I’ve been repeatedly asked why a serious scientist would use Twitter as a communication method. In addition to my interest as a science outreach professional, I am interested as a disaster researcher.
Twitter is rapidly becoming an unparalleled tool for disseminating highly localized, time-sensitive information, for collecting on-the-ground condition reports, and even for gathering valuable scientific data about events. Using Twitter in disasters isn’t without risk, but as a disaster professional it is a tool worth using and more and more organizations are recognizing this.
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