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Introduction to the ISCRAM

(Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management)

Community

Julie DugdaleAcknowledgement to Bartel Van de Walle

ISSUE: Hanoi, April 2009

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ISCRAM Community

• Started in 2004 by • Bartel Van de Walle

University of Tilberg, The Netherlands • Benny Carlé

SCK-CEN – Nuclear Research Centre, Belgium• Murray Turoff

New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

• A ‘community’ – main events• ISCRAM Conference (Includes PhD

Colloquium and workshops)• ISCRAM-CHINA• ISCRAM Summer Schools• ISCRAM Journal

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Motivation

• In crisis management a lot of R&D concerning computer hardware, communications, and sensors,

• No real active community concerned with– the requirements, – design, – development or evaluation

of IS supporting individuals and organisations as they respond to or manage a crisis.

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Purpose of the ISCRAM Community

• To promote research, development and deployment of information systems for crisis response and management.

• To promote and facilitate cooperation between all stakeholders in this domain. (scientific institutions, research institutes, universities, the practitioners and technology and solution providers);

• To promote the disclosure of activities and achievements of the association through congresses, conferences, meetings, seminars, summer courses or any other knowledge transfer event, and by the publication of books, documents, technical material and reviews and newsletters of the Association

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Community website:

400 registered users December 2004

850 registered users December 2005

1200 registered users December 2006

1600 registered users December 2007

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

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ISCRAM Community Cumulative Membership

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

May-04 Jul-04 Sep-04 Nov-04 Jan-05 Mar-05 May-05 Jul-05 Sep-05 Nov-05 Jan-06 Mar-06 May-06

Cumulative Membership

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Top 10 countries Sep-05 May-06Top 10 Membership 517 678

United States 219 311Netherlands 89 111Belgium 58 62UK 33 40Australia 32 40France 23 28Germany 23 31Italy 16 21Canada 13 16China 11 18

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ISCRAM International Conferences (Annually in May):

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

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ISCRAM2004 – First Int’l Workshop, Brussels

co-chair Benny Carlé (SCK-CEN)

80 participants

Proceedings (with ISBN) on CD

Keynote Speakers

Murray Turoff Simon French Einar Bjorgo

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ISCRAM2005 – 2nd Int’l Conference, Brussels

co-chair Benny Carlé (SCK-CEN)

120 participants

1.Complexity, crisis and robustness

2. IS interoperability

3. GIS for disaster management

4. The role of knowledge management

5. Training to defend: security and logistics

6. Research methods

7. Health and environmental consequence assessment systems

Special Sessions at ISCRAM 2005:

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ISCRAM2006 – 3rd Int’l Conference, Newark

co-chair Murray Turoff (NJIT)

150 participants 1 Emergency management IS: future needs and

requirements2 Future communications requirements3 Knowledge management4 Comparing military and civil IS5 Emergency response reachback6 Communities in emergency management7 Human factors aspects in multi-agency crisis response8 Incident command systems workflow management9 Information, communication and coordination issues

from Hurricane Katrina10 Mobile emergency announcements and public warning

systems11 Multi-agent systems12 Personal area networks13 Real-time alerts for earthquakes and tsunami14 Research methods15 Stakeholder coordination16 Standards17 System dynamics modelling18 Visualisation

Special Sessions at ISCRAM 2006:

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ISCRAM2008– 5th Int’l

Conference, GWU

co-chairs Frank Fiedrich & Jack Harrald

28 Special Sessions (incl. Intelligent systems)

ISCRAM2007– 4th Int’l

Conference, Delft

co-chairs Kees Nieuwenhuis and Paul Burghardt (Delft)

150 participants

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ISCRAM2009– 6th Int’l Conference, Gotenburg, Sweden

• 10th to 13th of May, Gothenburg, Sweden• Conference and Program Chairs: Jonas Landgren, Bartel Van de Walle & Susanne Jul• 21 sessions organised into 7 tracks

• PhD Colloquium, workshops and tutorials, student poster session, best student paper award (Mike Melskin), practitioners workshop

• Includes first General Assembly Meeting of the ISCRAM ASSOCIATION

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ISCRAM PhD SUMMER SCHOOLS

originally joint initiative ISCRAM-TIEMS NL

about PhD Students

Lectures from international experts

Varied technical – social program

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ISCRAM-CHINA INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Hosted by Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China

For and by Chinese researchers in this area

With an increasing foreign participation

ISCRAM-CHINA Workshop 2006, Harbin, China

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Launch of the International Journal of ISCRAM

Inaugural Issue January-March 2009

Published Quarterly

Editors In Chief: Bartel Van de Walle and Murray Jennex

4 Associate Editors from USA, Europe, China and Africa

Editorial Board: global representation

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IMPLICATIONS OF ISCRAM FOR ISSUE?

• Scientific articles• Promote ISSUE activities

• PhD students• Collaborators for future work• …