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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