Tristan Endsley, Yu Wu, & James Reep. (2014). The source of the story: Evaluating the credibility of crisis information sources. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 160–164). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: In a highly connected world, information coming from different media sources and social relationships are more quickly disseminated than ever before. Natural disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan capture attention globally. Investigations of how people respond to the credibility of different sources have implications for policy making and information systems design. In this paper, we studied how different factors (strength of social ties and sources of crisis information) affect perception of credibility of crisis information about natural disasters. Our analysis and findings indicate that for crisis information about natural disasters, people tend to trust traditional media channels, such as printed news, and televised news. The type of social tie also influences the perceived credibility of the crisis information.
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Craig E. Kuziemsky, Ahsan Hadi, Tracey L. O'Sullivan, Daniel E. Lane, & Wayne Corneil. (2014). An ontology for contextual information system design. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 165–169). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: Collaborative teamwork is becoming more common in several domains including healthcare and disaster management. While collaborative teamwork can benefit from information system (IS) support, designing IS models to support collaboration is a significant challenge owing to the variations in tasks and people that must be supported, and the different contexts within which collaboration takes place. Collaborative teamwork can vary greatly because of context, which is the integration of diverse, dynamic, and heterogeneous needs for groups to achieve a specific goal. However in the literature there has been limited emphasis on how contextual underpinnings can be incorporated into IS design. This paper uses a case study of the design of a user-driven prototype disaster management IS. We used the think aloud method to capture participant thoughts while interacting with the IS prototype. The think aloud data was analyzed and used to develop an ontology of contextual considerations to support IS design.
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Vitaveska Lanfranchi, Stuart N. Wrigley, Neil Ireson, Uta Wehn, & Fabio Ciravegna. (2014). Citizens' observatories for situation awareness in flooding. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 145–154). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: Citizens' observatories are emerging as a means to establish interaction and co-participation between citizens and authorities during both emergencies and the day-to-day management of fundamental resources. In this paper we present a case study in which a model of citizens' observatories is being been translated into practice in the WeSenseIt project. The WeSenseIt citizens' observatory provides a unique way of engaging the public in the decision-making processes associated with water and flood management through a set of new digital technologies. The WeSenseIt citizens' observatory model is being implemented in three case studies based in the UK, the Netherlands and Italy. We describe the findings and our experiences following preliminary evaluations of the technologies and the model of co-participation and describe our future research plans.
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Ulrich Meissen, Markus Hardt, & Agnès Voisard. (2014). Towards a general system design for community-centered crisis and emergency warning systems. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 155–159). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: Early Warning Systems (EWS) provide an effective measure for better disaster preparedness, response, and mitigation. The effectiveness of EWS depends highly on the ability to distribute alert message to the persons that will be affected. In this context mobile devices play already a vital role in the ability to reach people in time and at the endangered location. Most existing approaches focus on mass dissemination methods via SMS and Cell-Broadcasting. As these approaches are effective to inform masses about a disaster with one message for all they have their weaknesses in telling the people how to respond according to their location and provide individual guidance (e.g. by maps) within specific communities. Research in disaster management gives strong evidence that the later is often crucial for better disaster response. Accordingly, we witness an increasing demand for more community-centered warnings systems solutions. This paper introduces the general foundations and architecture for alert services on mobile devices that adapt incoming alert information to the profile and situation of user groups and even individual users. The approach is scalable for different communitycentered warning systems. Its first applicability and community engagement effects are shown in the example of the community-centered public disaster alert system in Germany and a target group specific weather hazard alert system, KATWARN and WIND with currently over 2.5 million subscribed users, which was developed by the authors.
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Torbjørg Træland Meum. (2014). An action design research approach to developing emergency management systems. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 175–179). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: We propose Action Design Research (ADR) as an approach to promote user participation and mutual learning in the design and development of systems for emergency management based on social media technologies. We outline some design challenges related to the dynamic and evolving nature of social media, and emphasize an iterative design process that is strongly oriented toward collaboration and change involving both the researcher and the user community. In particular, we emphasize the transformative power of social media and argue for design approaches that take into account the new dimension of e-participation throughout the design process.
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Marco Romano, Teresa Onorati, Paloma Díaz, & Ignacio Aedo. (2014). Improving emergency response: Citizens performing actions. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 170–174). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: The role of common citizens within the emergency management (EM) process is crucial in order to support efficiently the operators' activities during the response phase. Moreover, their participation is strictly related to their profile and their experience in previous events. In a previous contribution we identified the different roles that the citizens can play for an effective cooperation with the EM workers. In this paper, we introduce an emergency tool based on a mobile application designed to support the activities of the citizens acting as Agent. The Agents have specific capabilities recognized by the EM Operation Center (OC) to execute actions under the remote supervision of the EM operators. The proposed tool allows the Agents to receive information from the OC and to visualize it through an advanced visualization modality. In particular, available information is previously collected by the center from the witnesses and the affected people that have alerted about it.
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Andrea H. Tapia, Nicolas LaLone, Elizabeth MacDonald, Reid Priedhorsky, & Hall Hall. (2014). Crowdsourcing rare events: Using curiosity to draw participants into science and early warning systems. In and P.C. Shih. L. Plotnick M. S. P. S.R. Hiltz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings – 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 135–144). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: This research presents a centralized boundary object website and mobile app focused on allowing participants to participate in developing an early warning system through space weather and the beauty of the aurora borealis. Because of the beauty and majesty of auroral activity, people will seek information about when and where these unpredictable events occur. This activity, commonly referred to as nowcasting, can be combined with scientific data collected from observatories and satellites and serve as an early warning system with potentially far greater accuracy and timeliness than the current state of the art. We believe that long-term engagement with a citizen science tool will help bridge the many social worlds surrounding the aurora borealis and lead to the development of an early warning system that may correlate the visibility of the northern lights to violent space weather. We hope this will lead to other real time crowdsourced early warning systems in the future.
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