Betke, H., Bosse, M., Sackmann, S., & Reusch, C. (2023). Towards a Taxonomy for Classification of Coordination Systems for Spontaneous Volunteers. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 751–760). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: Spontaneous volunteers have always been a relevant factor in disaster management. Digitalization and modern technologies such as social media and mobile devices had a great impact on the quality of spontaneous volunteer engagement and their mobilization. However, their targeted integration into official disaster management measures remains often challenging. In the last decade, there were different scientific and practical approaches to develop information systems for coordination of spontaneous volunteers addressing different scopes and scenarios. In this article, we have analyzed the current state of the art and use a methodological approach to develop a taxonomy for classifying existing and emerging developments in the field. The taxonomy is intended to assist practitioners in selecting appropriate systems for their respective purposes as well as support researchers in identifying research gaps. The resulting research artifact has undergone an initial evaluation and can support maintaining a better overview in a growing subject area.
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Daniel Auferbauer, Roman Ganhör, & Hilda Tellioglu. (2019). Opportunistic Affiliation in Spontaneous Volunteer Management. 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: Spontaneous volunteers influence crisis and disaster relief efforts as both an effective aid and a stressing factor for emergency organisations. Managing the negative impacts of spontaneous volunteering has thus become part of command and control deliberations. In this paper, we take a closer look at integrating spontaneous volunteers into the formal response system to mitigate negative impacts.
Working with participants from formal response organisations, we gathered qualitative data regarding the management of spontaneous volunteers during the European migration crisis in 2015.
Through thematic analysis, we extracted topics to systematically describe the interaction between emergency organisations and spontaneous volunteers. As implication thereof, we propose how computer supported systems can be applied to better manage spontaneous volunteers. In our discussion, we focus on the registration process and ad hoc verification of spontaneous volunteers to better integrate them in the formal response process.
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Gerhard Rauchecker, & Guido Schryen. (2018). Decision Support for the Optimal Coordination of Spontaneous Volunteers in Disaster Relief. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 69–82). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: When responding to natural disasters, professional relief units are often supported by many volunteers which are not affiliated to humanitarian organizations. The effective coordination of these volunteers is crucial to leverage their capabilities and to avoid conflicts with professional relief units. In this paper, we empirically identify key requirements that professional relief units pose on this coordination. Based on these requirements, we suggest a decision model. We computationally solve a real-world instance of the model and empirically validate the computed solution in interviews with practitioners. Our results show that the suggested model allows for solving volunteer coordination tasks of realistic size near-optimally within short time, with the determined solution being well accepted by practitioners. We also describe in this article how the suggested decision support model is integrated in the volunteer coordination system, which we develop in joint cooperation with a disaster management authority and a software development company.
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Hans Julius Betke. (2018). A Volunteer Coordination System Approach for Crisis Committees. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 786–795). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: In disaster situations security authorities and organizations have the responsibility and duty to manage the disaster response. These organizations work in elaborated command and control structures with well trained employees. But in recent events, supported by new technologies like social media and mobile devices, spontaneous volunteers from the local population gained new importance as helpful force in disaster response. The high amount of volunteers bears high potentials to improve the efficiency of several activities through pure manpower. However, these people are not integrated in existing structures and lack a proper qualification. The proper coordination of spontaneous volunteers poses new challenges for disaster authorities. In this paper we introduce the prototype of a novel information system enabling crisis committees to coordinate spontaneous volunteers by semi-automated purposive communication and allocation. The results of first staff exercises are discussed to emphasize potential benefits and open challenges.
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Sebastian Lindner, Hans Betke, & Stefan Sackmann. (2017). Attributes for Simulating Spontaneous On-Site Volunteers. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 846–856). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: Disaster managers report that several disasters would have turned out on a dramatic scale without spontaneous unaffiliated on-site volunteers (SUV). Since SUVs are usually not integrated in chains of command and behave in a certain pattern of its own, coordination of SUVs becomes a challenge for disaster management. One key to coordination is communication and adequate support by information systems. However, real disasters or field tests are usually too expensive, elaborate, and partly impossible when coordination of SUVs is to be exercised or novel tools and methods must be evaluated. Simulating the SUV's behavior by software-agents is considered a constructive solution, however, the specification of simulation settings is an open research field. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying relevant attributes affecting SUVs behavior by a state-of-the-art literature review, classifying and discussing the attributes. Our results provide a sound basis for defining SUV-agents and performing suitable simulations in the future.
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Sebastian Lindner, Stefan Sackmann, & Hans Betke. (2019). Simulating Spontaneous Volunteers: A System Entity Structure for Defining Disaster Scenarios. 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: Fast and easy communication, e.g. via Twitter or Facebook, encourages self-coordination between spontaneous
volunteers in disasters. Unfortunately, this is more and more challenging official disaster management. The need
for the directed coordination of spontaneous volunteers triggered researchers to develop effective coordination
approaches. However, evaluating and comparing such approaches as well as their exercising are lacking a
standardized way to describe repeatable disaster scenarios, e.g. for simulations. Therefore, we present a novel
System Entity Structure (SES) for describing disaster scenarios considering the disaster environment,
communication infrastructure, disaster management, and population of spontaneous volunteers. The SES is
discussed as a promising scheme for including spontaneous volunteers in disaster scenarios on a general level. Its
applicability is demonstrated by a Pruned Entity Structure derived from a real disaster scenario. Based on the
results, we give an outlook on our subsequent research, the XML-based Spontaneous Volunteer Coordination
Scenario Definition Language (SVCSDL).
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Sebastian Lindner, Stephan Kühnel, Hans Betke, & Stefan Sackmann. (2018). Simulating Spontaneous Volunteers – A Conceptual Model. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 159–169). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: Recent disasters have revealed growing numbers of citizens who participate in responses to disasters. These so-called spontaneous unaffiliated on-site volunteers (SUVs) have become valuable resources for mitigating disaster scales. However, their self-coordination has also led to harm or putting themselves in danger. The necessity to coordinate SUVs has encouraged researchers to develop coordination approaches, yet testing, evaluating, and validating these approaches has been challenging, as doing so requires either real disasters or field tests. In practice, this is usually expensive, elaborate, and/or impossible, in part, to conduct. Simulating SUVs' behaviors using agent-based simulations seems promising to address this challenge. Therefore, this contribution presents a conceptual model that provides the basis for implementing SUV agents in simulation software to perform suitable simulations and to forecast citizens' behaviors under a given set of circumstances. To achieve adequate simulations, the conceptual model is based on the identification of 25 behavior-affecting attributes.
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Sophie Gerstmann, Hans Betke, & Stefan Sackmann. (2019). Towards Automated Individual Communication for Coordination of Spontaneous Volunteers. 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: In recent years, spontaneous volunteers often turned out to be a critical factor to overcome disaster situations and
avoid further damages to life and assets. These Volunteers coordinate their activities using social media and
mobile devices but are not integrated in usual command and control structures of disaster responders. The lack of
professional disaster response knowledge leads to a waste of potential workforce or even dangerous situations for
the volunteers. In this paper, a novel approach for a centralized coordination of spontaneous volunteers through
disaster response professionals while using popular communication channels esp. messaging services (e.g.
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp) is presented. The architecture of a volunteer coordination system focusing on
automated multi-channel communication is shown and the possibilities of a universal chatbot for individual
assignment and scheduling of volunteers are discussed. The paper also provides first insights in a demonstrator
system as a practical solution.
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Veronika Zettl, Thomas Ludwig, Christoph Kotthaus, & Sascha Skudelny. (2017). Embedding Unaffiliated Volunteers in Crisis Management Systems: Deploying and Supporting the Concept of Intermediary Organizations. In eds Aurélie Montarnal Matthieu Lauras Chihab Hanachi F. B. Tina Comes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response And Management (pp. 421–431). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: Citizens engaging in crisis management spontaneously and without affiliation to an (honorary) aid organization are a social phenomenon on the rise. Even though public engagement is desirable, it receives mixed reactions by crisis management experts. They claim that “the crowd” has to be managed to ensure a successful crisis response and recovery, leading to high coordination efforts which cannot be achieved by the authorities. To understand the obstacles in cooperation and to overcome them better, this study examines existing patterns of cooperation. The study employed in-depth interviews (n=13) in two use cases (flooding, n=4; migrant crisis, n=9) with public authorities, aid organizations and engaged citizens. Results indicate that collaboration works successfully when an intermediary organization bridges the coordination gap between authorities and the public. In addition to the concept of intermediary organizations, two ICT approaches supporting collaboration in crisis events are described: Public Displays and the so-called 'Security Arena'.
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Yannic Schulte, Miriam Klein, Marcus Wiens, & Frank Fiedrich. (2020). Spontaneous Volunteers Across National Borders: An Agent-Based Comparison. 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. 327–336). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: In today's globalized world and with the extensive use of social media, there is a high connectivity of people across countries, which can be a helpful potential in disaster response. In a coordinated manner, spontaneous volunteers from neighbouring nations can provide high manpower and resources to a disaster affected area. In this article, we discuss why the consideration of spontaneous volunteers is relevant in a cross-border context in order to improve disaster resilience for borderlands. Furthermore, we introduce a baseline agent-based model to simulate cooperation procedures for the involvement of spontaneous volunteers to the official crisis response in a borderland and discuss important issues that need to be addressed in future considerations.
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