Marcos R. S. Borges

Taking advantage of collective knowledge in emergency response systems

When large groups work on a theme, they have the potential to produce a lot of useful knowledge, regardless of whether they are acting in a coordinated manner or individually. Spontaneously generated information has received much attention in recent years, as organizations and businesses discover the power of crowds. New technologies, such as blogs, Twitter, wikis, photo sharing, collaborative tagging and social networking sites, enable the creation and dissemination of content in a relatively simple way. As a result, the aggregate body of knowledge is growing at an accelerated rate. Many organizations are looking for ways to harness this power, which is being called collective intelligence. Research has shown that it is possible to obtain high quality results from collectively produced work. In this paper, we consider the domain of emergency response. Research has shown that individuals respond quickly and massively to emergencies, and that they try to help with the situation. Thus, it seems like a logical step to attempt to harness collective knowledge for emergency management. Disaster relief groups and field command frequently suffer from lack of up to date information, which may be critical in a rapidly evolving situation. Some of this information could be generated by the crowd at large, enabling more effective response to the situation. In this paper, we discuss the possibilities for the introduction of collective knowledge in disaster relief and present architecture and examples of how this could be accomplished.

Human factors approach for evaluation and redesign of human–system interfaces of a nuclear power plant simulator

Abstract Nuclear power production is a safety-critical process where ultimate execution of process change decisions lie with the operators. Thus it is important to provide the best possible decision support through effective supervisory control operator interfaces. This requires a human factors/ergonomics approach in the modernization of analog instrumentation and control systems of the existing nuclear power plants. In this article, we describe how this approach is being used for modernization of the ANGRA I power plant. Using a cognitive task analysis (CTA) approach, we observed operators working on an advanced control room of a nuclear power plant digital simulator and noted several opportunities for improvement in the human/system interfaces related to the graphics design, alarm systems and procedure integration. A redesigned prototype was constructed as an alternative to the current simulator and hardcopy procedure manuals. The design improves upon the graphical layout of system information and provides better integration of procedures, automation and alarm systems. The design was validated by expert opinion and a scenario-based comparison. Relevance to industry Human factors/ergonomics are not playing the role they deserve in the design of process control systems making them less controllable than they could be if human factors were adequately incorporated. The use of human factors approach in the design of process control systems throughout the industry presents many opportunities for improvements with regard to system effectiveness, efficiency, reliability and safety.

Applying Group Storytelling in Knowledge Management

Knowledge management and, specifically, organizational memory have become vital for organizations’ life. Documenting tacit knowledge used to perform daily activities, such as, discussions and decisions is a complex task. Another challenge is dealing with collective knowledge, because an important part of organizational work is executed in a cooperative mode. In this paper, we present stories as an important tool to externalize tacit knowledge. We describe TELLSTORY, a system that supports the collaborative construction of stories. Based on the characteristics of traditional literary and journalistic narrative structure, TELLSTORY helps teams in developing stories to make explicit tacit knowledge elements.

A context-based model for Knowledge Management embodied in work processes

Knowledge Management has become a prominent subject for organizations, but often the information that flows in a well-defined design work process is not characterized and treated in such a way as to promote its reuse. We argue that context is a fundamental information resource for improving how activities and interactions are understood and carried on. Our premise is that it is important for organizational learning that decisions, solutions, discussions and actions executed in work processes should be retrievable. We describe an environment that supports the cycle of creating and dealing with information about activities and interactions, focusing on their context. A formal ontology-based representation of context is presented to support the use of this environment. Two case studies are described and their results analyzed. The goal of this paper is to discuss and specify mechanisms that can be used to collect contextual information within such an environment.

Athena: A collaborative approach to requirements elicitation

The quality of the requirements is crucial for a projects success. Requirements elicitation, however, is not an easy task. Viewpoint, mental model and expectation differences among users and analysts make this task hard and conflicting. In many cases, the clients are not completely sure about their real needs. In others, the current work process does not correspond to management expectations. In this paper, we try to overcome these problems by presenting Athena, an approach founded on collective knowledge to progressively build the system requirements from a narrative of user stories to the definition of use cases. Athena is a collaborative approach to elicit requirements. It is based on group storytelling, where stakeholders tell stories about current and past systems that support a given activity. The stories are merged to form a single story. Stories are then transformed into scenarios, and from scenarios to use cases. Our solution consists of a knowledge model based on stories about the system, a collective construction method, and a tool to support interactions. We have conducted experimental analyses to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Key issues in the design of an asynchronous system to support meeting preparation

Abstract A review is made of the most important decisions in the design of asynchronous systems to support the preparation of business decision meetings. These decisions are illustrated with the choices made for the development of SISCO, a system of this type. The presentation considers issues in the discussion model, the group memory, the communication and visualization mechanisms, and the development of a meeting preparation sequence: how to start a session, carry it out and close it. Issues concerning coordination, participation and awareness in meeting preparation sessions are also discussed.

A framework for awareness support in groupware systems

This paper introduces a framework for awareness support in groupware systems. This framework, called Big Watch (BW), intends to support past event awareness. It has been designed to be used when developing new groupware applications and also to improve existent ones. This paper summarizes the characteristics and the structure of BW, and discusses two applications that use it.

Acquiring knowledge on business processes from stakeholders' stories

Business process modeling is expensive and time consuming. It largely depends on the elicitation method and the person in charge. The model needs to be shared in order to promote multiple perspectives. This paper describes a group storytelling approach as an alternative to the traditional individual interviews to elicitate processes. Information gathering is proposed to be done through capturing the stories told by process performers, who describe their work, difficulties and suggestions. A process to abstract and transform stories into business process representations is also part of the method. A tool to support storytelling and this transformation is described as well.

Collaboration and knowledge sharing in network organizations

Abstract A network organization comprises a new type of environment around which people organize themselves so as to reach a common objective. A network organization enables the recommended interaction among people with different backgrounds, which happens when the problems they deal with are complex and multidisciplinary. Most network organizations require interactions in a geographically distributed fashion, fostering the serious challenge of displaying coherence of purpose necessary for global efficacy as from local activity: these features require an environment with special functionality. This paper describes and analyzes a collaborative environment for support to knowledge sharing and coordination of actions in geographically distributed network organizations. A case-study using the collaborative environment is presented, and the results obtained by using this environment are discussed.

Supporting group decision making and coordination in urban disasters relief efforts

When extreme events affect urban areas the response process should be fast and effective because the population and civil infrastructure densities potentially increase the impact of such events. These situations have shown the need to improve the group decisionmaking process and the coordination of relief activities carried out by relief organizations. This paper proposes to include first responders as decision makers and describes a technological platform to support decision making and coordination activities among these all actors involved. The supporting platform provides digital communication and information recording, representation and dissemination capabilities among the mobile workers participating in the relief efforts. The platform could also be used to support activities in scenarios similar to this one (e.g. police and military operations, massive social events).