Abstract

Local Emergency Management Agencies (LEMAs) are vital components of the U.S. National Incident Management System (NIMS). As such, their official digital presences need to be identifiable as official and should not have to compete with other digital artifacts, including web pages and whole sites, that can be mistaken for official presences. After exploring the nature of digital identity, this study examines the prevalence of competing digital artifacts and the common sources of these artifacts, such as legacy sites and hosted development sites. The study also explores ways some sites disambiguate between artifacts that represent their organizations versus those of similarly named organizations. The findings lead to several recommendations for best practices.