Gaia Trecarichi, Veronica Rizzi, Lorenzino Vaccari, Maurizio Marchese, & Paolo Besana. (2009). Open Knowledge at work: Exploring centralized and decentralized information gathering in emergency contexts. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Real-world experience teaches us that to manage emergencies, efficient crisis response coordination is crucial. ICT infrastructures are effective in supporting the people involved in such contexts, by supporting effective ways of interaction. They also should provide innovative means of communication and information management. At present, centralized architectures are mostly used for this purpose; however, alternative infrastructures based on the use of distributed information sources, are currently being explored, studied and analyzed. This paper aims at investigating the capability of a novel approach (developed within the European project OpenKnowledge1) to support both centralized and decentralized architectures for information gathering. For this purpose, we developed an agent-based e-Response simulation environment fully integrated with the OpenKnowledge infrastructure and through which existing emergency plans are modelled and simulated. Preliminary results show the OpenKnowledge capability of supporting the two afore-mentioned architectures and, under ideal assumptions, a comparable performance in both cases.
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Irma Becerra-Fernandez, Weidong Xia, Arvind Gudi, & Jose Rocha. (2008). Task characteristics, knowledge sharing and integration, and emergency management performance: Research agenda and challenges. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 88–92). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Emergency management tasks are inherently complex and dynamic, requiring quick knowledge sharing and decision coordination among multiple organizations across different levels and locations. However, there is a general lack of understanding about how to describe and assess the complex and dynamic nature of emergency management tasks and how knowledge integration help managers improve emergency management task performance. This paper describes a research project that aims at (1) developing the concepts of task complexity and uncertainty of emergency management tasks and (2) testing the mediating role of knowledge sharing and knowledge integration between emergency management task characteristics and performance. The overall research agenda, approaches, challenges and the advantages of utilizing a virtual Emergency Operations Center (vEOC) for this line of research are discussed.
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Maurizio Marchese, Lorenzino Vaccari, Gaia Trecarichi, Nardine Osman, & Fiona McNeill. (2008). Interaction models to support peer coordination in crisis management. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 230–241). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: All phases of emergency management activities – that we will reference hereafter as eResponse activities – depend on data from a variety of sources and involve a range of different organizations and teams at various administrative levels with their own systems and services. The existence of numerous and different actors, policies, procedures, data standards and systems results in coordination problems with respect to data analysis, information delivery and resource management.. In this paper we present a novel approach based on interaction models distributed through a peer to peer infrastructure and we show how it can be applied in the context of crisis management to support coalition formation and process coordination in open environments. In particular, a prototype eResponse simulation system – built on a P2P infrastructure – has been developed to execute interaction models describing common coordination tasks in emergency response domain. Preliminary evaluation of the proposed framework demonstrates its capability to support such eResponse tasks.
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Ulrica Pettersson. (2009). Sharing knowledge: How to highlight proven experience in the swedish Armed Forces. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Working with the reuse of knowledge is a widespread effort in many organizations, a common approach being to collect and make use of experience. In the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF), this activity is not handled in an organized way, as a methodological and systematic approach to handling experience, transforming experience into Proven experience and finally reusing it in the organization is lacking. This paper is concerned with practitioners' efforts to share and reuse knowledge for the purpose of improving their professional competence. The aim is to develop and provide a method for transforming experience into Proven experience. A solution to this complicated problem could reduce repetition of mistakes and facilitate for of high-quality Proven experience, not just in SwAF but also in other organizations.
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