ABSTRACT
The integration of portable and wearable technologies into our everyday lives has made com-
puting so ubiquitous that it has begun to transform emergency communication and resilience
management. Already during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, large amounts of digital data were cir-
culated via social media, a process that was later termed ‘‘knowledge sharing’’ (Yates and Paquette,
2011, p. 7). This information was harvested and translated into ‘‘knowledge applications’’ (ibid.,
p. 10), such as the identification of urgent cases, the coordination of resource distribution or
fundraising for disaster relief (see Gao et al., 2011). Since the upsurge of smart phones in the early
2010s, apps and every-ware,1 but also social media and digital mapping tools have been identified
as a ‘‘tremendous opportunity’’ (Crowe, 2011, p. 418) for emergency response and resilience
planning. European Commission investments in the ‘‘next generation emergency services’’
(European Commission, 2014) endorse this trend. In light of increased digitization, this chapter
asks: What are the specific properties of digital information and how do they influence resilience
governance?
