Agile development of disaster information systems for the Kumamoto Earthquake: How geeks should respond in deadly disaster situations

On April 14, 2016, the devastating earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock, struck the Kumamoto prefecture of Japan. Prior to this, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011, making the Kumamoto Earthquake the second major disaster in the past 5 years. In a previous work, we presented that the 2011 event marked the first time when disaster information systems were created on-the-fly by volunteer computer engineers. These systems were created almost immediately after the disaster to meet the needs of those affected, including the refugees and the people impacted by the nuclear accidents that followed the earthquake. In this work, we survey the systems created by "tech geeks" for the earthquakes. First, social and technical background of systems are described. Then, the result of a comprehensive survey on the systems is presented: what types of systems were developed, for what purpose and when. This is followed by an analysis to identify factors that made systems usable and outlast, as well as factors that spoiled the efforts. Finally, we give suggestions for how developers can design future information systems for disaster response, clarifying how developers should respond in deadly disaster situations.