Presentation given at the Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) 2009 conference on May 11, 2009 in Gothenborg, Sweden. The presentation is based on the paper "Sensemaking and Information Management in Humanitarian Disaster Response: Observations from the TRIPLEX Exercise" by Willem Muhren and Bartel Van de Walle, which is published in the ISCRAM2009 proceedings and online available at http://www.iscram.org/ISCRAM2009/papers/Contributions/219_Sensemaking%20and%20Information%20Management_Muhren2009.pdf

1. Sensemaking and Information Management
g g
in Humanitarian Disaster Response:
Observations from the TRIPLEX Exercise
Willem Muhren and Bartel Van de Walle
Tilburg University
Acknowledgement
Gothenburg, 11 May 2009 The research reported here is part of the Interactive
Collaborative Information Systems (ICIS) project
(http://www.icis.decis.nl/), supported
by the Dutch Ministry of Economic
Affairs, grant nr: BSIK03024.

2. Outline
• Information processing challenges
• Sensemaking
S ki
• UNDAC, TRIPLEX exercise and Research methodology
• Observations
• Discussion
• Conclusion
Concl sion

3. Information processing challenges
Information Interpretation
Lack of… Uncertainty Ambiguity Acquire
Variety/diversity of… Complexity Equivocality Restrict
Analysis Sensemaking
(Adapted from Zack 2007)

4. Sensemaking (Weick 1995)
• Dealing with ambiguity and equivocality
• The deliberate effort to understand events to give meaning to what is
events,
happening
• Ge es s
Genesis: a lack o fit bet ee e pectat o a d e pe e ce
ac of t between expectation and experience
• A set of seven constructs to understand and analyze this process
• Has been proved useful for crisis analysis
• Support resources for better Sensemaking
Can Sensemaking be supported through specific IS design?

5. Sensemaking constructs and their support
Construct 1
Solitary Social 1.IS should encourage
Social Context resources resources conversation
Construct 2 2.IS should give people a distinct,
Vague Defined
stable sense of who they are and
Identity identity identity
what they represent
Construct 3 3.IS should preserve elapsed
Forward Backward
Retrospect data and legitimate the use of
noticing noticing
those data
Construct 4 Confirmed Equivocal 4.IS should enhance the
Cue extraction cues cues visibility of cues

6. Sensemaking constructs and their support (2)
5.IS should enable people to be
Construct 5
Episodic Continuous resilient in the face of
Ongoing flow of events flow of events interruptions
Construct 6 6.IS should encourage people
Probability Possibility
Plausibility to accumulate and exchange
as criterion as criterion
plausible accounts
Construct 7 Reactive Enactive 7.IS should encourage action
Enactment as form of action as form of action

7. UNDAC Case study
United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination
• Part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA)
( )
• Designed to assist the UN in providing information during the
first phase of a sudden-onset emergency and in the coordination
of incoming international relief at the site of the emergency.
• Standby capacity of international disaster managers
• Rapid deployment for sudden-onset disasters (in 6-24 hrs)
• Team of 5-10 people
• Deployed for approx. 3- 4 weeks
• Free of cost to recipient country
• Self-sufficient

8. OSOCC
UNDAC sets up an On-Site Operations Coordination Center (OSOCC)
Objectives:
• To provide a
framework/platform for
cooperation and
coordination among the
international humanitarian
entities at a disaster site.
• To act as a link between
international responders
and the affected country'sy
authorities.

9. Research aim
• UNDAC information management: “to compile and analyze the information
input from outside sources and provide timely output of analyzed
information for dissemination to stakeholders”
• Important in the information management processes are needs
assessments, coordinated (and sometimes conducted) by UNDAC
Role of Sensemaking:
• How well UNDAC team members make sense of the situation – especially
when managing the information – will determine the timeliness and
appropriateness of the response by the international community
community.
• Improved Sensemaking will lead to less ambiguity and equivocality, hence
a better assessment of the disaster situation and the aid that is needed
How can IS support the seven Sensemaking constructs in the needs
assessment process?

10. TRIPLEX exercise
• International Humanitarian Partnership exercise in Norway and
Sweden, September 2008
• Floods scenario in Westlandia (Norway) and Eastlandia (Sweden)
– Westlandia: medium developed,
peaceful country
– Eastlandia: low developed,
autocratic country
– Border area inhabited by a
economically less-developed
minority, Morokuliens
• Realistic exercise, with participation
of the l
f h local community
l i

12. Research methodology
• Participant observation (DeWalt and DeWalt 2002)
• Embedded in the Belgian First
Aid and Support Team (
pp (B-FAST) )
• Conducted assessments with
B FAST
B-FAST and operated as
information managers in the
OSOCC
• Debriefing of assessment teams

13. OSOCC functional elements

14. Observations: OSOCC Information Management
Information
gathering
OSOCC
Information
processing
Information
dissemination

15. Information gathering
• Contact with all the humanitarian organizations in the field,
clusters,
clusters through on site visit telephone and email
on-site visit,
• One person in charge of scanning all incoming channels
• Media
• Local authorities
• Needs assessment

16. Needs assessment process
• Not conducted by UNDAC, but by NGOs, UN agencies, and other
international responders
• Five teams each day, and joint needs assessment: each team
comprising five people from different organizations
• Standard assessment forms:
– Demographics
– Health
– Water, sanitation & hygiene
– Food & nutrition
– Shelter & non-food items
– Protection
– Logistics
• Observation and semi-structured
interviews
• Assessment through making notes
and discussion in team, debriefing
at the OSOCC

17. Information processing
• Information sharing through Microsoft Groove
• Coordination meetings with the larger international
community.
• Information presentation:
-log book
-information maps
-contact details
-”pigeon hole”
”i hl”
-notice board
-hardcopies

18. Information dissemination
• Situation reports
• Virtual OSOCC a web-
OSOCC,
based information
platform on which
disaster information is
exchanged by relief
actors working in all
parts of the world.

19. Discussion
Sensemaking’s social context: Can IS encourage conversation?
• Groove supports conversation and information exchange within the
OSOCC, but no real-time communication with assessment teams
,
• This would enable feedback for the assessment teams on the situation
and what to do, and faster reporting of assessment findings back to the
OSOCC.
Sensemaking’s personal identity: Can IS give people a distinct, stable
sense of who they are and what they represent?
• Change of identity for assessment teams and UNDAC when going out
on a mission
• IS can support team building and a defined identity when assessment
teams and people in the OSOCC use the same system
system.

20. Discussion (2)
Sensemaking’s retrospect: Can IS preserve elapsed data and legitimate
the use of those data?
• Time gap between the actual assessment and the discussion and writing
gp g
down of the final result: elapsed data are only pen-and-paper.
• IS can help in capturing accurately what they assess, e.g. by enabling
digital capturing of information, which will secure a faster and more
accurate process.
Sensemaking’s cues extraction: Can IS enhance the visibility of cues?
• IS can assist actors in focusing on cues by indicating which cues are
important in a certain setting according to historical data.
• If the IS connects assessment teams and the OSOCC, UNDAC staff can
give on the spot advice on which cues to pay attention to as they have
on-the-spot
the overview of what is going on.

21. Discussion (3)
Sensemaking’s ongoing projects: Can IS enable people to be resilient in the
face of interruptions?
• Assessment teams should be supported in continuous updating of the
situation in order to make their experience and actions seem ongoing rather
than an interrupted series of events.
• Communication with the OSOCC is important: it enables assessment teams
to be continuously updated on the situation in the disaster area, giving them
a stab e sense o what is go g o
stable se se of at s going on.
Sensemaking’s plausibility: Can IS encourage people to accumulate and
exchange plausible accounts?
• Focus in the assessment process is now more on probability than on
possibility: Only when the most accurate picture is crafted, the assessment
is communicated to the OSOCC.
• IS can stimulate reflection in earlier stages of the assessment process
between OSOCC and assessment team, in which the assessment team
members report a plausible account of what is going on, and on which the
OSOCC can give relevant feedback.

22. Discussion (4)
Sensemaking’s enactment: Can IS encourage action?
• IS can stimulate action as a means of gaining more
understanding of the situation e g through more engagement
situation, e.g.
from UNDAC in the assessment process and exchange of
plausible accounts.

23. Conclusions
• Ambiguity and equivocality are common problems in immediate
humanitarian disaster response
• Sensemaking describes the constructs that influence how well
people can handle these problems
• This can be a starting point for designing supporting IS
• In th
I the case of disaster assessment and UNDAC, th most
f di t t d UNDAC the t
effective improvement for Sensemaking would be to connect the
assessment teams and the OSOCC in real-time
• We ill
W will conduct more research on how IS can support the seven
dt h h t th
Sensemaking constructs, which IS design characteristics lead to
improved Sensemaking, and whether that influences
performance

24. Thank you!
Willem Muhren