Sara Tena, Ignacio Aedo, David Díez, & Paloma Díaz. (2014). TIPExtop: An exploratory design tool for emergency planning. 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. 454–462). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: Emergency planning is an ongoing activity in which a multidisciplinary group of experts intermittently collaborate to define the most appropriate response to risks. One of the most important tasks of emergency planning is risk reduction. Such a task compiles the analysis of capabilities to face an emergency, the prioritizing of activities, and the definition of procedures and strategies. It is therefore a reflection process based on exchanging information between planners and exploring alternatives. Despite the exploration of alternatives is an especially relevant activity to design better plans, recent research on computer-mediated collaborative tools for planning do not usually offer support for this activity. Thus, with the purpose of supporting reflection during the development of risk reduction tasks, this paper presents an exploratory design tool that allow planners to assess the space of alternatives and the underlying information related those alternatives. This planning tool will help planners to examine and contextualize information, allowing them to define more suitable response strategies.
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Tikka, M., Ahsanullah, R., Varanasi, U., Härmä, V., Sawhney, N., & Leinonen, T. (2023). Contextual Inquiry of Affordances for Collaboration in Crisis: Lessons from the Finnish Context. In Jaziar Radianti, Ioannis Dokas, Nicolas Lalone, & Deepak Khazanchi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International ISCRAM Conference (pp. 33–42). Omaha, USA: University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic followed by the energy crisis in Europe demonstrates how complex crises can be. Being embedded in a digital media environment and global interdependencies, complex crises elude straightforward interpretations and explanations. Nonetheless, crises require fast and coordinated response from multiple public authorities. In recent years, advances in computational methods and information technology have influenced the field of crisis and disaster management, and diverse technical approaches have been developed to enhance authorities’ response to crises. Drawing on a relational approach to crises, we investigate the socio-technical affordances emerging in Finland to facilitate multi-actor collaboration in crises. Based on our analysis, we argue that contemporary practices and technologies do not match with the complexity of recent crises. Taken together, we consider the role of digital technologies and socio-technical practices to better support multi-actor sensemaking and collaboration in future crises.
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Sébastien Tremblay, Peter Berggren, Martin Holmberg, Rego Granlund, Marie-Eve Jobidon, & Paddy Turner. (2012). A multiteam international simulation of joint operations in crisis response. In Z.Franco J. R. L. Rothkrantz (Ed.), ISCRAM 2012 Conference Proceedings – 9th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Vancouver, BC: Simon Fraser University.
Abstract: Concepts such as trust, shared understanding, cultural differences, mental workload, and organizational structure all impact upon the effectiveness of an organization (e.g., Tindale & Kameda, 2000), and even more so in the context of large scale multinational operations (e.g, Smith, Granlund, & Lindgen, 2010). In order to study these concepts we plan a multinational, distributed experiment with participants from three nations collaborating in the same virtual environment: Canadian, British, and Swedish participants will work together as part of a multinational MTS to deal with a complex task and gain control of a crisis situation. Empirical research on MTS remains limited (see, e.g., DeChurch & Marks, 2006) particularly at the multinational level where the investigation of MTS has been so far focused on case studies and exercises (e.g., Goodwin, Essens, & Smith, 2012). Therefore, there is a need to empirically study multinational MTS in order to assess the specific issues that multinational operations face, notably cultural and languages differences. The simulation environment used as experimental platform for this project is C3Fire (www.c3fire.org, Granlund & Granlund, 2011). C3Fire creates an environment whereby teams must work together to resolve a crisis in the firefighting domain, with the goal of evacuating people in critical areas, putting out the forest fire, and protecting buildings and other areas of value from the burning forest fire. This platform makes it possible to study participants' collaborative processes when dealing with a set of crisis scenarios in the context of a simulated emergency response situation. To deal efficiently with the crisis management operation, participants need to prioritize between different objectives, identify and protect critical areas, and plan and implement activities based on given resources. All these tasks are distributed between team members, compelling participants to exchange information and coordinate within and between teams to execute the task. The task is divided into three areas of responsibility as follows: 1) Information and Planning, responsible for situation assessment and providing the operating picture; 2) Operation and Logistic, responsible for intervention and resource management; and 3) Search and Rescue, responsible for research and management of civilians. C3Fire is designed to: 1) achieve an optimal compromise between internal and external validity; 2) show flexibility in scenario configuration (spectrum of units and roles – including search and rescue functions; Tremblay et al., 2010), allowing researchers to capture emergency response and crisis management and rapid response planning; 3) be highly configurable for testing many different types of teams (e.g., hierarchical vs. horizontal organizations); and 4) readily provide objective, non-intrusive metrics for assessing teamwork effectiveness (including macrocognitive functions and team processes) as well as quantitative measures of task performance (that take into account conflicting mission goals). © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Sébastien Truptil, Frédérick Benaben, & Hervé Pingaud. (2009). Collaborative process design for mediation information system engineering. 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: To reduce a crisis, heterogeneous actors must coordinate their actions and exchange information. The ISyCri project aims at facilitating this collaboration by providing a Mediation Information System (MIS), which change the set of partners into a system of systems. The design of this MIS is based on the characterization of the crisis and services of actors. The first step of MIS design consists in deducing a collaborative process involving partners of the crisis reduction (from the characterization of the crisis and services of actors). This step is based on a metamodel, which allows to build models (consistent with each other) and ontologies. The inference of the collaborative process is not a trivial issue: The deducing approach uses ontologies and models transformation to organize services according to characteristics of the crisis. This paper discusses this global approach and an illustrative case of study.
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Murray Turoff, Victor A. Bañuls, Linda Plotnick, & Starr Roxanne Hiltz. (2014). Development of a dynamic scenario model for the interaction of critical infrastructures. 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. 414–423). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract: This paper summarizes the development of a Cross Impact and Interpretive Structural Model of the interactions of 16 critical infrastructures during disasters. It is based on the estimates of seven professionals in Emergency Management areas and was conducted as an online survey and Delphi Process. We describe the process used and the current results, indicating some of the disagreements in the estimates. The initial results indicate some very interesting impacts of events on one another, resulting in the clustering of events into mini-scenarios.
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Maarten Van Someren, Niels Netten, Vanessa Evers, Henriette Cramer, Robert De Hoog, & Guido Bruinsma. (2005). A trainable information distribution system to support crisis management. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 203–206). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Crisis response and management involve multiple collaborative actors who execute tasks in a dynamic setting. For the effectiveness of collaboration and crisis fighting it is essential that all actors have access to relevant information necessary for their tasks. Managing the information flow, i.e. presenting the right information to the right person at the right time, is of great importance. However, the complexity of a crisis event makes it very difficult to keep an overview of all ongoing activities and information flow within the entire crisis environment. In this paper we address the problem of selecting and distributing information to users as a function of their characteristics, tasks and the state of their workflows in a collaborative setting. In particular, we propose a trainable system for information distribution that will be able to support the dynamic nature of collaborative processes and provide users with task-relevant information. We expect that this will reduce problems due to information overload and will lead to more effective collaboration between all actors in the crisis management environment.
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Gerhard Wickler, & Stephen Potter. (2010). Standard Operating Procedures: Collaborative development and distributed use. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper describes a system that supports the distributed development and deployment of Standard Operating Procedures. The system is based on popular, open-source wiki software for the SOP development, and the I-X task-centric agent framework for deployment. A preliminary evaluation using an SOP for virtual collaboration is described and shows the potential of the approach.
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Willem Treurniet, & Kim van Buul. (2015). Four Archetypal Networked Organisations. In L. Palen, M. Buscher, T. Comes, & A. Hughes (Eds.), ISCRAM 2015 Conference Proceedings ? 12th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Kristiansand, Norway: University of Agder (UiA).
Abstract: Complex and multifaceted problems such as emergencies typically require coordinated effort by a network of different organisations. These networks typically rely less on formal hierarchical structures and instead have a stronger focus on allowing the dynamics to emerge in the process of collaboration. A balance has to be achieved between the internal dynamics of the various member organisations that make up the network on the one hand, and the emerging dynamics of the network collaboration itself on the other ? and the precise nature of this balance will depend on the context. To help those making decision on how to achieve that balance, we have developed a framework describing four archetypal networked organisations: fragmented, deconflicted, coordinated, and collaborative and agile. The four archetypes have two purposes. Firstly, they can be used to guide networked organisations as they adapt to changing administrative and societal contexts. Secondly, they can be used to express the dynamics of the development of a response organisation in a particular emergency situation.
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Timothy E Wright, & Greg Madey. (2008). A prototype virtual emergency operations center using a collaborative virtual environment. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 71–82). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In the realm of emergency operations, planning and training is a critical ingredient for success. The use of virtual environments can offer a convenient means of practicing and simulating activities in an emergency operations center (EOC). Although many virtual environments strive to offer realism in their simulations of weather, population, and incident happenings, they often fall short in terms of collaboration among simulation participants: unless participants are at the same physical location, their ability to see and interact with one and other is limited. Moreover, interactivity that is possible may not be truly synchronous (e.g., network lag can cause activities to happen out of order). These are compelling drawbacks to computer-based EOC simulators/trainers, since collaboration is a cornerstone for successful EOC teams. To address these problems, we present the virtual EOC. Our prototype aims to provide a collaborative virtual environment that enables interactivity among participants while executing synchronous, script-driven tests and simulations.
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Xiang Yao, & Murray Turoff. (2007). Using task structure to improve Collaborative Scenario Creation. 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. 591–594). Delft: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: This paper provides a task structure design for collaborative scenario elicitation. Task structure design is part of this effort to design a new Collaborative Scenario Creation (CSC) system. The complexity of the scenario creation process hinders participants, especially novice participants, from prudently designing scenarios. Research in Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) shows that task structure helps to improve processes and collaborations. To design task structure for collaborative scenario elicitation, this paper invokes the Entity-Relationship data modeling methodology.
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Xiang Yao, Murray Turoff, & Starr Roxanne Hiltz. (2010). A field trial of a collaborative online scenario creation system for emergency management. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: In Emergency Management and Business Continuity Planning, scenarios are a widely used tool. Existing scenario creation systems allow distributed groups to create scenarios together but have limited collaboration support. This study developed and evaluated a solution to provide various types of collaboration support around a knowledge structure at the core of a collaborative scenario creation system called Collario. Following the Design Science paradigm, it evolved through four iterations into a working prototype. Several evaluation methods, including protocol analysis and field study, were employed to evaluate the design effects and obtain user feedback. The results of the first field trial are described in this paper. They indicate that the system is useful to support creation and discussion of emergency scenarios in virtual teams and to share knowledge and experiences among geographically distributed emergency professionals and researchers. It was also found that the system is not hard to learn and use.
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Yikun Liu, Sung Pil Moon, Mark Pfaff, Jill L. Drury, & Gary L. Klein. (2011). Collaborative option awareness for emergency response decision making. In E. Portela L. S. M.A. Santos (Ed.), 8th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: From Early-Warning Systems to Preparedness and Training, ISCRAM 2011. Lisbon: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: We have been using exploratory modeling to forecast multiple plausible outcomes for a set of decision options situated in the emergency response domain. Results were displayed as a set of box-plots illustrating outcome frequencies distributed across an evaluative dimension (e.g., cost, score, or utility). Our previous research showed that such displays provide what we termed “option awareness” – an ability to determine robust options that will have good outcomes across the broadest number of plausible futures. This paper describes an investigation into extending this approach to collaborative decision making by providing a visualization of both collaborative and individual decision spaces. We believe that providing such visualizations will be particularly important when each individuals decision space does not account for the synergy that may emerge from collaboration. We describe how providing collaborative decision spaces improves the robustness of joint decisions and engenders high confidence in these decisions.
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Zeno Franco, Katinka Hooyer, Rizwana Rizia, A B M Kowser Patwary, Mathew Armstrong, Bryan Semaan, et al. (2016). Dryhootch Quick Reaction Force: Collaborative Information Design to Prevent Crisis in Military Veterans. In A. Tapia, P. Antunes, V.A. Bañuls, K. Moore, & J. Porto (Eds.), ISCRAM 2016 Conference Proceedings ? 13th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Abstract: Crises range from global catastrophes to personal disasters. However, systematic inquiry on crises rarely employs a comparative approach to examine commonalities between these seemingly very different events. We argue here that individual psychosocial disasters can inform a broader discussion on crises. Our approach applies general crisis theory to a smartphone based psychosocial support system for US military veterans. We engaged in a process designed to explore how veteran peer-to-peer mentorship can be augmented with IS support to display potential early warning signs as first step toward preventative intervention for high risk behaviors. To gain a better understanding of how military veterans might benefit from such a system, this article focuses on a community collaborative design process. The co-design process used the Small Stories method, allowing important cultural characteristics of to emerge, illuminating considerations in IS design with military veterans, and highlighting how humans think about crisis events at the individual level.
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