Combining Big Social Media Data and FCA for Crisis Response

The use of social media is now prevalent in all aspects of society. Each and every major news event is accompanied by a stream of real-time social media posts, creating a vast and ever changing data supply - a hallmark of big data. The aim of the ATHENA project is to turn this stream of information into a vital resource for the public and first responders during a crisis. ATHENA recognizes that citizens are currently under-utilized in crises and that they are often willing to engage in the response effort. Social media provides a robust platform for this interaction. Due to the volume and fast paced nature of the incoming data streams, the challenges for ATHENA system are how to integrate and process this data and then how to transform it into intelligence to be used by law enforcement agencies and the public alike. This paper introduces potential applications within the ATHENA project, in particular, those based on a technique known as formal concept analysis.