Chris J. Van Aart, & Stijn Oomes. (2008). Real-time organigraphs for collaboration awareness. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 651–659). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Collaboration awareness, as extension to organization awareness, is knowing how organizations do work and achieve their goals. This knowledge moves on a scale from stated prescribed ways of acting (such as procedures and protocols) to informal channels of communication, teamwork and decision-making. Based on available static and dynamic data, standardized insights can be given about collaboration in emergency situations in the form of organigraphs. We argue that for gaining practical collaboration awareness, both the formal structure of an organization as well as informal interactions should be inspected. Informal interaction includes informal communication channels, actual decision making on the spot and multi-disciplinary joint activities. We have implemented our system in the form of a web-based visualization tool. This tool would have been useful in the Hercules disaster, giving insights in informal information exchange, possibly preventing fatal decisions.
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Zvonko Grzetic, Nenad Mladineo, & Snjezana Knezic. (2008). Emergency management systems to accommodate ships in distress. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 669–678). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: As a future member of the European Union (EU), Croatia has decided to implement EU Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council binding all EU member states to define places of refuge for ships in need of assistance off their coasts, or to develop techniques for providing assistance to such ships. Consequently, the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development of the Republic of Croatia has initiated a project for developing an effective Decision Support System (DSS) for defining the places of refuge for ships in distress at sea. Such a system would include a model based upon GIS and different operational research models, which would eventually result in establishing an integral DSS. Starting points for analysis are shipping corridors, and 380 potential locations for places of refuge designated in the official navigational pilot book. Multicriteria analysis, with GIS-generated input data, would be used to establish worthiness of a place of refuge for each ship category, taking into account kinds of accident. Tables of available intervention resources would be made, as well as analysis of their availability in respect of response time, and quantitative and qualitative sufficiency.
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Lindsley G. Boiney, Bradley Goodman, Robert Gaimari, Jeffrey Zarrella, Christopher Berube, & Janet Hitzeman. (2008). Taming multiple chat room collaboration: Real-time visual cues to social networks and emerging threads. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 660–668). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Distributed teams increasingly rely on collaboration environments, typically including chat, to link diverse experts for real time information sharing and decision-making. Current chat-based technologies enable easy exchange of information, but don't focus on managing those information exchanges. Important cues that guide face-to-face collaboration are either lost or missing. In some military environments, operators may juggle over a dozen chat rooms in order to collaborate on complex missions. This often leads to confusion, overload, miscommunication and delayed decisions. Our technology supports chat management. A summary display bar reduces the number of chat rooms operators need open by providing high level situational awareness pointers, in real-time, to: a) rooms with increasing message activity levels, b) rooms in which important collaborators are participating (those in the operator's social network), and c) rooms in which operator-selected keywords are used. This ability to peripherally monitor less critical chat rooms reduces operator overload, while enhancing the ability to rapidly detect important emerging discussion threads. © 2008 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Thomas Bader, Andreas Meissner, & Rolf Tscherney. (2008). Digital Map Table with Fovea-Tablett®: Smart furniture for emergency operation centers. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 679–688). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: During large-scale crisis events special emergency management structures are put in place in order to execute administrative-strategic and/or technical-tactical functions for potentially large geographical areas. The adequacy of information systems and the communication capabilities within such management structures largely determine the quality of situation awareness and are thus crucial for the effectiveness and efficiency of the emergency managers' work. In this field, this paper makes a threefold contribution: In the first part we provide a description of the organizational structure and the tasks in an emergency operation center (EOC) from a practitioner's perspective. Based on this primer, in the second part we propose four guidelines which help to design human-computer interfaces, especially adequate smart room technology, for this domain. Third, we present a system we designed along these guidelines. We specifically discuss the introduction of a Digital Map Table with Fovea-Tablett® into an EOC as “smart furniture” supporting both team and individual work.
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