Publication: VoluNet : diseño de una herramienta para el soporte de VCoPs en el ámbito de la gestión de emergencias
Loading...
Identifiers
Publication date
2012-04-27
Defense date
2012-04-27
Authors
Tutors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Impact
Export
Abstract
Tradicionalmente, la gestión de emergencias ha sido una actividad exclusivamente asumida por profesionales y expertos que trabajaban en base a una serie de normas o procedimientos. Sin embargo, la complejidad de las sociedades actuales ha hecho de la gestión de emergencias una actividad global en la que la participación y colaboración ciudadana son elementos cada vez más significativos y visibles. La naturaleza de la gestión de emergencias hace que dicha participación ciudadana suela organizarse en comunidades que son gestionadas en base a recomendaciones y guías. Ejemplos de estas comunidades podrían ser la comunidad de radioaficionados REMER (Red Radio de Emergencia), las comunidades formadas por voluntarios que prestan una atención primaria ante una emergencia, como la comunidad CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) o la comunidad NHS Community of First Responder en Reino Unido, o las cada vez más importantes comunidades formadas por ciudadanos que emergen durante situaciones de crisis para proporcionar información acerca de su evolución. Las comunidades virtuales de práctica (VCoP) son estructuras sociales con una serie de características intrínsecas que podrían ser útiles para soportar comunidades de voluntarios en emergencias. Más concretamente, las VCoP han demostrado ser adecuadas para soportar la participación y mejorar aspectos clave de la gestión de emergencias como pueden ser la colaboración, la gestión de conocimiento o el aprendizaje. La cada vez mayor presencia de las comunidades basadas en el voluntariado en el ámbito de la gestión de emergencias, unido al potencial de las comunidades de práctica, hace conveniente proporcionar herramientas tecnológicas que puedan soportar estas estructuras y les permitan a estas comunidades llevar a cabo su labor de la forma más adecuada posible. El presente Proyecto Fin de Carrera describe el proceso seguido para el diseño de una herramienta web que permita soportar la labor de las comunidades de voluntarios basándose en el concepto de VCoP. Con el propósito de establecer una base sólida de aquellas características o necesidades que debe soportar una VCoP, se detallaron un conjunto de requisitos en el análisis que determinaron aquellos aspectos necesarios para soportar este tipo de estructuras. Entre ellos destacan la necesidad de contar con espacios para la colaboración, espacios orientados al aprendizaje, espacios dedicados a la gestión del conocimiento, así como mecanismos para promover la participación y mejorar la visibilidad de la comunidad y sus miembros. Adicionalmente, se incluyeron aquellas necesidades relativas al dominio de aplicación concreto, la gestión de emergencias. En consecuencia se consideraron aspectos como la representación de alertas, aplicación de elementos geoespaciales, uso de roles, formalización del conocimiento derivado de las situaciones de crisis, etc. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Traditionally, Emergency Management has been an activity exclusively undertaken by experts and professionals who worked based on a set of rules and procedures. Nevertheless, complexity of modern societies has transformed emergency management in a global activity in which citizen participation and collaboration are becoming essential and visible elements. Due to the nature of emergency management, participation is usually organized in communities that are managed based on recommendations and guidelines. Examples of this communities could be the community composed by radio amateurs called REMER (Emergency Radio Network), communities composed by first responders such as the “NHS Community of First Responder” in UK or the “National First Responder Organization”, or the increasingly important communities composed by citizens who come together as emergent organizations to contribute as information seekers during a crisis situation. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP) are social structures with intrinsic characteristics that could be useful to support community volunteers in emergencies. More specifically, VCoPs are recognized as suitable structures for supporting participation as well as useful instruments to manage knowledge, improve collaboration and encourage learning. The increasing presence of communities based on voluntarism in the emergency management domain, along with the potential of communities of practice, makes it convenient to provide technology platforms that support these structures and allow communities to carry out their activity by the most suitable way possible. This final degree project describes the process of designing a web-based tool that allows supporting the activity of communities of volunteers, based on the concept of VCoP. In order to establish a solid foundation of those necessary characteristics to properly support VCoPs, a set of requirements were detailed in the analysis phase. These include the need for spaces for collaboration, learning-oriented spaces, spaces dedicated to knowledge management, as well as mechanisms to promote participation and improve the visibility of the community and its members. Additionally, we included those requirements related to the specific application domain, emergency management. Consequently, aspects such as warning representation, application of geospatial elements, use of roles or formalization of knowledge derived from crisis situations were considered.
Traditionally, Emergency Management has been an activity exclusively undertaken by experts and professionals who worked based on a set of rules and procedures. Nevertheless, complexity of modern societies has transformed emergency management in a global activity in which citizen participation and collaboration are becoming essential and visible elements. Due to the nature of emergency management, participation is usually organized in communities that are managed based on recommendations and guidelines. Examples of this communities could be the community composed by radio amateurs called REMER (Emergency Radio Network), communities composed by first responders such as the “NHS Community of First Responder” in UK or the “National First Responder Organization”, or the increasingly important communities composed by citizens who come together as emergent organizations to contribute as information seekers during a crisis situation. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP) are social structures with intrinsic characteristics that could be useful to support community volunteers in emergencies. More specifically, VCoPs are recognized as suitable structures for supporting participation as well as useful instruments to manage knowledge, improve collaboration and encourage learning. The increasing presence of communities based on voluntarism in the emergency management domain, along with the potential of communities of practice, makes it convenient to provide technology platforms that support these structures and allow communities to carry out their activity by the most suitable way possible. This final degree project describes the process of designing a web-based tool that allows supporting the activity of communities of volunteers, based on the concept of VCoP. In order to establish a solid foundation of those necessary characteristics to properly support VCoPs, a set of requirements were detailed in the analysis phase. These include the need for spaces for collaboration, learning-oriented spaces, spaces dedicated to knowledge management, as well as mechanisms to promote participation and improve the visibility of the community and its members. Additionally, we included those requirements related to the specific application domain, emergency management. Consequently, aspects such as warning representation, application of geospatial elements, use of roles or formalization of knowledge derived from crisis situations were considered.
Description
Keywords
Herramientas de software, Gestión de emergencias, Diseño de software