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Elina Ramsell, Sofie Pilemalm, & Tobias Andersson Granberg. (2017). Using Volunteers for Emergency Response in Rural Areas – Network Collaboration Factors and IT support in the Case of Enhanced Neighbors. 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. 985–995). Albi, France: Iscram.
Abstract: In public services, there is a trend to increasingly utilize collaborations with non-professional volunteers for certain tasks, one example being emergency response. In many of these collaborations, information technology (IT) is an essential tool, and inadequate IT support can have far-reaching consequences--including even the loss of lives. Since a volunteer is a different type of actor, and may have different technical requirements, compared to professionals, there is a need to explore how collaborations between professionals and volunteers can be successfully developed. This paper is based on a case study of the Enhanced Neighbor project, which uses volunteers as first responders in emergency response. The study highlights important factors to consider when involving volunteers, including how IT can foster the collaboration, and the volunteers' needs for IT support.
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Elina Ramsell, Tobias Andersson Granberg, & Sofie Pilemalm. (2019). Identifying functions for smartphone based applications in volunteer emergency response. 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: Emergency response organisations struggle with resource constraints and thereby faces challenges in providing
high-quality public services. Utilising voluntary first responders is one way to address these challenges. There
are different types of volunteers who can help at an emergency site, e.g. citizen volunteers or voluntary
professionals from other occupations. To successfully engage with and utilise these resources, adequate
information and communication technology (ICT) is necessary. In this meta-study, combining and further
exploring two previous studies, the aim is to identify, analyse and evaluate suitable functions for smartphone
applications that can be used to dispatch and support volunteers. The results show that the functions can be
divided into essential ones that are necessary for the response to work at all, and others that might contribute to a
more effective response. The study also shows that the same functions can be used for different volunteer
groups.
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