“Self-organization” describes coordinated actions by members of a system through a process of social evolution and without prompting by outside forces that result in action unified in temporal, spatial, or functional terms and also in an orderly, living structure. After the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, some volunteers spontaneously coordinated effective, unified actions. K388 is one such volunteer team. By analyzing K388, this paper looks at how volunteers in the disaster area innovated, self-organized, and formed orderly organizations.
