Design of Emergency Response Management Information Systems

Dr. Bartel Van de WalleInformation Systems and Management Department

Tilburg University

[email protected]

Joint work with Prof. Murray Turoff (NJIT)

DERMIS:

Dynamic Emergency Response Management Information Systems

RIEŠENIE KRÍZOVÝCH SITUÁCIÍ V ŠPECIFICKOM PROSTREDÍ

mailto:[email protected]

Organizational

Emergency

Situations

• Strike

• Court Case

• Cost overrun

• Delivery delay

• New regulation

• Terrorist action

• Supply shortage

• Natural Disaster

• Production delay

• Product malfunction

• Contract Negotiation

• Loss of a key employee

• Loss of a key customer

• Responding to an RFP

• New Competitive product

Emergencies – crises - disasters

• Unpredictable:

> Events

> Who will be involved

> What information will be needed

> What resources will be needed

> What actions will be taken, when, where, and by who

• No time for training, meeting, or planning

• No contingency plan that fits perfectly

Emergency

Characteristics

Emergencies – crises - disasters

Emergency

Management

Requirements

• Obtain data, status, views

• Monitor conditions

• Obtain expertise, liaison, action takers, reporters

• Draft contingencies

• Validate options

• Obtain approvals, delegate authority

• Coordinate actions, take actions, evaluate actions

• Evaluate outcomes

> Modify scenarios and plans

> Modify community and operations

DERMIS

ER

Wisdom I

• An emergency system must be regularly used to work in a real emergency

• People are working intense 14-18 hour days and cannot be interrupted

• Timely tacking of what is happening is critical

• Delegation of authority a must and

• Providing related data and information up, down, and laterally is critical

• Plans are in constant modification

DERMIS

ER

Wisdom II

• Learning and adaptation of response plans from training and real events is a necessity

• In a crisis exceptions and variations to the norm are common

• The critical problem of the moment collects attention and resources.

DERMIS

ER

Wisdom

III

• Roles are the constant in an emergency and who is in a role may vary unexpectedly

• Training people in multiple roles is very desirable

• Roles and their privileges must be defined in the response system

DERMIS

ER

Wisdom IV

• Supporting confidence in a decision by the best possible timely information

• Necessary Properties

> Free exchange of information

> Delegation of authority

> Decision accountability

> Decision oversight

> Information source identification

> Information overload reduction

DERMIS

Supporting

Wisdom

• Information Overload is typical

• Heterogeneous groups and individuals

• People work together who do not normally do so

• Cannot predict who will be involved

• Community and Public relations is critical (confidence and trust)

DERMIS

Critical

Success

Factors

• The priority problem of the moment is the magnet that gathers the data, information, people, and resources to deal with it

• The integration of qualitative and quantitative information with measures of timeliness, confidence and priority is critical

• Having pre-established existing communities of people and resources to draw upon

• Knowing who and what is available in real time

• Learning from each experience and modifying lore for the future

DERMIS

DESIGN

Objectives

• Easy to Learn

• High degree of tailoring by users

• Used by trained professionals

• Overcome problem of small screens (PDA)

• Virtual command and control center

• Support use of remote databases in an integrated manner

• Support planning, evaluation, training, updating, maintenance, as well as response

• Communication process independent of content

DERMIS

Smart Requirements for Emergency Group Communications

• Determine what individuals are looking for and not finding

• Guide individuals to those interested in the same thing at the same time

• Piece relevant data together

• Alert individuals to anything falling in the cracks

• Provide high confidence of a person knowing they have the best information possible at the moment

DERMIS

Human Computer Challenges

• System is a helper not a boss

• System allows variable problem solving methods

• Reduction of information overload

• Minimization of execution difficulty

• High degree of comprehension

• High degree of tailoring by individual

• Encourage creativity and improvisation

• Support decision confidence

• Monitor performance and effort for possible fatigue

• Multimodal interfaces

DERMIS

Integration Requirements

• Fire, Police, Public Works

• Public Health, Hospitals, Clinics, Doctors, Community resources (e.g. bulldozers, contractors, boats, generators, etc.)

• Utilities, Contractors, Equipment

• State Agencies, National Guard, State Police, Other local regional Governments

• Federal Agencies, Civil Defense, FEMA, Homeland Security

• Non-Profits, Service Organizations, Professionals, Community Groups

• Forms of communication

DERMIS

Specific Interaction Design Criteria

• Metaphors understood by professionals

• Human roles built in

• Notifications integrated into communications

• Context visibility

• Semantic Hypertext relationships

• List processing at user level

DERMIS

Example: the Emergency Metaphor

• All emergencies have events

• Time logged and archived

• Serves dispatch function

• Used after emergency to understood what took place

• Often separate events on different systems for each agency involved

• Consider dynamic database of events integrated across all agencies

DERMIS

Summary on DERMIS

• A transaction system integrated with a structured group communication system

• Roles and event templates can be created and modified at any time, e.g. the system can be evolved by the users

• Can be used for all phases of the emergency response process

> Analyses, Planning, training, evaluation, and recovery

• Can be used for all types of emergencies

• Can be used to support Online Communities

DERMIS

PLANNING

WITH

DERMIS

• Generating scenarios and evaluating them as a collaborative exercise is quite easy to do in DERMIS

• Additional need of voting and scaling aids to allow determining disagreements and focus discussion

• Generate new event types and roles to deal with new risks

DERMIS

TRAINING

WITH

DERMIS

• Easy to establish training exercises based upon role-event structure

• Simulation driven by a sequence of timed events in real time tied to the clock or can be speeded up for some types of training

• Players can easily be simulated with respect to actions and generated events

• Small teams can participate with a much larger groups of simulated players

DERMIS

• Examine log file of events and actions by roles

• Develop appropriate analysis tools to aid this process

• Discover and correct problems by improving system and/or improving training

DERMIS

EVALUATING

WITH

DERMIS

• Can be used to direct and coordinate the recovery activity

• Can involve any diversity organizations and agencies involved

• Provides a complete record and accountability for the recovery process

DERMIS

RECOVERY

WITH

DERMIS

SUMMARY

ON

DERMIS

• Can be used for all phases of the emergency response process

• Can be used for “little” emergencies which are quite common in any type of organizations

• Can be used to support Online Communities

DERMIS

Traditional

Systems

• Tend to be top down

• Follow designs done for single agencies or organizations

• Somewhat bureaucratic

• Assume largely verbal interaction

• Pre-segments groups to “manageable” size

• Tend to encourage rule following and often promotes rigidity

• Can work for single homogenous group

DERMIS

DERMIS

Type

Systems

• Heterogeneous very large communities

• Allows group formation to be dynamic

• Allows for quick delegation of authority by role assignment

• Provides for timely oversight and accountability

• Encourages flexibility of response

• Encourages strong personal ties among responders and resulting cohesive groups.

• Provides support for all phases of the emergency response process as well as everyday use for other regular functions

DERMIS

THE

FUTURE

• Change and disruption is more common than we think, even in commerce, and getting more frequent

• The technology exists to do it

• However, does the organizational motivation and understanding exists to do it?

> The issue is designing new virtual organizations and communities that will change existing organizations and the way things are done.

DERMIS

• Decision models (‘fast and frugal’ heuristics?)

• Requirements and design of Virtual Command and Control Centers

• How to design human computer interactions to stimulate creativity or improvising by both individuals and groups

Research topics in ER I

Research topics in ER

• How to reduce information overload and it’s negative effects when it occurs

• Design of training scenarios to encourage flexibility of response and reduce rigidity

Research topics in ER II


• Design and development of systems to support local, regional, and national virtual communities of experts and professionals in ER

• Lightweight integration of resource databases

• Design and utilization of collaborative knowledge systems for professional communities

Research topics in ER III


• Development of Emergency Prevention & Response audit controls in a continuous auditing environment

• Integrating Emergency Response Systems into day to day processes in organizations

Research topics in ER IV


• Multimedia information capturing of information in training and real crisis situations

• Development of realistic training games for large groups utilizing the actual response IS system

• Investigations of decision processes in the full cycle of emergency response functions:

> Analysis, planning, preparation, training, response, and evaluation

> Development of improved support tools for all the phases

Research topics in ER V


Research topic: Virtual teams and communities

• Large numbers of on call advisors did exist in OEP for obtaining information in an emergency

• Today the Web makes this a very economical approach and can encourage local, regional and national communities of volunteer experts


Virtual Communities

• Use ERMIS software for virtual communities and people will be trained to join given the right emergency situation

• Allow communities to build a knowledge system in their area

• In organizations employ ERMIS for all teams and committees dealing with problems that cut across the organization

Virtual teams and communities

Conclusion

ERMIS is an Interdisciplinary Effort

• Information System Designers and Researchers

• Software Engineers and Developers

• Emergency Preparedness Professionals and Managers

• Local and Regional Government Professionals and Administrators

ISCRAM – Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management

•Purpose of the ISCRAM Community

Promote research, development and deployment of information systems for crisis response and management

Promote and facilitate international cooperation between

scientific institutions, research institutes and universities with activities in the area of crisis response and management

scientists and the practitioners in this field

research in scientific institutions and universities and the technology and solution providers

•Purpose of the ISCRAM Community

Help define programmes and projects and develop action plans, both national and international, for scientific and technological research in this area, and in collaboration with members of the ISCRAM Community

Community website:

400 registered users December 2004




•ISCRAM Community: http://www.iscram.org

ISCRAM International Conferences:

Initiated in 2004, first meeting in Brussels

As of 2005, alternating between Europe and USA:

Brussels, Belgium 2005

Newark, New Jersey 2006

Delft, the Netherlands 2007

Washington DC 2008

Gothenburg, Sweden, 2009

San Diego, CA 2010

Mike Melshkin Award for best PhD paper

ISCRAM PhD SUMMER SCHOOLS

originally joint initiative ISCRAM-TIEMS NL

about PhD Students

Lectures from international experts

Varied technical – social program

ISCRAM-CHINA INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Hosted by Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China

For and by Chinese researchers in this area

With an increasing foreign participation

Special Sessions in IS Conferences

AMICS (2004 – 2008) and HICSS (2005-2008)

Special Issues in Journals

JITTA (IT Theory and Applications)

JHSEM (Homeland Security and Management)

GDN (Group Decision and Negotiation)

IJEM (Int’l J. Emergency Management)

Targeted Publications/Conferences/Journals

•Special Section in Communications of the ACM, March 2007

IN 2009:

Launch of the International Journal of ISCRAM

To become a quality academic journal

Academic rigor and practitioner relevance

Quarterly, first issue to be published in January 2009

EICs: Bartel Van de Walle and Murray Jennex (UCSD, USA)

4 AEs from USA, Europe, China and Africa

Editorial Board: global representation

•JOIN IN!

[email protected]

References

M. Turoff, M. Chumer, B. Van de Walle and X. Yao, “The design of a

dynamic emergency response information system”, JITTA 5(4), 2004, 1

– 35.

B. Van de Walle, “A relational analysis of decision makers’

preferences”, Int. Journal of Intelligent Systems 18 (2003), 775 – 791.

• Special Issue of JITTA, forthcoming spring 2005

• Special issue of Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency

Management, vol 2 issue 1, 2005

www..iscram.org

Education

Design of Emergency Response Management Information Systems