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.

A Common Operational Picture in Support of Situational Awareness for Efficient Emergency Response Operations

“…However, emergency response organizations may attempt to solve the information management problems through information systems which support its users to reach shared SA by deploying a COP [20,21]. Such systems can be derived from the logic of Network Enabled Capabilities (see section 3) [18].…”

Untitled

“…In addition, the growing attention on the improvement of the protection from natural hazards in Europe and beyond, led to an increasing demand for information sharing [16]. In order to overcome the information management and dissemination problems, the emergency response organizations support the employment of more advanced and better equipped information systems derived from the logic of network enabled capabilities [17,18]. Such systems should assist emergency response stakeholders to achieve shared situational awareness by deploying a Common Operational Picture [17,19,20].…”

Incident Management Approaches above the Incident Management Team Level in Australia

“…Moynihan (2009) has criticised the established hierarchical patterns of command and control within a centralised emergency management system in the US for its inefficiency in inter-organisational communication and coordination. To resolve this problem, Boersma et al (2012) discussed how the net-centric approach of information systems at the national level of emergency management in the Netherlands helped in information sharing practices among agencies. They further noted that diversification of information systems and letting local end users decide about their functionalities could enable a better organisational coordination.…”