Robert Bell, & Elizabeth Avery Gomez. (2011). Business continuity for small business owners: Do the tools fit their need? 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: Business continuity planning for private sector organizations has not reached the level of readiness as has the public sector. This disparity has reached national attention as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security addressed it in a statement, “ensuring Americas small businesses have the critical information and training they need to better respond to disasters will strengthen the entire nations preparedness and resilience (DHS, 2010).” The release of this statement and the DHS program (PS-Prep) was a promise to provide the necessary tools to small business owners so they could build effective business continuity plans. The major contributions of this research will be to provide an evaluation of the applicability of PS-Prep to small businesses, and to provide the needs assessment for parallel research of leveraging the current capabilities of a Business Emergency Operations Center in the development of a Virtual Small Business Emergency Operations Center (VSBEOC).
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Stephen E. Hannestad. (2005). Incident command system: A developing national standard of incident management in the U.S. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 19–28). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: This paper is a critical examination of the U.S. Incident Command System (“ICS”) as an organizational structure and information gathering tool for emergency management from the perspective of a career emergency management officer who became a graduate student in information management following 35 years of public service. In addition to examining the ICS, and assessing its current weaknesses in the area of information management, the paper proposes a low-cost, COTS approach to automating the ICS information gathering and dissemination process.
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Geoffrey Hoare, Jeffrey Nield, Tom Belcuore, & Tom Rich. (2008). Information needs and decision support in health and medical disasters. In B. V. de W. F. Fiedrich (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2008 – 5th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 778–786). Washington, DC: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: During a disaster, health and medical decision makers need accurate, timely information. However, it is seldom readily available to the right decision makers, at the right time. Quite a number of databases currently exist with information about health and medical organizations which decision makers need during a disaster. Some of these databases have functions that facilitate decision-making and communication before, during and after a disaster. In theory, linking several existing databases will supply this information. Also, other functions can be provided in one package for incident management and monitoring of the preparedness capacity of a State's health and medical systems. But, this has not happened yet in Florida. This research assessed the different users needs, defined the information required to make good decisions and is testing a pilot decision support system of linked databases.
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John Sabou, Nadia Noori, & Jerri Husch. (2015). Recognizing Competitive Cultures: A case for describing the complexity of coordination between dynamic crisis response actors. 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: Crisis management frameworks are typically associated with concepts related to command and control or ?hierarchical? decision-making. However, advancements in communication technologies and new media platforms have brought new prospects to the design of crisis management frameworks. Social media platforms, for example, enable volunteering citizens to actively take part in crisis response efforts. In our paper we explore comparing and contrasting two forms of crisis management frameworks: a formal, the well-tested Incident Command System of the US, and an informal example, the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) program. The goal of the paper is to outline potential ways to examine the disparities in network structure and collaboration linkages in different forms of crisis management frameworks.
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Stijn Oomes, & Martijn Neef. (2005). Scaling-up support for emergency response organizations. In B. C. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2005 – 2nd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 29–34). Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: We present the design of an information system that supports the process of scaling-up of emergency response organizations. This process is vital for effective emergency response but tends to go awry in practice. Our proposed system consists of multiple distributed agents that are capable of exchanging organizational information. Each agent assists one part of the organization by visualizing the organization and allowing the user to update the information of its closest collaborators. When the agents communicate, they exchange and merge their organizational representations. The structure of other parts of the organization is updated indirectly through multiple interactions between different agents. We tailor our design to two specific procedures that are in common use today: the Coordinated Regional Incident Response Procedure (GRIP) that is applied in the Netherlands, and the Incident Command System (ICS) that is used in a number of areas in the United States of America.
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Jian Wang, Daniela Rosca, Williams Tepfenhart, & Allen Milewski. (2006). Incident command system workflow modeling and analysis: A case study. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 127–136). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: The dynamics and volunteer-based workforce characteristics of incident command systems have raised significant challenges to workflow management systems. Incident command systems must be able to adapt to ever changing surroundings and tasks during an incident. These changes need to be known by all responsible parties, since people work in shifts, get tired or sick during the management of an incident. In order to create this awareness, job action sheets and forms have been created. We propose a paperless system that can dynamically take care of these aspects, and formally verify the correctness of the workflows. Furthermore, during an incident, the majority of workers are volunteers that vary in their knowledge of computers, or workflows. To address these challenges, we developed an intuitive, yet formal approach to workflow modeling, modification, enactment and validation. In this paper, we show how to apply this approach to address the needs of a typical incident command system workflow.
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Zeno Franco, Nina Zumel, John Holman, Kathy Blau, & Larry E. Beutler. (2009). Evaluating the impact of improvisation on the incident command system: A modified single case study using the DDD simulator. 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: This study attempted to evaluate the utility of the Incident Command System (ICS) in varying disaster contexts. ICS is mandated in the United States and practitioners assert that it is an effective organizing system for emergency management. However, researchers contend that the utility of ICS is conflated with inter-team familiarity gained during ICS exercises. A military team-in-the-loop simulator was customized to represent the problems, resources, and command structures found in civilian led disaster management teams. A modified single case design drawn from behavioral psychology was used to explore possible casual relationships between changes team heterogeneity and performance. The design also allowed for the evaluation of improvisation on performance. Further, psychological factors that may underpin improvisation were explored. In addition to some preliminary empirical findings, the successes and difficulties in adapting the DDD simulator are briefly discussed as part of an effort to achieved greater interdisciplinary integration.
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