Sahana Workshop

Developing Disaster Management Systems. This free workshop is an opportunity for students, faculty, and practitioners from the ISCRAM community to be active contributors to humanitarian efforts. This workshop will be offered on Saturday, April 21, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (9 hours). The detailed schedule of the workshop can be consulted here.

Registration to the workshop will be possible through the ISCRAM registration system. For more information, please contact: Connie White <connie.m.white@gmail.com>

Information Sharing in Coalitions Tutorial

Information sharing in coalitions: processes, information exchange requirements, architectures, social media, security regulations, and cultural norms. Prof. Tim Gran will offer this free tutorial on Sunday, April 22, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (3 hours)

Description: Coalitions are the rule in modern crisis management operations. They comprise multiple organizations from diverse disciplines and nationalities that wish to retain their own sovereignty. Their long-term goals may not be aligned, and their organizational cultures may even be antagonistic. The partners do not form part of a single organizational hierarchy, but constitute a temporary partnership for the duration of the operation. Nevertheless, they need to share information to find their place in the coalition, to prepare plans collaboratively, to synchronize their actions, to evaluate what they have achieved, and to negotiate changes in their relationships with other coalition partners. Today’s lowest common denominator in information sharing is the telephone, email, and face-to-face meetings, but richer partnerships should be possible with social media and Web 2.0 technologies.

The purpose of this tutorial is to look at what is known about information sharing in crisis management and military coalitions, taking a socio-technical systems viewpoint. Following the introduction, three broad aspects are reviewed: organizational, technical, and socio-cultural. Organizational aspects include the coalition structure, internal processes within partner organizations, the interactions between partners, and interoperability. Technical aspects include the information sharing and seeking processes, information exchange requirements and standards, communications media (especially social media and Web 2.0), and architectures (especially service-oriented). The socio-cultural aspects include information-sharing propensities at individual, team, and organizational levels, differences in culture, and the role of common ground in assimilating shared information. Finally, the tutorial concludes with an overview of where research is needed.

Tutor:  Tim Grant. Professor, Operational ICT & Communications, Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA). Email: tj.grant@nlda.nl (from 1 July 2012: tim.grant.iscram@gmail.com)

New Trends and Best Practices in Disaster Simulation Workshop

Robert Walker and Darren Blackburn from the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Canada’s leading public safety institution, will offer this free workshop on Sunday, April 22, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (3 hours).

Description: For decades, tabletop exercises have looked pretty much the same: a facilitator reads out a narrative, paper inputs are handed to participants, and notes are recorded on flip charts. While effective, maintaining interest and buy-in for these exercises is becoming increasingly challenging. In the past few years, a number of new products have entered the market providing easy and inexpensive ways to make exercises more realistic, interactive and immersive. For learning to be effective it must be engaging, and this is where interactive, immersive simulations can be so effective. The ExPod simulation system at the JIBC brings critical incident decision making to life by providing individuals with experiences of real world situations within a safe training setting. While the primary focus is decision making, other benefits can include practicing, testing and critiquing operational plans and procedures; assessing protocols; promoting inter-personal and inter-agency cooperation; and experiencing group dynamics.

The presentation will provide an overview of emergency management exercise design and simulation technologies, and a demonstration of how immersive technology has been incorporated into public safety training at the JIBC. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with the ExPod system during the presentation.

The workshop will focus on:
·      Reviewing basic concepts in emergency management exercise design
·      Examining best practices in emergency management exercise design
·      Exploring new trends in emergency management exercise design and technology
·      Demonstrating the ExPOD simulation system 

Robert Walker 
Office of Graduate Studies & Academic Services
Technology Enabled Learning and Teaching
JIBC | Canada’s Leading Public Safety Educator

Tutors: Robert Walker, Simulation Specialist, Office of Graduate Studies & Academic Services; and Darren Blackburn, Coordinator of Emergency Management & Exercise Design. Justice Institute of British Columbia.