WORKPAD: Process Management and Geo-Collaboration Help Disaster Response

Introduction

Due to the recent increase of safety threats like environmental disasters or terrorist attacks, Crisis Response has become a relevant application field for the development of new information technologies. In this context, team members need to collaborate in order to reach a common goal. The use of mobile devices and applications is valuable for the improvement of collaboration, coordination and communication amongst members of team(s) to achieve the desired goals. But there are also risks in the usage of mobile applications, e.g., decrease of performance. In emergency/disaster scenarios most of the tasks are highly critical and time demanding; for instance, in such scenarios the saving of minutes can result in saving people’s lives. Therefore it is unacceptable to use systems that lack proper interaction principles.

The European project WORKPAD (http://www.eu-orchestra.org).