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Yasir Javed, Tony Norris, & David Johnston. (2010). Design approach to an emergency decision support system for mass evacuation. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper is directed primarily to investigating the information needs of emergency managers following recognition of a risk of volcanic eruption. These needs include type of information required during the collection, integration, synthesis, presentation, and sharing of information. This will identify and model the processes underpinning the design of an emergency decision support system (EDSS). Exploration of the information needs, flows, and processes involved in emergency decision making can improve the design of EDSS both in terms of their content and the all-important human-system interfaces that determine their usability.The information attributes and flows then lead to the development of a prototype system that can be evaluated to test and refine the concepts.
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Xiang Yao, Murray Turoff, & Starr Roxanne Hiltz. (2010). A field trial of a collaborative online scenario creation system for emergency management. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In Emergency Management and Business Continuity Planning, scenarios are a widely used tool. Existing scenario creation systems allow distributed groups to create scenarios together but have limited collaboration support. This study developed and evaluated a solution to provide various types of collaboration support around a knowledge structure at the core of a collaborative scenario creation system called Collario. Following the Design Science paradigm, it evolved through four iterations into a working prototype. Several evaluation methods, including protocol analysis and field study, were employed to evaluate the design effects and obtain user feedback. The results of the first field trial are described in this paper. They indicate that the system is useful to support creation and discussion of emergency scenarios in virtual teams and to share knowledge and experiences among geographically distributed emergency professionals and researchers. It was also found that the system is not hard to learn and use.
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Willem J. Muhren, Damir Durbic, & Bartel A. Van De Walle. (2010). Exploring decision-relevant information pooling by humanitarian disaster response teams. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: It is a well-known fact that a lack of information will lead to suboptimal decisions. But even when actors jointly have all the information they need to make a well-informed decision, they may fail to find a superior alternative. This hidden profile paradigm would cause misrepresentations of crisis situations and lead to ineffective response. In this research-in-progress paper, we present the first stage of our experimental study on group decision making in humanitarian disaster response, in which we want to find out how teams can be supported to share more information, make better sense, and ultimately avoid such misrepresentations of crisis situations. First results reveal that humanitarian disaster response teams are able to share significantly more information if they would make use of more advanced information and communication systems. However, none of the teams in the experimental setup managed to find the optimal decision.
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Wendy A. Edwards, Awais Vaid, & Ian S. Brooks. (2010). INDICATOR: An open-source cyberenvironment for biosurveillance. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the architecture and implementation of INDICATOR, a free open source cyberenvironment for disease surveillance. Biosurveillance entails numerous tasks, including data acquisition and preparation, analysis, and reporting. These tasks can be modeled and executed as a workflow. Workflows encapsulate data, tools, and metadata. Cyberenvironments provide integrated, user-friendly sets of tools and services to marshal resources and help researchers analyze, visualize, and model their data. INDICATOR uses an Eclipse-based cyberenvironment that supports interactive workflow creation, connection to data and event streams, provenance tracking, and reuse of workflows and fragments to acquire, analyze, and visualize public health data.
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Victor A. Bañuls, Murray Turoff, & Joaquin Lopez. (2010). Clustering scenarios using cross-impact analysis. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Scenarios are frequently used in Emergency Planning and Preparedness. These scenarios are developed based on the hypothesis of occurrence or not of significant events. This is a complex process because of the interrelations between events. This fact, along with the uncertainty about the occurrence or non-occurrence of the events, makes the scenario generation process a challenging issue for emergency managers. In this work a new step-by-step model for clustering scenarios via cross-impact is proposed. The authors. proposal adds tools for detecting critical events and graphical representation to the previous scenario-generation methods based on Cross-Impact Analysis. Moreover, it allows working with large sets of events without using great computational infrastructures. These contributions are expected to be useful for supporting the analysis of critical events and risk assessment tasks in Emergency Planning and Preparedness. Operational issues and practical implications of the model are discussed by means of an example.
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Tuomas Peltonen, Michael Ammann, Juhani Lahtinen, & Kaj Vesterbacka. (2010). Operational experience with the Ketale web application. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Ketale is a collaborative data management system to share, manage and view the results of dispersion and dose calculations and other information related to nuclear or radiation accidents. Ketale was used the first time in an exercise in December 2008. User feedback led to a redesign of the system during 2009. The redesigned version improved the overall performance of the system and introduced some new features like a planning tool for countermeasure recommendations. The present report outlines operational aspects and user experiences of the Ketale system.
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Trishan R. De Lanerolle, William V. Anderson, Sam DeFabbia-Kane, Eli Fox-Epstein, Dimitar Gochev, & Ralph A. Morelli. (2010). Development of a virtual dashboard for event coordination between multiple groups. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Collabbit is an open source web-based application that aims to increase emergency management efficiency through distributed asynchronous information sharing. The software is targeted to loosely coupled non-profit disaster relief agencies that coordinate response to and recovery from disasters. Disaster relief agencies create a common operating picture of an emergency incident through remotely posted incident updates. Individual users subscribe to topics of interest and receive near-instantaneous updates on those topics. Where information is lacking, users may access a topically organized contact registry. This report describes the development and deployment of the Collabbit project.
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Tiziana Catarci, Massimiliano De Leoni, Andrea Marrella, Massimo Mecella, Manfred Bortenschlager, & Renate Steinmann. (2010). The WORKPAD project experience: Improving the disaster response through process management and geo collaboration. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In complex emergency/disaster scenarios teams from various emergency-response organizations collaborate with each other to achieve a common goal. In these scenarios the use of smart mobile devices and applications can improve the collaboration dynamically. The lack of basic interaction principles can be dangerous as it could increase the level of disaster or can make the efforts ineffective. The paper focuses on the description of the main results of the project WORKPAD finished in December 2009. WORKPAD worked on a two-level architecture to support rescue operators during emergency management. The use of a user-centered design methodology during the entire development cycle has guaranteed that the architecture and the resulting system meet the end-user requirements. The feasibility of its use in real emergencies is also proven by a demonstration showcased in July with real operators. The paper includes the qualitative and quantitative showcase results and mentions some guidelines which can be useful for persons who want to develop emergency-management systems.
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Tina Comes, Claudine Conrado, Michael Hiete, Michiel Kamermans, Gregor Pavlin, & Niek Wijngaards. (2010). An intelligent decision support system for decision making under uncertainty in distributed reasoning frameworks. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper presents an intelligent system facilitating better-informed decision making under severe uncertainty as found in emergency management. The construction of decision-relevant scenarios, being coherent and plausible descriptions of a situation and its future development, is used as a rationale for collecting, organizing, filtering and processing information for decision making. The development of scenarios is geared to assessing decision alternatives, thus avoiding time-consuming analysis and processing of irrelevant information. The scenarios are constructed in a distributed setting allowing for a flexible adaptation of reasoning (principles and processes) to the problem at hand and the information available. This approach ensures that each decision can be founded on a coherent set of scenarios, which was constructed using the best expertise available within a limited timeframe. Our theoretical framework is demonstrated in a distributed decision support system by orchestrating both automated systems and human experts into workflows tailored to each specific problem.
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Tim J. Grant, & Gijs Van Den Heuvel. (2010). Modelling the information sharing process in military coalitions: A work in progress. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Coalition partners must share information to work together. Models of information sharing assume that it is a linear, one-way process. As part of a larger project, we studied information sharing in military coalitions. Interviews of 47 officers in NATO R&D organizations showed that one piece of information was often traded for another. This is characteristic of an information market. Security regulations make information a scarce resource, although trust may allow the regulations to be waived. Our observations have consequences for the military Network Enabled Capabilities community in their desire to migrate to a “need to share” security principle. Failing to find a suitable process model in the literature, we outline requirements and identify two possible starting points for modelling the information sharing process in military coalitions.
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Tim A. Majchrzak, Oliver Noack, Herbert Kuchen, Philipp Neuhaus, & Frank Ückert. (2010). Towards a decision support system for the allocation of traumatized patients. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: We present a decision support system for the allocation of traumatized patients. The assignment of patients to vehicles and hospitals is a task that requires detailed up-to-date information but has to be carried out quickly. We pro-pose to support medical staff with an IT system. We especially encourage such a system to be used in cases of mass incidents as it is very problematic – yet essential – To provide all injured with adequate healthcare as fast as possible. Our proposal is a system based on business rules. In this paper we describe the development project's background as well as the system's requirements and some details of its implementation. Moreover, we explain an exemplary scenario to show strengths of our approach. Besides discussing related work, we draw an overview of future tasks.
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Thomas Heverin, & Lisl Zach. (2010). Microblogging for crisis communication: Examination of twitter use in response to a 2009 violent crisis in the Seattle-Tacoma, Washington area. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This research-in-progress paper reports on the use of microblogging as a communication and information sharing resource during a recent violent crisis. The goal of the larger research effort is to investigate the role that microblogging plays in crisis communication during violent events. The shooting of four police officers and the subsequent 48-hour search for the suspect that took place in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington in late November 2009 is used as a case study. A stream of over 6,000 publically available messages on Twitter, a popular microblogging site, was collected and individual messages were categorized as information, opinion, technology, emotion, and action-related. The coding and statistical analyses of the messages suggest that citizens use microblogging as one method to organize and disseminate crisis-related information. Additional research is in progress to analyze the types of information transmitted, the sources of the information, and the temporal trends of information shared.
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Thomas Foulquier, & Claude Caron. (2010). Towards a formalization of interorganizational trust networks for crisis management. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: As the concept of trust has found its way into the crisis management literature, many questions remain to be addressed, among which that of its integration with information technology, and its relevance for improving collaboration in a crisis management environment. We propose in this paper that a sub category of social networks, interpersonal trust networks between organisations, may have a significant influence on the management of a crisis by organizations, and that their formalization by technology can help manage such networks and prepare for potential crises. Following a review of trust in the crisis management context, we link trust's organizing properties to crisis management case studies and present our rationale for formalizing trust networks in an information system. We consider the technological artifact produced before the crisis by formalizing interpersonal, interorganizational trust relationships will constitute an element for collective sensemaking by parties involved in the management of a crisis.
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Thomas Bernoulli, Gerald Glanzer, Thomas Wiebflecker, & Ulrich Walder. (2010). Infrastructurless indoor positioning system for first responders. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: To overview the site of operation in case of an emergency is crucial for effective emergency management. This is a difficult task, in particular within large buildings or underground structures. Information about the whereabouts of the staff is a key element of effective disaster management. This paper presents an indoor positioning system which is able to track and locate people within buildings independent of any infrastructure (global navigation satellite system, WLAN installations, etc.). The system is based on inertial measurement units computing the track of its wearer and a component verifying this position estimates using floor plans of the building. This novel approach allows robust tracking and locating of action forces within buildings and underground structures.
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Therese Friberg, Benedikt Birkhäuser, Jens Pottebaum, & Rainer Koch. (2010). Using scenarios for the identification of real-world events in an event-based system. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This work focuses on the requirements engineering process of an event-based system in the domain of emergency management. The goal is to identify events which occur and have an effect on the actions and decision making during an operation. We outline a case study to apply scenario-based requirements engineering processes to describe and identify events. Under the special circumstances of the case study one important result is the need of integrating multiple sources into the scenario generation activities due to the singular characteristics of many operations.
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Teresa Onorati, Alessio Malizia, Paloma Díaz, & Ignacio Aedo. (2010). Interaction design for web emergency management information systems. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The interaction design for web emergency management information systems (WEMIS) is an important aspect to keep in mind due to the criticality of the domain: decision making, updating available resources, defining a task list, trusting in proposed information. A common interaction design strategy for WEMIS seems to be needed but currently there are few references in literature. Our aim is to contribute to this lack with a set of interactive principles for WEMIS. From the emergency point of view, existing WEMIS have been analyzed to extract common features and to design interaction principles for emergency. Furthermore, we studied design principles extracted from the Turoff's model relating them to emergency phases and features. In particular, in this paper, we choose to follow the current trend in the definition of emergency life cycles. In our approach, referring to general policies in literature, the emergency management process is divided into two different sub cycles: back-end and front-end. From the interaction point of view, a formalization process based on the interactive PIE model has been defined. The result we propose here is a set of design principles for supporting interactive properties for WEMIS.
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Terence D. Gibson. (2010). It's not just the data: Participatory monitoring and the most significant change. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Overlaying the technical aspects of participative communications and network design is the question 'how they can secure social change?' Social change is a political act. How can transnational networks gain political influence for local groupings at the national and international level? The Global Network for Disaster Reduction has undertaken a large scale 'participatory monitoring' project with the intended aim of using an activist 'social network' to create 'social demand': influencing policy and implementation within the UN.s framework for disaster reduction. While the project achieved its intended goals, the unintended impacts of the project are argued to be at least as significant; revealing ways that networks can create 'political space' at the local level which can influence policy and access to resources at the national and international level. This paper is presented from a practitioner perspective, linking practice to theoretical work on transnational social movements and participative communications.
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Telmo Zarraonandia, Mario Rafael Ruíz Vargas, Paloma Díaz, & Ignacio Aedo. (2010). A game model for supporting children learning about emergency situations. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Despite the undeniable value of computer games as educational resources for teaching children, its actual application in educational processes is hampered due the complexity of their design and the high cost of developing them. In order to foster their adoption for emergency training, we propose a model for describing the different elements of an educational game for this domain. The model might serve to support the game designing process as well as a communication tool between educators and game designers. This way, the educator can specify the requirements of the educational experience he aims to construct, and based on that information the game designer can propose a set of possible configurations of the game elements that can help to attain the specified objectives.
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Syed Imran, Franclin Foping, Ioannis M. Dokas, & John Feehan. (2010). Towards domain specific modeling approach in early warning system. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: It is of practical significance and great value to design and develop a novel Early Warning System (EWS), which will be used by the personnel of institutions involved in the drinking water delivery governance model of Ireland. In order to help the users of our EWS in representing and codifying their knowledge on the complex coincidences that may drive Water Treatment Plants (WTP) to failures or to hazardous states we propose in this paper a novel approach of using Domain Specific Modeling (DSM) in the domain of EWS for Water Treatment Plants. The novelty of our DSM approach also lies in providing a standalone open source software application rendering profiling of the water utilities, early warning signals, monitoring mechanisms of signals along with capability of assessing the “tendency” of a WTP towards failure, given a set of observed early warning signals.
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Susanne Jul. (2010). You get what you plan for. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper seeks to illustrate a few simple but common mistakes in exercise planning through a case study, in the hopes that readers may improve their use of exercises as a research and development tool.
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Suradej Intagorn, Anon Plangprasopchok, & Kristina Lerman. (2010). Harvesting geospatial knowledge from social metadata. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Up-to-date geospatial information can help crisis management community to coordinate its response. In addition to data that is created and curated by experts, there is an abundance of user-generated, user-curated data on Social Web sites such as Flickr, Delicious, and Google Earth, that can be used to harvest knowledge to solve real-world problems. User-generated, or social, metadata can be used to learn concepts and relations between them that can improve information discovery, and data integration and management. We describe a method that aggregates social metadata created by thousands of users of the social photo-sharing site Flickr to learn geospatial concepts and relations. Our method leverages geotagged data to represent and reason about places. We evaluate learned geospatial relations by comparing them to a reference ontology provided by GeoNames.org. We show that our approach achieves good performance and also learns useful information that does not appear in the reference ontology.
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Sukumar Dwarkanath, & Denis Gusty. (2010). Information sharing: A strategic approach. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to provide and recommend a strategic approach for implementation of information sharing initiatives. While such an approach offers a number of benefits, as a primary benefit, it provides a way to measure and monitor the performance of such initiatives, irrespective of their scope, whether they are regional, state, or federal efforts. The first section of the paper presents a framework for alignment among information sharing initiatives; the second section builds on this framework and outlines a roadmap for an assessment methodology for such initiatives.
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Soussan Djamasbi, Eleanor T. Loiacono, & Yitzhak Mendelson. (2010). Affect feedback during crisis and its role in improving IS utilization. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This research looks at a portion of a larger research question, which is does including affect feedback into an existing 911 call taking process improve IS utilization? The first step is to look at the impact of affect feedback in a controlled environment so that possible issues that could arise can be mitigated early on before actual implementation in a call center is performed. This paper focuses on the first step, a controlled laboratory experiment, which is explained in the methodology section of this paper.
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Soumia Ichoua. (2010). Humanitarian logistics network design for an effective disaster response. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In this paper we address the problem of pre-positioning emergency supplies prior to a disaster onset. The goal is to ensure a fast and effective response when the disaster strikes. Pre-positioning of emergency supplies is a strategic decision aimed at determining the number and location of local distribution centers as well as their inventory levels for emergency supplies. These decisions must be made in a highly disruption-prone environment where a timely response is vital and resources are scarce. We present and discuss a scenario-based model that integrates location, inventory and routing decisions.
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Sophia B. Liu. (2010). The rise of curated crisis content. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In a networked world, we are increasingly inundated with information from online data streams especially from the social web. Curation has increasingly become the buzzword for managing this problem of information overload in the digital age. However, the applications and interpretations of curation by social web users are varied and often stray away from traditional curator roles. I present seven curatorial activities (i.e. collecting, organizing, preserving, filtering, crafting a story, displaying, and facilitating discussions) based on the analysis of 100 web artifacts. I introduce the concept, socially-distributed curation, to emphasize the distributed nature of this curatorial process emerging from the social web. Lastly, I present seven case studies to illustrate preliminary examples of curated crisis content for four crises. These findings are to inform future designs and developments of crisis management tools that could benefit from curated crisis content.
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