Citizen-Driven Digital Initiatives and the Common Good in Response to the 2024 Valencia DANA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15257/ehquidad.2027.0016Keywords:
Crisis informatics, Digital humanitarianism, Ethical governance, Digital volunteering, Valencia DANA floodsAbstract
This article examines how coordinated grassroots action leveraged information technologies to develop creative solutions for the common good and to enhance socio-technical resilience in the aftermath of the 2024 DANA disaster in Spain, thereby helping to bridge institutional gaps. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining non-participant digital ethnography with web traffic analysis. A total of 23 citizen-led platforms and one institutional platform were systematically assessed using tools such as Semrush, the Wayback Machine, and a bespoke ethical governance framework. The findings indicate a marked disparity in traffic: citizen-driven initiatives, exemplified by ayudaterreta.com (1.7 million visits), significantly outperformed the official institutional response (298,000 visits) during the initial emergency phase. However, 65% of these platforms demonstrated low levels of ethical governance, with notable shortcomings in accessibility, data protection, and privacy. These findings point to a tension between urgency and oversight, whereby the rapid deployment of digital solutions tends to prioritise immediate functionality over ethical and regulatory considerations. The article concludes by advocating for an ethically grounded model of digital co-production that incorporates digital volunteering into formal governance frameworks, ensuring that collectively generated benefits remain both accessible and secure.
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