Wilson Center Experts

Lea Shanley

Director, Commons Lab
Science and Technology Innovation Program

Contact Information:
lea.shanley@wilsoncenter.org
T 202/691-4031
Expertise:
Disaster Management
;
Environment
;
Food and Agriculture
;
Governance
;
Science and Technology
;
Crowdsourcing
;
Social Media
;
Urban Studies

Lea Shanley directs the Commons Lab within the Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP) of Woodrow Wilson Center. You can follow our initiatives, events, videos, and publications at Commons Lab Blog and Commons Lab Facebook Page.

Prior to this, Lea was a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Mapping Science Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, where she co-directed two reports: Precise Geodetic Infrastructure: National Requirements for a Shared Resource; and New Research Directions for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. These reports recommended strategic science and technology priorities for geodesy, hazards monitoring, and national security.

In 2009, Lea was an American Association for the Advancement of Science/Agronomy Society of America-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America Congressional Science Fellow and primary science adviser to the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space. She managed the Senator's priorities for federal R&D and crafted and negotiated legislation addressing earth observation, oceans issues, and hazards research and mitigation.

Previously, Lea conducted community-based participatory action research in geographic information science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This research engaged local and tribal communities in the development and use of GIS-based decision support systems, enabling collaborative decision-making for improved land use planning, natural resource management, coastal management, precision agriculture, and emergency management.

Research Interests: Citizen Science, Social Computing, Big Data Analytics, Smart Cities, Sensors and Sensor Networks, ICT4D, Participatory Mapping.

Selected Honors and Public Service
Lea currently serves on a governance team working towards the formation of a national association for public participation in scientific research (2012-2013). Lea also has served on numerous professional committees, including the Women in Aerospace Awards Planning Committee (2012); National States Geographic Information Council’s Data Sharing Working Group (2010—2011); the Steering Committee for the 2010 NASA Value of Information Workshop (2010); the leadership team that established the statewide Wisconsin Geographic Information Coordination Council (2006—2008); and an Information Policy Task Force and Geospatial Preparedness Task Force for the Wisconsin Land Information Association (2004-2008). Her awards have included a NSF IGERT Fellowship to attend the prestigious Vespucci Summer Institute on Geographic information Science, focusing on Spatial Data Infrastructures, in Fiesole, Italy; a Ford Foundation Community Forestry Fellowship; and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Congressional Science Fellowship

 

 

Project Summary

The Commons Lab of the Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program seeks to advance research and independent policy analysis on emerging technologies that facilitate collaborative, science-based and citizen-driven decision-making, with an emphasis on their social, legal, and ethical implications. The initiative does not advocate for or against specific technological platforms, rather works to ensure that these technologies are developed and used in a way that maximizes benefits while reducing risks and unintended consequences. Our work often focuses on novel governance options at the “edges” where the crowd and social media operate—between formal and informal organizations and proprietary and open-source models of data ownership and access.

Related Content for this Expert

On Cybersecurity, Crowdsourcing, and Social Cyber-Attack

Mar 04, 2013
Social media is responsible for much positive change in the world. But these new tools can be used by bad actors to foment strife and undermine stability, as seen during violent incidents in the Assam state of northeast India in July 2012. Cybersecurity efforts must take into account the growing potential for cyber-attack using social media, where hoax messages are incorporated into a stream of otherwise legitimate messages, and understand how quickly mobile apps and text services can disseminate false information. more

2011 Social Media + Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise

Nov 07, 2012
By harnessing the collective power of citizens and engaging communities in their own response and recovery, social media have the power to revolutionize emergency management. Yet, many challenges—including guidelines for use by response agencies, demonstration of value, and characterization of reliability—must be addressed if the potential of social media is to be fully realized in emergency response and relief efforts in the United States. more
The National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

The National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

Nov 06, 2012
A whitepaper on the policy and technology behind the National Broadband Map, an open-source geographic information systems application allowing users to access detailed statistics on internet connectivity. This project demonstrates the value of transparency, collaboration, and cooperation in government projects. more
Prof. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, JD

Brown Bag: International Disasters Charter: Introduction, Initial Issues and Experiences

November 30, 2012 // 12:00pm — 2:00pm
The International Disasters Charter provides for the voluntary sharing of satellite imagery in the event of major disasters. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, JD, will address the contents, structure, and status of the Charter, and highlight its strengths and weaknesses with a focus on how it could develop in the future. She also will discuss data access and sharing issues. This event is co-hosted by the Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson Center, Women in Aerospace, and the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi School of Law. more
The National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

The National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

October 15, 2012 // 9:30am — 11:00am
Join Michael Byrne of the Federal Communications Commission and Zachary Bastian of Commons Lab for a panel discussion announcing a whitepaper on the National Broadband Map. Keynote speaker Haley Van Dyck of the Executive Office of the President, Sean Gorman of Esri, Greg Elin of the Federal Communications Commission, and Presidential Innovation Fellow Ben Balter discuss the project as an example of open innovation, crowdsourcing, and government transparency. more
Responding to Liabilty Report

Responding to Liability: Evaluating and Reducing Tort Liability for Digital Volunteers

Sep 14, 2012
Major emergencies and crises can overwhelm local resources. In the last several years, self-organized digital volunteers have begun leveraging the power of social media and “crowd-mapping” for collaborative crisis response. Rather than mobilizing a physical response, these digital volunteer groups have responded virtually by creating software applications, monitoring social networks, aggregating data, and creating “crowdsourced” maps to assist both survivors and the formal response community. These virtual responses can subject digital volunteers to tort liability. This report evaluates the precise contours of potential liability for digital volunteers. more

Webcast Day 1: Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management: A Policy Roundtable

September 13, 2012 // 8:00am — 5:30pm
On behalf of the Commons Lab of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (The Wilson Center), the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation, the International Association for Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ESRI, TechChange, NetHope, and Project EPIC, we are honored to invite you to participate in a LIVE WEBCAST of the policy roundtable “Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management." more

Webcast Day 2: Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management: A Policy Roundtable

September 14, 2012 // 9:30am — 3:00pm
Watch via live webcast the workshop "Connecting Grassroots to Government through Open Innovation," focusing on the opportunities and challenges of social media, crowdsourcing, crisismapping and open innovation for the full life-cycle of disaster management. more

Getting by With a Little Help from Our Friends: Crowdsourcing and USAID Development Credit Loans

June 28, 2012 // 12:00pm — 1:30pm
USAID’s Development Credit Authority utilizes risk-sharing tools to encourage private financial institutions to increase financing for creditworthy but underserved borrowers. Geovisualization of these loans will allow donors, host governments, and the public to see where USAID has helped enhance the capacity of the private sector to make loans to new businesses and could act as a gauge for trends or signal areas for synergy. more

Crowdsourcing for Disaster and Humanitarian Response

May 03, 2012 // 9:00am — 10:30am
The cycle of response and preparedness of data work together hand in hand. Over the past year Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team has worked on the ground in Haiti and Indonesia while responding to disasters remotely. These methodologies are complementary and can be utilized to have up to date basemap data both after a disaster and preparing in areas at risk of one. more

Pages

Webcast

Humanitarian Response in a Time of Mass Collaboration and Networked Intelligence

October 04, 2011 // 4:00pm — 5:30pm
Gisli Olafsson, Emergency Response Director of NetHope, will discuss how digital age technologies, like social media, are revolutionizing the way humanitarian response will be conducted in the future.

Did You Feel It? Social Media for Earthquake Science and Response

September 27, 2011 // 3:00pm — 4:30pm
The U.S. Geological Survey’s “Did You Feel It?” (DYFI) system allows people who experience an earthquake to go online and share information about its effects, thus helping to create a map of shaking intensities and damage. After a decade of operational experience with the DYFI system for citizen-based science, Dr. David Wald will discuss lessons learned, including how they apply to other social media (e.g., Twitter) and volunteer-based methods for earthquake detection.
Webcast

Liability and Reliability Of Crowdsourced and Volunteered Information for Disaster Management

August 30, 2011 // 2:00pm — 4:00pm
The rapid rate of innovation and adoption of technology, especially mobile technology, by citizens and first-responders alike has the potential to enable a greater level of community preparedness not previously possible. This panel will explore the potential benefits and reliability of crowdsourced and volunteered information for disaster management.

Crowd and Crown: Policy Issues in Social Media for International Crisis Response

June 14, 2011 // 3:00pm — 4:30pm
Crowdsourcing and crisis mapping have opened new approaches to making sense of crises. Yet these new technologies raise unanswered questions. John Crowley, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, discusses the development of policies to connect the crowd to the traditional institutions that respond to emergencies.

Pages

On Cybersecurity, Crowdsourcing, and Social Cyber-Attack

Mar 04, 2013
Social media is responsible for much positive change in the world. But these new tools can be used by bad actors to foment strife and undermine stability, as seen during violent incidents in the Assam state of northeast India in July 2012. Cybersecurity efforts must take into account the growing potential for cyber-attack using social media, where hoax messages are incorporated into a stream of otherwise legitimate messages, and understand how quickly mobile apps and text services can disseminate false information.

2011 Social Media + Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise

Nov 07, 2012
By harnessing the collective power of citizens and engaging communities in their own response and recovery, social media have the power to revolutionize emergency management. Yet, many challenges—including guidelines for use by response agencies, demonstration of value, and characterization of reliability—must be addressed if the potential of social media is to be fully realized in emergency response and relief efforts in the United States.
The National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

The National Broadband Map: A Case Study on Open Innovation for National Policy

Nov 06, 2012
A whitepaper on the policy and technology behind the National Broadband Map, an open-source geographic information systems application allowing users to access detailed statistics on internet connectivity. This project demonstrates the value of transparency, collaboration, and cooperation in government projects.
Responding to Liabilty Report

Responding to Liability: Evaluating and Reducing Tort Liability for Digital Volunteers

Sep 14, 2012
Major emergencies and crises can overwhelm local resources. In the last several years, self-organized digital volunteers have begun leveraging the power of social media and “crowd-mapping” for collaborative crisis response. Rather than mobilizing a physical response, these digital volunteer groups have responded virtually by creating software applications, monitoring social networks, aggregating data, and creating “crowdsourced” maps to assist both survivors and the formal response community. These virtual responses can subject digital volunteers to tort liability. This report evaluates the precise contours of potential liability for digital volunteers.
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