Jeroen Wolbers

The Common Operational Picture as Collective Sensemaking

The common operational picture is used to overcome coordination and information management problems during emergency response. Increasingly, this approach is incorporated in more advanced information systems. This is rooted in an ‘information warehouse’ perspective, which implies information can be collected, sorted and exchanged in an accessible and univocal form. In practice, however, professionals interpret similar information differently. Therefore, we focus on how emergency responders develop collective sensemaking from information. We employ a ‘trading zone’ perspective, in which information is negotiated, to study information management in an ethnographic study of disaster exercises in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows how professionals attribute different meanings to information that distorts the coordination process. We end by stressing the importance of actionable knowledge and reflexivity.

Questioning Big Data: Crowdsourcing crisis data towards an inclusive humanitarian response

The aim of this paper is to critically explore whether crowdsourced Big Data enables an inclusive humanitarian response at times of crisis. We argue that all data, including Big Data, are socially constructed artefacts that reflect the contexts and processes of their creation. To support our argument, we qualitatively analysed the process of ‘Big Data making’ that occurred by way of crowdsourcing through open data platforms, in the context of two specific humanitarian crises, namely the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. We show that the process of creating Big Data from local and global sources of knowledge entails the transformation of information as it moves from one distinct group of contributors to the next. The implication of this transformation is that locally based, affected people and often the original ‘crowd’ are excluded from the information flow, and from the interpretation process of crowdsourced crisis knowledge, as used by formal responding organizations, and are marginalized in their ability to benefit from Big Data in support of their own means. Our paper contributes a critical perspective to the debate on participatory Big Data, by explaining the process of in and exclusion during data making, towards more responsive humanitarian relief.

Negotiating the 'Trading Zone'. Creating a Shared Information Infrastructure in the Dutch Public Safety Sector .

Abstract Our main concern in this article is whether nation-wide information technology (IT) infrastructures or systems in emergency response and disaster management are the solution to the communication problems the safety sector suffers from. It has been argued that implementing nation-wide IT systems will help to create shared cognition and situational awareness among relief workers. We put this claim to the test by presenting a case study on the introduction of ‘netcentric work’, an IT system-based platform aiming at the creation of situational awareness for professionals in the safety sector in the Netherlands. The outcome of our research is that the negotiation with relevant stakeholders by the Dutch government has lead to the emergence of several fragmented IT systems. It becomes clear that a top-down implementation strategy for a single nation-wide information system will fail because of the fragmentation of the Dutch safety sector it is supposed to be a solution to. As the US safety sector is at least as fragmented as its Dutch counterpart, this may serve as a caveat for the introduction of similar IT systems in the US.

Editorial: Incident Command Systems: A Dynamic Tension among Goals, Rules and Practice

This special issue examines the process of implementation, change and adaptation of Incident Command Systems (ICS) as a strategy for mobilizing and managing disaster operations in comparative perspective, focusing on ICS in practice in the United States, France, the Netherlands and Norway. Shorter essays present perspectives on ICS from China, Japan and New Zealand.The question is whether there is a distinctive organizational framework that is recognizable in all countries as the ICS, or whether there is a general set of principles for mobilizing and organizing emergency response operations that has generated a varied set of ICSs as they have been adapted to different operational contexts, resources, and training procedures for emergency personnel.

Incorporating time dynamics in the analysis of social networks in emergency management

Abstract Timely and adequate communication is essential for the response to emergency situations. The current vision on emergency response embraces the networked organization as an answer to the dilemmas of communication and information flows in crisis situations. With stabilization of the network paradigm, the focus question turns into how networks are perceived and in what manner they function. We argue that there is a need to attend to the way networks and their functioning are assessed. From the agenda that we derive, we pay attention to the manner in which the time critical nature of the communication during emergency situations can be captured in network terms. The focus on how network interaction unfolds over time is demonstrated by attending to a case of a tunnel incident in the Netherlands. It is argued that a structure-oriented network analysis misses much of the actions and that using the data to probe the communication patterns with additional methods for time dependency enhances our insights. Three approaches, time slices, two-mode analysis and information pathways, are then introduced and the outcomes are interpreted.

Are you Ready2Help? Conceptualizing the management of online and onsite volunteer convergence

Citizens have often been found to converge on disaster sites. Such personal convergence is increasingly supported by online informational convergence. The adoption of online platforms represents an opportunity for response organizations to manage these two different manifestations of citizen convergence. We analyse one such platform, “Ready2Help”, developed by the Red Cross in The Netherlands. Our research demonstrates that by utilizing platforms, response organizations are able to transcend the boundaries between different types of organized behaviour during disaster. We extend the original conceptualization of organized behaviour, as previously described by the Disaster Research Center, explaining how the development of new platforms channels convergence of citizens and information. As such, platforms provide an interface between established, expanding, extending, and emergent forms of organized behaviour. These developments change the landscape of organized behaviour in times of disaster.

Shaping the societal impact of emergencies: striking a balance between control and cooperation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute an analysis of how crisis communication can make a difference in terms of the impact of an emergency on society. Design/methodology/approach – The attitude of the response organisations with respect to communities is reflected in the planning model they adopt. Two ideal-typical planning models are distinguished in the literature. In order to analyse what role both planning models play in the dynamics of crisis communications, the authors selected two Dutch cases for a comparative case analysis on message contents and media responses to the crisis communication. Findings – The content analysis revealed different crisis communication styles used by the emergency response organisation. The crisis communication in the first case focused primarily on denotative meaning-making while the crisis communication in the second case focused primarily on connotative meaning-making. Practical implications – The authors argue that, in crisis communication, more attenti...

Introducing a fragmentation perspective on coordination in crisis management

Coordination theories are characterized primarily by a focus on integration, in which coordination is aimed at achieving a coherent and unified set of actions. However, in the extreme settings in which fast-response organizations operate, achieving integration is often challenging. In this study we employ a fragmentation perspective to show that dealing with ambiguity and discontinuity is not only inevitable for these organizations, it is a key characteristic of coordinating. We undertook an inductive, qualitative field study on how officers in command from the fire department, medical services, and police coordinate during emergency response operations. Our data are based on a four-year multi-site field study of 40 emergency management exercises in the Netherlands, combined with 56 retrospective interviews. Our inductive analysis of this data shows that officers use three coordination practices to deal with ambiguity and discontinuity: working around procedures, delegating tasks, and demarcating expertise. We theorize our findings by showing how these practices lead to conditions in which fragmentation can become an effective method of coordination. In doing so, we provide a more complete understanding of the process of coordinating in fast-response settings that will benefit both crisis management practice and organizational theory.

Enhancing Network Centric Operations Doctrine to Support Civil Military Cooperation in Disaster Management

Network Centric Operations is a promising command doctrine in both military operations and during civil disaster management. As both sectors started intensifying their joint operational capacity through civil-military collaboration, it becomes increasingly relevant to address the different command doctrines underlying Network Centric Operations in both sectors. In this Chapter I explore the origins of network governance in both sectors and argue what steps need to be taken in order overcome the differences. I argue that governing the heterogeneous set of organizations that operate in disaster response networks requires a new approach for Network Centric Operations that does not only rely upon information sharing and self-synchronization. Instead, it requires negotiation, sensemaking, and network switching in order to overcome the different functional, normative and knowledge boundaries that come into play in heterogeneous disaster response networks.