Duco N. Ferro, Jeroen M. Valk, & Alfons H. Salden. (2007). A robust coalition formation framework for mobile surveillance 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. 479–488). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Given unexpected incidents on routes of guards that check security objects, like banks, one of the most challenging problems is still how to support improvisation by security personnel in taking decisions to prevent or resolve such incidents. Another as important associated problem is how a security company can naturally take advantage of its existing and novel knowledge about its organizational and ICT infrastructures, and the introduction of a decision support system to help leverage of improvisation by humans. To tackle all this, on the one hand we present a dynamic coalition formation framework that allows the (re)configurations of agents that are associated with joint tasks in situational contexts to be evaluated by appropriate value functions. On the other hand, we present a dynamic scale-space paradigm that allows a security company to distill ranked lists of robust context-dependent reconfigurations at critical scales. We highlight the merits of ASK-ASSIST as a solution to the problem of supporting human improvisation.
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Elizabeth Avery Gomez. (2008). Crisis response communication management: Increasing message clarity with training over time. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 368–375). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: The characteristics of a crisis cannot be predicted and no two crises are alike. The responders in a crisis also vary creating two axis of uncertainty that inhibit rapid and accurate scope definition of a crisis. How and what a responder chooses to communicate in a crisis can impact subsequent response efforts placing importance on the clarity and cohesion of information exchange. Training and increased practice of clear and accurate message content between responders is proposed to improve the situation details needed for rapid scope identification. SMS text-messaging is one viable, mobile interoperable communication technology, accessible for everyday use. This research studies message content exchanged between responders and begins with the message-prompt to message-response relationship during crisis response training. A web-enabled training application has been designed to simulate two-way SMS text-message exchange and captures communication responses based on defined task prompts. Leveraging Speech Act Theory and the use of plain language protocols for communication exchange, the SMS text-message responses are assessed for ongoing training and practice.
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Norman C. Hester, Jim Wilkinson, Stephen Patrick Horton, & Theresa I. Jefferson. (2008). Integration of information systems for post earthquake research response. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 362–367). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Natural disasters occur infrequently, limiting our ability to develop an inclusive knowledge base concerning such events. The ability to study, interpret, and document findings immediately following a damaging seismic event, is a critical step in furthering our understanding of events, allowing for effective awareness, mitigation, response, and recovery efforts. In the central United States, a Post Earthquake Technical Information Clearinghouse (PETIC) Plan has been developed to coordinate research activities, and to facilitate collaboration between the emergency management and research communities. Because a damaging earthquake in the central U.S. will impact several states, a Multi-State Technical Information Clearinghouse (MSTIC) Coordination Plan to link state technical information clearinghouses (STICs) is proposed. This paper describes beginning efforts to define the role and functions of a MSTIC as well as formalize plans with emergency management agencies to facilitate collaboration and coordination between STICs, the MSTIC.
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David Mendonça, Yao Hu, & Qing Gu. (2007). Cognitive-level support for improvisation in emergency response. 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. 489–496). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Improvisation-serial and purposeful creativity, exercised under time constraint-is an intensely cognitive endeavor. Accordingly, supporting improvisation requires an understanding of the underlying cognitive processes and an identification of opportunities for support. This paper reports on the development of cognitively-grounded computer-based support for improvisation in a simulated emergency response situation. The application is a computational model which attends to traces of group decision processes, analyzes them, and attempts to achieve fit between its own intentions and those of the group. The current architecture and functioning of the model are discussed, along with an overview of the simulation platform. Current and future workin the areas of model validation and evaluation is described. The results of this work strongly suggest that model-based support for improvisation is possible, but that for the time being will be restricted to synthetic situations, of the kind often used in training exercises.
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Dilek Ozceylan, & Erman Coskun. (2008). Defining critical success factors for National Emergency Management Model and supporting the model with information systems. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 376–383). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Natural or man-made disasters frequently occur in different countries and disaster types and consequences might differ immensely depending on that country's unique characteristics. While probability of a man-made disaster occurrence will be high for technologically advanced countries as a result of using technology in almost every aspect of daily life, probability of natural disaster occurrence will be dependent on geological, geographical, and climate related factors. Based on their different risk types and levels, each nation should create their own National Emergency Management Model (NEMM) and because of country specific conditions each plan must be unique. Thus, for each country NEMM should be focusing on different factors which are important and should show that country the importance list of factors. As a result, countries may better distribute their limited resources to reach optimum emergency management plan and execution. In this study, our goal is to three fold. Our first goal is to come up with full list of categories and factors which are important for a successful National Emergency Management Model. In order to achieve this goal, we determined our categories and factors based on our analysis of previous disasters and literature review. The second goal is to determine the importance level of each category and defining critical success factors for different countries. For this purpose, we are planning to use experts from different countries. This part of study is still underway. Finally, we analyze how information systems might be utilized for each category and factors to support a better National Emergency Management Model. This is a first step of a multi-step research.
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J. Renze Steenhuisen, Mathijs M. De Weerdt, & Cees Witteveen. (2007). Enabling agility through coordinating temporally constrained planning agents. 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. 457–466). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In crisis response, hierarchical organizations are being replaced by dynamic assemblies of autonomous agents that promise more agility. However, these autonomous agents might cause a decrease in effectiveness when individually constructed plans for moderately-coupled tasks are not jointly feasible. Existing coordination techniques can be applied in the pre-planning phase to guarantee feasible joint plans for partially-ordered tasks. Temporal relations in crisis response are often more complex than the simple precedence relations in current work. Therefore, we analyze whether temporal information can be dealt with by a conversion to partially-ordered tasks with only precedence constraints. Time windows and two temporal constraints (overlaps and during) can be rewritten in such a way that the task remains partially-ordered. When other temporal constraints (meets, starts, finishes, and equals) are used, tasks become tightly-coupled, requiring coordination in the execution phase as well. This work shows the applicability of pre-planning coordination as an enabling technology for the effective formation of agile organizations.
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Adriaan Ter Mors, Xiaoyu Mao, Nicola Roos, Cees Witteveen, & Alfons H. Salden. (2007). Multi-agent system support for scheduling aircraft de-icing. 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. 467–478). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Results from disaster research suggest that methods for coordination between individual emergency responders and organizations should recognize the independence and autonomy of these actors. These actor features are key factors in effective adaptation and improvisation of response to emergency situations which are inherently uncertain. Autonomy and adaptability are also well-known aspects of a multi-agent system (MAS). In this paper we present two MAS strategies that can effectively handle aircraft deicing incidents. These MAS strategies help improve to prevent and reduce e.g. airplane delays at deicing stations due to changing weather conditions or incidents at the station, where aircraft agents adopting pre-made plans that would act on behalf of aircraft pilots or companies, would only create havoc. Herein each agent using its own decision mechanism deliberates about the uncertainty in the problem domain and the preferences (or priorities) of the agents. Furthermore, taking both these issues into account each proposed MAS strategy outperforms a naive first-come, first-served coordination strategy. The simulation results help pilots and companies taking decisions with respect to the scheduling of the aircraft for deicing when unexpected incidents occur: they provide insights in the impacts and means for robust selection of incident-specific strategies on e.g. deicing station delays of (individual) aircraft.
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