FP7: Opti-Alert - Enhancing the efficiency of alerting systems through personalized, culturally sensitive multi-channel communication

The OPTI-ALERT project strives to enhance the efficiency of alerting systems through personalized culturally sensitive multi-channel communication. OPTI-ALERT involves research institutes, universities, enterprises, and end-users from six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden). The interdisciplinary project includes the expertise of sociologists, media scientists, IT professionals, meteorologists and disaster management experts. The focus of the project will be to create an adaptive alerting system that allows for an intuitive and ad-hoc adaptation of alerting strategies given a specific alerting context.

Key objectives of OPTI-ALERT are:
(1) an in-depth analysis of the impact that social and cultural and regional factors have on risk perception and risk communication
(2) an analysis of the influence which the observed socio-cultural differences have on regional alerting strategies
(3) an analysis of the impact of individualized alerting (via SMS, E-Mail etc.) and alerting via the mass media
(4) the identification of best-practices in alerting via mass media, including web-based media
(5) the definition of appropriate algorithms for the simulation of the alert propagation within a population (in general, but also inside critical infrastructures such as metro stations), depending on the selected mix of communication channels and com­mu­ni­­cation patterns between humans “in the field”.

Poject Partners

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V (lead partner)
e* Message Wireless Information Services Deutschland GmbH
UBIMET GmbH
PROTEO S.P.A.
UNIQA Versicherungen AG
Göteborgs Universitet
Süddeutsches Institut für empirische Sozialforschung e.V.
Regione Sicilia
Nederlands Instituut Fysieke Veiligheid
Università degli Studi di Perugia
Thales Services SAS

Project website: www.opti-alert.eu

Project duration: 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2013

Cofinancing: The Opti-Alert project is funded by the EU Seventh Framework Programme under the FP7-SEC-2010-1 Work Programme.

pdf: opti-alert_en.pdf