Preparing for creative responses to "beyond assumed level" disasters: Lessons from the ICT management in the 2011 great East Japan earthquake crisis

A survey of municipal government ICT divisions during and after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami crisis reveals the need for creative responses to "beyond assumed level" disasters. Complexity and diversity of the damage were simply too great for any plans to assume. Resident needs toward municipal governments affected were also diverse and changed quickly as time went by. Our research also indicates that there would be ways to strengthen the capacity for effective spontaneous responses. Creative solutions executed during the 3/11 crisis were enabled by the existence of open source software available on the Net and by skilled engineers capable of exploiting them. Frugal information systems will be useful to improve preparedness for creative responses in the future.