A system for Tailoring Response and Understanding using Social Trust (TRUST) Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Topic No.: N121-092 Topic Title: A system for Tailoring Response and Understanding using Social Trust (TRUST) Proposal No.: N121-092-0078 Firm: Charles River Analytics Inc. 625 Mount Auburn Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-4555 Contact: Corey Lofdahl Phone: (617) 491-3474 Web Site: www.cra.com Abstract: The proliferation of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has changed the information landscape for international crisis and disaster response. Given the amount of crisis data generated, however, it is difficult for responders to identify mission-relevant, reliable information. Existing approaches to exploiting CMC do not provide sufficient cues for responders to evaluate the actionability or reliability of the resulting information. These approaches ignore the social aspects of CMC, failing to recognize the reliability cues that could be gained from maintaining a "web of trust." To generate socially-aware, actionable intelligence for tactical crisis response, we propose to design and demonstrate a system for Tailoring Response and Understanding using Social Trust (TRUST). First, we will conduct a requirements analysis to understand the role trust could play in analyzing the reliability of CMC data for crisis response, and to inform the design of a socio-technical system consisting of a web of trusted sources that generate actionable intelligence. Second, we will enable responders to maintain and manage the web of trust. Third, we will enable responders to manage their interactions with sources and to structure incoming CMC data. Fourth, we will allow responders to visually explore incoming CMC data and understand its relevance to mission objectives. Benefits: Initially, we will focus on transitioning TRUST technologies to the U.S. Armed Forces (e.g., the USPACOM Center of Excellence (COE) on disaster management and human assistance) and USAID. NGOs such as UNICEF, CARE, and the Red Cross will also benefit from TRUST. TRUST or its components may provide a socially-aware, tactically-focused enhancement to systems such as the Command and Control Rapid Prototype Continuum (C2RPC), DARPA's ICEWS, or Lockheed Martin's CEMSA system under development for DHS. In addition, we see considerable promise in the commercial application of our approach, and plan to transition specific enhancements to our DRIVET visualization toolkit to increase its applicability to visualizing CMC data and supporting crisis response. Return