information, 4) Importance of the information, and 5) Self Interest. However, there are 7 question items that need revision based on the results of the factor analysis. In this paper, we discuss the method we used to design the questionnaire and the result of the factor analyses of the questionnaire testing.

Why I Retweet? Exploring User’s Perspective on Decision-Making of Information Spreading during Disasters

The extensive use of social media during disasters raises an important issue concerning use of social media to spread information, including misinformation. This study explores the underlying behavioral context of disaster information sharing by Twitter users. We conducted a web survey with 999 respondents in Japan to determine what makes people retweet disaster information in disaster situations. As a result of factor analysis, four factors were identified from 36 questions, namely: 1) Willingness to provide relevant and updated information because the information is believable, 2) Want people to know the information they perceive as important, 3) “Retweeter” subjective feelings and interests, and 4) Want to get feedback and alert other people. The results suggest that two of the factors influenced different groups of people in the community differently; however, everybody can play their role to reduce the negative impact of social media used for future disaster. Based on the findings, we discuss practical and design implications of social media use during disasters.

A Preliminary Study on User’s Decision Making towards Retweet Messages

Twitter was used to a great extent by government, media and individuals to obtain and exchange information real time during emergency. In ambiguous situation where information is crucial, some misinformation may creep in and spread around by retweet. This paper discusses on Twitter issues in emergency situation. A survey was conducted to investigate user’s decision making after one read retweet messages in Twitter. As the result of the factor analyses, we grouped the 28 question items into three categories: 1) Desire to spread the retweet messages as it is considered important, 2) Mark the retweet messages as favorite using Twitter “Favorite” function, and 3) Search for further information about the content of the retweet messages.

Anshin as Emotional Trust: A Comparison Study between U.S. and Japanese Non-computer-science Students

Traditional research on security and safety has been based on the assumption that a user feels secure and safe when using objectively secure and safe systems and services. In this research we investigate users’ subjective sense of security, which we call Anshin in Japanese. This paper reports our empirical comparison of factors contributing to non-computer-science students’ sense of security between the US and Japan based on a questionnaire survey. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) we identified two common factors contributing to the sense of security for students in Japan and the US: cognitive trust in terms of the integrity and competence of the service providers, and user interface usability of the systems and services. The EFA also identified two additional, different, factors in each of the populations. The third factor with US students is Cognitive Trust in terms of competence of the systems and services and the feeling of benevolence about systems and service without any reason, whereas with Japanese students it is the users’ assessment of risks. US students have knowledge as the fourth factor whereas the students in Japan have experience as the fourth factor.

Experiences in Emergency Response at the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Disaster information processing has been researched in the United States of America and Europe in terms of information processing for emergency management to a great extent. While we have had many natural disasters in Japan, only a very few of the researchers in information processing have been working on this issue. From this perspective, we try to identify what sort of information processing was required at the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11th, 2011. In particular, we explored the needs and seeds for disaster information processing in Iwate, Japan. We interviewed local government officials, doctors and university administrators. This paper reports our newly started project of interviewing people who worked on disaster relief during the emergency response in Iwate as well as some results from our interviews.

The Comparison Study between the US and Japan on the Sense of Security, Anshin, with Non-Computer-Science Students

Traditional research on security and safety has been based on the assumption that a user feels secure and safe when one provides the user with secure and safe systems and services. In this research we look into the users subjective feeling, the sense of security, called Anshin in the Japanese language. This paper reports our empirical study on a comparison between non-computer-science students in the US and Japan on their sense of security. We administered a questionnaire survey on the sense of security. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we have identified four factors contributing to the sense of security both in Japan and in the U.S. We find that the students in the U.S. and Japan have two common factors, user interface and cognitive trust in the integrity and competence of the system and service providers.

A Study on the Clothes Recommendation for a Cold Region of Japan

This study presented the survey results of clothes recommendation based on Clo value for the clothes recommendation system based on weather information. The Clo value is an indicator of the clothing insulation and warmth. In general, the clothes recommendation services use the method to calculate the clothes recommendation based on the Clo value from weather information. However, there is no definition on how to calculate the optimal clothes recommendation based on Clo value in previous researches. Moreover, in Iwate, which is located in the cold district area of Japan, the Clo value is low, although the temperature is low during winter. In other words, people in Iwate are lightly dressed in winter. This research fills in the gap since there is no survey on clothes information and calculation for an optimal clothes recommendation based on Clo value has been conducted in the cold district area in Japan. Thus, in this study, we conducted surveys to collect the clothes information during winter and autumn in the cold district area. We also collect the information regarding what types of clothes people wear during these seasons. As a result, we conclude that the people in Iwate are lightly dressed and they wear coats, scarf and gloves. In winter, the rate of people wearing coats was increased regardless of the temperature and the Clo value.