LPCI 2013 - The Workshop on Language Processing and Crisis Information (LPCI2013)

The past few years have seen a number of horrible, high-profile crises, including the Earthquake and Massive Tsunami in Eastern Japan, and Hurricane Sandy, which caused billions of dollars of damage across the Caribbean and east coast of the United States. Given the importance and urgency of response to these disasters, there has been a heightening interest in crisis informatics, or the use of information technology to improve the speed and effectiveness of disaster response.
One particular area where information technology holds particular promise is in the processing of language. For example, in times of crisis, valuable information about the current state of events in disaster-affected areas is broadcast by various individuals or organizations, in disparate locations, and in varying forms, the majority of which involve some sort of natural language. In situations such as these, it is extremely important to be able to aggregate and filter every bit of available information, and deliver it as quickly and accurately as possible to those who could benefit by its provision.
In this workshop, we hope to provide a venue to propose new techniques for processing language related to times of crisis. In particular, we place a focus on the role that language and language processing technology can play in crisis response, analysis of social dynamics in times of crisis, and increasing preparedness for crises that may occur in the future. Papers in the following areas would be a good fit for presentation at the workshop:
Analysis of the unique challenges presented to language processing technology in times of crisis, such as ensuring the effectiveness, reliability, and timeliness of disaster response using NLP techniques
Proposal and evaluation of new methods to help tackle these unique challenges
Analysis of the problems that may occur when applying existing language processing methods to crisis related data
Proposal and evaluation of new language processing techniques or tasks relevant in times of crisis, such as extraction, filtering, and delivery of crisis-related information
Analysis that combines language information with other modalities such as social network structure, or location and temporal information
Other research that builds bridges between the analysis of crisis information, disaster science, and the processing of language