Jaco Appelman, Elisabeth A. M. Van De Kar, Mariëlle Hengst-Bruggeling, Josine Van De Ven, & Paul Burghardt. (2006). A service elicitation process for crisis management technologies. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 352–361). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: New information technological applications, that aim to support better professional responses to incidents and crises' are being developed at an increasing rate. We observe in almost any disaster that actions by civilians also contribute substantially to alleviation of the effects of a crisis. We are largely unaware what crisis management services would be of use to civilians under these particular circumstances; just as it is difficult for users to specify requirements for services based on novel technologies. These insights guided the design of a service elicitation approach that can be repeatedly used for different user groups. In this paper we introduce a design methodology and discuss outcomes of a first test-session. We reflect in the conclusions on improvements to the design.
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Jean-Luc Wybo. (2006). Improving resilience of organizations by increasing mutual knowledge of stakeholders. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 540–546). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Managing accidents and crisis is a complex task, which is achieved by a large number of stakeholders. In order to identify appropriate responses to risk-prone situations, a classification in two categories has been proposed: risks of damage and risks of crisis (Wybo 2004). Risks of damage correspond to emergency management procedures and plans. Risks of crisis correspond to situations that escape from planning because of the overflow of the organization. Resilience of organizations is defined as their ability to resist to chaos and to maintain the situation under control. From the analysis of a large number of emergencies and crises caused by industrial and natural hazards, we try to identify what conditions increase the resilience of organizations. They have in common to increase the mutual knowledge of stakeholders about their strategies and roles and about the development of the situation.
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Jeremy Hutchings. (2006). Developing performance measures as part of an integrated approach to conservation management of cultural heritage assets. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 362–375). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: For sustainable care of cultural heritage it is essential to set accurate goals. However, the difficulty involved in establishing what is accurate in any given circumstance is often highly underestimated. Unbalanced decision making based on partial consideration of the situation surrounding a cultural heritage asset can at best result in inefficient use of resources and at worst will lead to its rapid loss. But the balance of risk against benefit is not straightforward, the impact of certain activities are far easier to quantify than others. Consequently, the adoption of a well balanced approach that considers all activities equally within the same framework is the key to providing appropriate and sustainable levels of protection. The development of an appropriate and systematic methodology offers a resolution to this problem. The outcome will be a suite of performance indicators assigned to each activity within a multivariate management framework. This paper describes the development and validation of such a methodology and the current status of the author's research.
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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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Jiri Trnka, & Johan Jenvald. (2006). A real-time role-playing exercise as a methodology to support command and control research. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 559–568). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In this paper, methodological issues in research and training of complex command and control structures in emergency management are addressed. In particular, a methodological approach combining real-time role-playing exercise, after action review and observations is presented. An explorative study-ALFA-05-utilizing this approach is described. A brief overview of methodological aspects of preparation and execution is given. Further, experience gained and methodological lessons learned are also discussed. Finally, real-time role-playing exercise in combination with other methods is suggested as a feasible method for researchers and exercise managers to tackle present and future command and control in complex settings, where interaction and communication are in focus. In addition, areas for further development of the real-time role-playing exercises as a research method are suggested.
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Jong Yul Kim, Wonsang Song, & Henning Schulzrinne. (2006). An enhanced VoIP emergency services prototype. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 102–109). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In this document we describe enhancements made to the prototype for emergency services in VoIP originally proposed and implemented in (Mintz-Habib, Rawat, Schulzrinne and Wu, 2005). In particular, we describe alternative methods of acquiring the physical location of an emergency caller and a novel way of using location information to determine call destination. We also introduce psapd, an enhanced third party call controller at the public safety answering point (PSAP), and discuss new features made possible by psapd. Preparations are underway in Texas and Virginia to install and test the enhanced prototype.
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Josine Van De Ven, & Martijn Neef. (2006). A critical thinking environment for crisis response. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 223–229). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Building up a proper understanding of a large-scale incident is an important and difficult process. We envision a working environment for decision makers in crisis management situations that allows them to work with information in various ways. That will stimulate them to think critically in processing the information they receive-All in support of rapid sensemaking and decision making. To realize this ambition, we combine various technologies into an integrated support concept called the Critical Thinking Environment (CTE), aimed at tackling critical issues in sensemaking.
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Jouke Rypkema, Guido Te Brake, & Marcel Van Der Lee. (2006). Reachback in crisis management: Lessons learned from the military domain. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 554–558). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Military and crisis management organizations show many similarities. Within the military domain, a study is being done on the use of reachback concepts for the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) brigade staff. This paper shows that the results are applicable to the crisis management domain. However, there are differences between the two domains as well. Therefore, the reachback concepts should be tailored to the crisis management domain. The Interactive Collaborative Information Systems (ICIS) game-based simulation platform offers a suitable environment to develop these concepts and test them.
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Karin Mertens, & Wim Mees. (2006). Communication and information system for disaster relief operations. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 461–464). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Disaster relief operations are very different from the traditional war operations. In disaster relief operations everything has to go very fast, the relief workers have to leave on very short notice and cooperation with other organizations is needed in order to save as many human lives as possible. The communication and information system of those operations has to be small, flexible, rapidly deployable and mobile. Above that, it has to ensure the information exchange between the coordination center in the home nation and the relief workers in the field in all kinds of situations with changing bandwidths and impermanent connections. In this document the structure and the data warehousing of such an information system are described.
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Laura Montells, Susana Montero, Paloma Díaz, Ignacio Aedo, & Jorge De Castro. (2006). SIGAME: Web-based System for resources management on emergencies. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 1–5). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: This paper describes SIGAME, a web-based application for national cooperation in case of disaster. The main motivation of SIGAME is to provide a quick, flexible, reliable, many-to-many, updated communication channel for improving and coordinating the response of assistance suppliers (located at several territories) when an emergency occurs. In order to make communication as efficient as possible and taking into account the organizational diversities of the suppliers, the political implication and the characteristics of the future users, a user centered design method for web-based interactive systems seems to be the best solution for attending the designer through the different phases and products of the design process. In particular, we will focus on the techniques used both to involve stakeholders in the design and to collect requirements.
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Manuel Llavador, Patricio Letelier, Carmen Penadés, José H. Canós-Cerdá, Marcos R. S. Borges, & Carlos Solís. (2006). Precise yet flexible specification of emergency resolution procedures. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 110–120). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Emergency Managers face a number of critical problems related to the compilation, validation, and use of Emergency Procedures. Traditional approaches do not provide enough expressiveness to accurately specify emergency procedures covering each possible scenario. As a result of this situation, Emergency Procedures are not as useful as they should be, neither in prevention nor during resolution of an emergency. In this work, we present an approach that merges two techniques to provide the broad expressiveness required when specifying Emergency Procedures. To represent sequences on actions performed by different participants we use workflow techniques. On the other hand, we use rules to represent available or mandatory actions according to the state of the system during the emergency. These rules are expressed in dynamic logic as the underlying formalism. Our approach provides more expressiveness and precision for the specification of Emergency Procedures, offering better conditions for their verification and validation. As a case study we have used part of a city subway Emergency Procedure.
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Marcia Brooks. (2006). Challenges for warning populations with sensory disabilities. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 137–140). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: People with sensory disabilities, like anyone else, need access to timely emergency and weather warnings information. Primary information sources, radio and television broadcasts, do not consistently serve the needs of the 28 million people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, or the 11 million people who are blind or have low vision. Alert systems, services and products are developing text and audio alert capabilities to serve these populations but many inconsistently support appropriate modalities and accessible interfaces. Funded by the US Department of Commerce, WGBH is uniting emergency alert providers, local information resources, telecommunications industry and public broadcasting representatives, and consumers to research and disseminate replicable approaches to make emergency warnings and community-based information accessible. Through research with consumers and the public warning community, and delivery and device testing, an information model is being developed with recommended accessibility extensions to emergency system protocols, technologies and services for cross-platform delivery. © 2006 WGBH Educational Foundation.
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Marinus Maris, & Gregor Pavlin. (2006). Distributed perception networks for crisis management. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 376–381). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Situation assessment in crisis management applications can be supported by automated information fusion systems, such as Distributed Perception Networks. DPNs are self-organizing fusion systems that can infer hidden events through interpretation of huge amounts of heterogeneous and noisy observations. DPNs are a logical layer on top of existing communication, sensing, processing and data storage infrastructure. They can reliably and efficiently process information of various quality obtained from humans and sensors through the existing communication systems, such as mobile phone networks or internet. In addition, modularity of DPNs supports efficient design and maintenance of very complex fusion systems. In this paper, a fully functional prototype of a DPN system is presented that fuses information from gas sensors and human observations. The task of the system is to compute probability values for the hypothesis that a particular gas is present in the environment. It is discussed how such a system could be used for crisis management.
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Mark Gaynor, Reuven Messer, Dan Myung, & Steve Moulton. (2006). Applications for emergency medical services. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 579–591). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Today, despite the obvious need, pre-hospital providers cannot send real-time electronic patient care information from the field to a receiving hospital. This lack of field awareness and inability to plan for the arrival-or anticipate the needs-of seriously ill or injured patients can lead to the misdirection of patients and the loss of valuable time in the early phases of resuscitation. We believe, however, that current technology can address these shortcomings and that is the focus of our research efforts. This paper discusses how several countries, including Israel, Sweden, Britain and the United States, are addressing the need to better triage patients from the field to an appropriate hospital or trauma center. It also introduces a potential solution, called iRevive, which uses emerging technology such as sensors, wireless WAN data transport, web services, artificial intelligence, and mobile devices to meet the dynamic needs of first responders and the hospitals they serve.
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Martin Smits, & Bartel A. Van De Walle. (2006). A framework to evaluate how management games improve knowledge management effectiveness. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 605–614). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Knowledge-intensive organizations realize that 'knowledge' is a strategic resource that gives them sustainable competitive advantage and helps them achieve long-term organizational goals. These organizations use knowledge management (KM) to encourage the creation and sharing of knowledge resulting in improvements in productivity, innovation, competitiveness, and relationships among people. This paper investigates what role management games play in knowledge-intensive organizations and how they can be used to improve KM effectiveness. We present a theoretical framework that allows answering the following question: 'How can management games be used to improve the effectiveness of KM in knowledge-intensive organizations'.
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Martin Voshell, & Stijn Oomes. (2006). Coordinating (Shared) perspectives in robot assisted search & rescue. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 188–196). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: From high fidelity field exercises to disaster response deployments, search and rescue robots are being readily integrated into rescue operations. Previous research has proposed that for such new technology to be successful in an operation the organization architecture needs to support the coordination of shared perspectives between the human team members and the robotic platforms. For this, the robot platforms need to be effective team players in the field of practice. Based on this conceptual model, this paper introduces a novel software interface utilizing virtual position and orientation indicators to alleviate perceptual ambiguities and navigation problems experienced by robot handlers and problem holders. By actively orchestrating and sharing these indicators between handler and operator displays, the interface caters to user expertise and to the natural competency of the human perceptual system. These probes provide a basic tool for aiding robot navigation and way-finding fundamental to effective team coordination and communication in urban search and rescue missions.
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Maurice McGinley, Andrew Turk, & David Bennett. (2006). Design criteria for public emergency warning systems. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 154–163). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: This paper describes the development of a public emergency messaging system in Western Australia. A set of design criteria were identified by a review of relevant published literature, a survey of current practice in Australia, and consultation with local stakeholders. The system should support: Multiple Recipients, Multiple Channels, Multiple Hazards, Multiple Stakeholders, Multiple Senders, Multiple Platforms, and Write Once Message Composition. A prototype system was built according to these design criteria, based on the Common Alerting Protocol version 1.0. The design was validated in trials simulating messages sent during a tropical cyclone and a bushfire. A total of 56 trial participants from identified stakeholder groups were surveyed with regard to their experience of the prototype system. Overall, the prototype system functioned successfully and participants reported high levels of satisfaction. The paper describes this research project and the initial stages of the subsequent development of a production system, called APECS.
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Max Wyss. (2006). The kashmir M7.6 shock of 8 october 2005 calibrates estimates of losses in future himalayan earthquakes. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 397–401). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In an article published in March 2005, we estimated the number of fatalities to be expected in future large earthquakes in the Himalaya (Wyss, 2005). For the scenario called Kashmir, we estimated that 67,000 to 137,000 fatalities should be expected. The M7.6 Kashmir earthquake of 8 October 2005 caused approximately 85,000 fatalities. Thus, one may argue that we forecast this disaster well. However, we assumed M8.1, a depth of 25 km and an epicenter located about 200 km to the SE from the October epicenter. Using the moment tensor solution for the October earthquake with a depth of 12 km for the energy release, we estimate the number of fatalities between 29,000 and 56,000. Thus, a factor of 2 must be applied to obtain the observed number, and the depth of the energy release in the scenario earthquakes should be placed at 12 km, which results in on over-All correction factor of 2.4. Therefore, we correct our estimates for numbers of fatalities in future Himalayan earthquake to range from 100,000 to 500,000, as specified for the locations given in Table 2.
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Michael J. Chumer, & Murray Turoff. (2006). Command and control (C2): Adapting the distributed military model for emergency response and emergency management. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 465–476). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: The military use of Command and Control (C2) has been refined over centuries of use and developed through years of combat situations. This C2 model is framed as process, function, and organization, suggesting that emergency response organizations and emergency management structure their non military C2 and subsequent response scenarios within the C2 framework established in this paper.
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Michael Tyworth, & Steve Sawyer. (2006). Integrated criminal justice system design: Designing an appropriate governance structure. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 444–449). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: In this paper we discuss interim findings from an ongoing comparative case study of the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) in San Diego, CA. Significant attention had been given to the need to integrate information systems across organizational boundaries in the criminal justice domain. We employ a social informatics lens in this research that views the technological artifact as embedded in cultural and institutional context. In our examination of ARJIS we have found that the adoption of a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) as a governance structure has impacted system design and organizational practices significantly. Specifically, the JPA facilitates participation by member agencies and, allows the ARJIS management team autonomy and flexibility in developing and managing the ARJIS information system.
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Mitchell L. Moss, & Anthony M. Townsend. (2006). Disaster forensics: Leveraging crisis information systems for social science. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 305–312). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on information systems in crisis management by providing an overview of emerging technologies for sensing and recording sociological data about disasters. These technologies are transforming our capacity to gather data about what happens during disasters, and our ability to reconstruct the social dynamics of affected communities. Our approach takes a broad review of disaster research literature, current research efforts and new reports from recent disasters, especially Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean Tsunami. We forecast that sensor networks will revolutionize conceptual and empiricial approaches to research in the social sciences, by providing unprecedented volumes of high-quality data on movements, communication and response activities by both formal and informal actors. We conclude with a set of recommendations to designers of crisis management information systems to design systems that can support social science research, and argue for the inclusion of post-disaster social research as a design consideration in such systems.
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Murray Turoff, & Bartel A. Van De Walle. (2006). Welcome message from the ISCRAM2006 conference and program chairs. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (-). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
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Murray Turoff, Michael J. Chumer, & Starr Roxanne Hiltz. (2006). Emergency planning as a continuous game. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 477–486). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Currently there are serious problems with organizational abilities to plan the response to emergencies. This paper presents a fundamental premise that the use of a game employing competing human teams operating on a continuous asynchronous basis over long periods of time is the way to develop high confidence emergency plans within a given organization.
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Nabil Seddigh, Biswajit Nandy, & John Lambadaris. (2006). An internet public alerting system: A canadian experience. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 141–146). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Public officials have the responsibility of giving public directions and issuing warnings in the event of an emergency. Traditionally, siren systems, radio and television have been used as the primary means for issuing public alerts. Recently, there has been increased interest in evaluating the Internet's suitability for issuing public alerts during times of emergency. This paper presents a Canadian experience with the design and trials of an Internet-based emergency public alerting system (IPAS). We discuss a proposed set of requirements and system architecture. We also include a discussion of the challenges to be overcome in developing such systems and report on experiments and field trials using the IPAS system developed during this project. Our objective is to provide motivation for future research and industry work in this area.
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Niels Netten, & Maarten Van Someren. (2006). Automated support for dynamic information distribution in incident management. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 230–237). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: For all emergency response personnel involved in crisis situations it is essential to timely acquire all information critical to their task performance. However, in practice errors occur in the distribution of information between these collaborating actors leading to mistakes and subsequently more damage to the situation. In this paper we present a prototype system for dynamic information distribution able to support the information flow between collaborating crisis actors. The system has been evaluated by means of simulated experiments that use data from a real incident scenario. The results indicate that automated support by means of Machine Learning method works well. Especially, when actor work context features are included, then the performance on selecting and distributing relevant information is high. Furthermore, actors acquire relevant information much faster making group communication much more efficient.
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