Tom Duffy, Richard McMaster, Chris Baber, & Robert Houghton. (2012). Towards an ontology broker to improve cross-agency sharing in emergency 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: Major incidents and disasters tend to be highly complex, contain high levels of uncertainty and may often force official responders to set aside their standard operating procedures and work collaboratively with a range of agencies and actors on the ground. Prior work has shown that establishing clear lines of communication and maintaining a shared understanding across organisational boundaries can be challenging to achieve, particularly in stressful and unusual circumstances. In the present paper we discuss ongoing work into specifying a meta-process for facilitating communication and collaboration based on the observation that common themes that emerge in communication within and across organisational boundaries can subsequently be tracked and built into an Ontology Broker. This work draws on experimental work in our laboratory, observations made in emergency control environments and, emphasised in this paper, lessons learned in the 2005 London bombings. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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Sebastian Kurowski, Heiko Roßnagel, Jan Zibuschka, & Wolf Engelbach. (2012). A concept for interoperability of security systems in public transport. 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: In the field of public transport, operators and first responders collaborate in the prevention of and reaction to security issues. In order to optimise their specific daily operational business needs in a timely manner heterogeneous information and communication systems are deployed. In case of an incident however it is crucial that the various involved parties exchange relevant information to develop a shared understanding and act in a coordinated way. Yet, heterogeneous communication and information system infrastructures often hinder this crucial flow of information. To address this shortcoming it is crucial to enable the design of interoperable system-of-systems approaches in this domain. This paper describes a conceptual model to construct system-of-systems environments in the domain of security in public transport. By building on the results of several European research projects this concept offers a starting point for modelling and documenting individual systems inside a system-of-systems architecture. © 2012 ISCRAM.
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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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