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SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents. Elizabeth Avery Gomez City University of New York (CUNY). Today’s Presentation. A Network Nation – Then and Now Interoperable Communication Needs

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SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

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  1. SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents Elizabeth Avery Gomez City University of New York (CUNY)

  2. Today’s Presentation • A Network Nation – Then and Now • Interoperable Communication Needs • Motivation and Research Objective leveraging SMS Text-Messaging and Plain Language • Interfacing with Community Responders • A Web-Based Training Application • Role-based Agents to Mitigate Response Efforts • Conclusions and Future Research SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  3. Interoperability – A Look at the Past • Static location, known device and known application type • Primarily text-based, limited flexibility • Training and practice were essential SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  4. Interoperability – A Look at the Present • Unidentified location, unknown device and interoperable application type • Text is one option, high flexibility • Training and practice are often skipped SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  5. In a Crisis…Now becomes Then • When resources are limited we revert back to grassroots approaches that minimize the use of scarce resources • Murray’s well known quote from Dermis (2004): • “An emergency system that is not used on a regular basis before an emergency will never be of use in an actual emergency.” SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  6. Community Responders Need Low-Cost Resources for Communication Exchange • Any information from community responders and the community itself is value-added • They can have their own command and control structure in parallel to first responders and specialty organizations • Key objective: Extract essential information quickly from community (disseminate and triage) SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  7. The Human Element • FEMA states the first 72 hours after a disaster are critical and citizens of a community should be prepared and self sufficient without the use of electricity, gas, water, and telephone services for at least 72 hours. • During this time, the health and well-being of a community’s citizens falls to local community resources. SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  8. Motivation and Research Objective • A command and control structure is needed for community responders • Limited resources are available to handle this need • Role-based agents can help mitigate this need by intercepting SMS text-messages and triaging message content SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  9. SMS Text-Messaging is one Alternative • SMS Text-Messaging is one alternative • Highly reliable and thrives in times of chaos (Mehta, 2005). • Travels in 160 character bundles and won’t overload telecommunication systems (McAdams, 2006). • Portable between mobile devices and desktop applications (Roberts, 2006). • To maximize effective communication, the use of plain language training is proposed to complement the use of SMS text-messaging. SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  10. Leveraging Plain Language • Plain language is clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary • 2007 International Theme “It’s not what you write – It’s what they understand.” • Supported by FEMA, NIH, governmental agencies • Widely accepted in other parts of the world (especially Europe) • Cross-cultural benefits reaching a wider population SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  11. Today’s Discussion • Can plain language training, adapted for SMS text-messaging improve message content, increasing options for message triage from the field responder to the command and control coordinator? SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  12. Communication Response Training • No baseline for SMS text-message response in crisis management exists • SMS text-message responses as a writing discourse has not been studied • Speech act theory with active voice writing prompts are introduced SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  13. Leverage Findings from a Web-Based Training Application for Crisis Response • A web-based training application with a multimedia crisis scenario was developed to: • Capture behavior through a mySQL database • Provide training and SMS text-message awareness • Measure readiness through 6 SMS text-message responses. • Participant N=50 • Field practitioners • First responders • Community responders • Academic faculty/students • Participants were from 5 states and 2 countries • Pre-training mean = 2.82, Post training mean = 3.27 SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  14. Study Research Objective • The study introduced 6 tasks to assess pre-training and post-training task responses. • The objective was to increase SMS text-message response readiness SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  15. Speech Act Theory – Austin and Searle SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  16. Plain Language Training Modules SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  17. Study Results towards Role-Based Agents SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  18. Conclusions and Future Research • Plain language offers potential to mediate low-tech resources in a crisis • Findings suggest triage is possible for speech acts such as “advise”, “thank”, “confirm”, allowing for more individuals to respond in the command and control center • A new study that focuses on a specific group of community responders in proposed • Early conceptual work was published in the Journal of Intelligent Control Systems, June 2007 • The application will be shown on November 8, 2007 at World Usability Day • Refer to www.ereadiness.org for related research SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

  19. Ideas of Brilliance • As this research moves forward there are many “ideas of brilliance” sprinkled throughout by Murray. • Some of those ideas were shared in our IS seminar as Roxanne rushed him along making it all the more inviting • Often a few words can send you off thinking for weeks to find a richer way to move forward…and that has been the motivation behind this research!!! SMS Text-Message Triage in the Command and Control Center: An Assessment for Role-Based Agents

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