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Andrew Marinik, Ludwig Gantner, Scott Fritz, & Sean Smith. (2020). Developing Performance Metrics of an Emergency Notification System. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 663–668). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: The use of emergency notification systems (ENS), or early warning systems, are not only common practice among Institutes of Higher Education (IHEs), but are required by law in the United States. The dramatic increase in use is matched by the increase in community expectation. This community expectation corresponding with societal shifts challenges Public Safety leaders to implement and maintain a broad and highly reliable ENS. Most Public Safety programs lack the internal resources to consistently assess system risk, reliability, and messaging validity of their ENS sufficient to match the required system performance. Virginia Tech Emergency Management is proposing an ENS evaluation system capable of supporting assessment of reliability and risk across the entire system through the lens of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) theory at a practitioner level. By organizing emergency notification/early warning systems through Human Subsystems, Technical Subsystems, and Task Design the practitioner can assess their system by performance and risk.
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Antonio De Nicola, Maria Luisa Villani, Francesco Costantino, Andrea Falegnami, & Riccardo Patriarca. (2021). Knowledge Fusion for Distributed Situational Awareness driven by the WAx Conceptual Framework. In Anouck Adrot, Rob Grace, Kathleen Moore, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 79–85). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Large crisis scenarios involve several actors, acting at the blunt-end of the process, such as rescue team directors, and at the sharp-end, such as firefighters. All of them have different perspectives on the crisis situation, which could be either coherent, alternative or complementary. This heterogeneity of perceptions hinders situational awareness, which is defined as the achievement of an overall picture on the above-mentioned crisis situation. We define knowledge fusion as the process of integrating multiple knowledge entities to produce actionable knowledge, which is consistent, accurate, and useful for the purpose of the analysis. Hence, we present a conceptual modelling approach to gather and integrate knowledge related to large crisis scenarios from locally-distributed sources that can make it actionable. The approach builds on the WAx framework for cyber-socio-technical systems and aims at classifying and coping with the different knowledge entities generated by the involved operators. The conceptual outcomes of the approach are then discussed in terms of open research challenges for knowledge fusion in crisis scenarios.
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Ivan Boissières, & Eric Marsden. (2005). Organizational factors of robustness. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 117–122). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In complex socio-technical systems, robustness is achieved through interaction between the technical structure of the system and the social and organizational structure of the operators who run the system. While the need for human oversight of complex systems is widely recognized, the impact of organizational factors on the effectiveness of the oversight function is not well understood. We have studied the social interactions between supervision and maintenance operators of the largest French telecom operator, using techniques from the sociology of organizations. Detailed analysis of the social network formed by these operators has allowed us to identify a number of factors that contribute positively or negatively to the robustness of the system.
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Louise K. Comfort, Milos Hauskrecht, & Jeen-Shang Lin. (2008). Dynamic networks: Modeling change in environments exposed to risk. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 576–585). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Modeling the interaction between interdependent systems in dynamic environments represents a promising approach to enabling communities to assess and manage the recurring risk to which they are exposed. We frame the problem as a complex, adaptive system, examining the interaction between transportation and emergency response as a socio-technical system. Using methods of spatial and statistical analysis, we overlaid the engineered transportation system on the organizational emergency response system to identify the thresholds of fragility in each. We present a research design and preliminary results from a small-scale study conducted in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Region that examined the interaction between the transportation and emergency response systems. These results informed the design of a Situational Assessment Module for emergency managers, currently under development at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Daniel Auferbauer, Christoph Ruggenthaler, Gerald Czech, & Ivan Gojmerac. (2019). Taxonomy of Community Interaction in Crises and Disasters. In Z. Franco, J. J. González, & J. H. Canós (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management. Valencia, Spain: Iscram.
Abstract: Taxonomies are integral to systems engineering, as they structure our knowledge of a field and so provide the
foundation for technological development. We contribute such taxonomies for the field of Community
Interaction and Engagement in Crisis and Disaster Management, which represents the interface between
members of the public who commit to relief efforts and established organisations that have a pre-defined role in
crisis management. These actors are unified in their purpose to help those in need, but also set apart by their
organisational structures and modes of operation. We classify the actors of Community Interaction and
Engagement, as well as the interactions between them. Our contribution outlines areas where the application of
Information and Communication Technology can offer benefits to Community Interaction and Engagement.
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Mark De Bruijne. (2007). Networked reliability: From monitoring to incident management. In K. Nieuwenhuis P. B. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Intelligent Human Computer Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM 2007 Academic Proceedings Papers (pp. 385–393). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The environment of many HROs in modern, western countries have undergone dramatic changes in the last decades. They have changed from High Reliability Organizations (HROs) into High Reliability Networks (HRNs). In nearly all industries, the formerly vertically integrated, state-owned monopolies were 'unbundled' and in many segments, competition was introduced. Consequently, the services of modern-day large-scale technical systems are provided by networks of organizations. In-depth research in a number of infrastructure industries explored the consequences of these changes for the reliable provision of services in networks of organizations. In networks of organizations, reliability is increasingly achieved through 'real-time' management. This paper highlights three important consequences of these findings and provides some tentative conclusions about their effect on the design and use of Information Systems in complex, large-scale technical systems.
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