Utilizing cell phones for bystander intervention during emergencies: Presentation at the extended Jour Fixe (One day workshop), New Social Media and Crisis, Bielefeld, Germany, April 27, 2011

Due to the ubiquity and ever-increasing capabilities of cell phones, they have been exploited for mobile data collection in diverse domains [1]. In this position paper, we hypothesize that bystanders can contribute to the handling of emergencies by means of usage of smart phones. To examine our hypothesis, we conducted at first 24 interviews, as described in [2]. Time staggered we also interviewed two persons who experienced the crisis at a stampede [3] at the Love Parade music festival in Germany in the year of 2010. Based on the results of both studies, we draw conclusions for the design of a potential mobile emergency app being dedicated for bystanders