Geoffrey Hoare, Rhonda White, Jack Pittman, Linn Marks Collins, Jorge H. Roman, James E. Powell, et al. (2009). Using text analysis to reduce information overload in pan flu planning and response. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
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James E. Powell, Linn Marks Collins, & Mark L.B. Martinez. (2009). Using architectures for semantic interoperability to create journal clubs for emergency response. In S. J. J. Landgren (Ed.), ISCRAM 2009 – 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Boundary Spanning Initiatives and New Perspectives. Gothenburg: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In certain types of “slow burn” emergencies, careful accumulation and evaluation of information can offer a crucial advantage. The SARS outbreak in the first decade of the 21st century was such an event, and ad hoc journal clubs played a critical role in assisting scientific and technical responders in identifying and developing various strategies for halting what could have become a dangerous pandemic. This research-in-progress paper describes a process for leveraging emerging semantic web and digital library architectures and standards to (1) create a focused collection of bibliographic metadata, (2) extract semantic information, (3) convert it to the Resource Description Framework /Extensible Markup Language (RDF/XML), and (4) integrate it so that scientific and technical responders can share and explore critical information in the collections.
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Jorge H. Roman, Linn Marks Collins, Ketan K. Mane, Mark L.B. Martinez, Carolyn E Dunford, & James E. Powell Jr. (2008). Reducing information overload in emergencies by detecting themes in web content. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 101–107). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Information on the Web has become increasingly important in disaster response. Yet much of this information is redundant. We are creating a suite of electronic knowledge management (eKM) tools that can be used to reduce by an order of magnitude the information that people need to read in order to gain and maintain awareness of web content during emergencies. In this paper, we describe research-in-progress on developing these tools and applying them to web content from organizations' websites and individuals' blogs. Results so far indicate that organizations' websites and individuals' blogs provide redundant coverage of general issues and that each provides additional information about specific issues. By using the tools we are developing, responders and victims will be able to quickly gather an overview of general issues derived from many websites, then learn more about specific issues by navigating to a few websites.
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Linn Marks Collins, James E. Powell Jr., Carolyn E Dunford, Ketan K. Mane, & Mark L.B. Martinez. (2008). Emergency information Synthesis and awareness using E-SOS. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 618–623). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In an emergency, people need to be able to report and find relevant information quickly. Fulfilling these information needs is the design goal of E-SOS: Emergency Situation Overview and Synthesis, a research project in progress. E-SOS will consist of (1) a website where users can report information, (2) web services that find and synthesize related information from multiple sources, and (3) interface tools that visualize and display links to this information. In this paper we describe three of these services and tools: the topic, geographic, and information space awareness tools. When a user writes a report, the topic awareness tool will execute a federated search and display links to related information. The information space awareness tool will highlight these links in a visualization of the information space. If the user refers to a location, the geographic awareness tool will focus a map on this location and display topic-related icons.
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