Online Media Usage by Disaster Volunteer Centers

When a disaster occurs in Japan, social welfare councils in the disaster area establish disaster volunteer centers. The center manages the most of individuals participating in volunteer activities. It also disseminates their information about recruitment of volunteer workers, damage situations, and so on, also through the media on the Internet. Several ICT volunteer groups support the online public relations activities of the centers. The online media usage of the disaster volunteer centers was investigated to know how they want to use the media on the Internet and how the ICT volunteer should support them. The result indicates that the centers want to use their own Facebook pages and websites, and the ICT volunteers could solve technical and operational problems to realize them.