The Cross-Impact of Murray Turoff on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management

1. The Cross-Impact of Murray Turoff on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Bartel Van de Walle Department of Information Systems and Management Tilburg University The Netherlands

2. COLLABORATIVE HISTORY • Visiting researcher at NJIT Collaborative Systems Lab 1996-1997 • Faculty Member CIS (and later IS) Department 2000 – 2003 • Really started working with Murray AFTER return to Europe • Started ISCRAM in 2004 • ISCRAM06 conference at NJIT in May 2006 • Papers, chapters, special issues, book, sessions, mini-tracks, …

3. WHY COLAB? • GDSS and DGSS • CMC • Voting and Arrow’s paradox (“social choice and individual values”) • Collaborative Hypertext

4. Most Influential Papers - for me: M. Turoff, "Computer-mediated communication requirements for group support", Journal of Organizational Computing1, 85--113, (1991). S.R. Hiltz, K. Johnson, and M. Turoff, "Experiments in group decision making: communication process and outcome in face-to-face versus computerized conferences", Human Communications Research 13 (2), 225--252, (1986). Rao and Turoff paper on Collaborative Hypertext, 1990

5. Before After

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14. Special Section in Communications of the ACM, March 2007

15. Special Section in Communications of the ACM, March 2007

16. Special Section in Communications of the ACM, March 2007

17. Traditional Systems • Tend to be top down • Follow designs done for single agencies or organizations • Somewhat bureaucratic • Assume largely verbal interaction • Pre-segments groups to “manageable” size • Tend to encourage rule following and often promotes rigidity • Can work for single homogenous group

18. ISCRAM SYSTEMS • Heterogeneous very large communities • Allow group formation to be dynamic • Allow for quick delegation of authority by role assignment • Provide for timely oversight and accountability • Encourage flexibility of response • Encourage strong personal ties among responders and resulting cohesive groups • Provide support for all phases of the emergency response process as well as everyday use for other regular functions

19. Example Future Research: Virtual teams and communities • Use ISCRAM for virtual communities and people will be trained to join given the right emergency situation • Allow communities to build a knowledge system in their area • In organizations employ ISCRAM for all teams and committees dealing with problems that cut across the organization

20. Observations: • Change and disruption is more common than we think, even in commerce, and getting more frequent • The technology exists to do it • However, does the organizational motivation and understanding exists to do it?

21. The issue is designing new virtual organizations and communities that will change existing organizations and the way things are done

22. What shall we call it… Bayes Bayesian Markovian Markov Turoff Turovian

23. Turovian View on ISCRAM The issue is designing new virtual organizations and communities that will change existing organizations and the way things are done

24. ISCRAM New Developments

25. ISCRAM New Developments

26. ISCRAM Students “without borders” Example: Tilburg Univ. Students in 2005: Disaster Recovery projects in Sri Lanka

29. Soooo.... a lot of serious work ahead of us Murray! Let’s enjoy it!