A trainable information distribution system to support crisis management

Crisis response and management involve multiple collaborative actors who execute tasks in a dynamic setting. For the effectiveness of collaboration and crisis fighting it is essential that all actors have access to relevant information necessary for their tasks. Managing the information flow, i.e. presenting the right information to the right person at the right time, is of great importance. However, the complexity of a crisis event makes it very difficult to keep an overview of all ongoing activities and information flow within the entire crisis environment. In this paper we address the problem of selecting and distributing information to users as a function of their characteristics, tasks and the state of their workflows in a collaborative setting. In particular, we propose a trainable system for information distribution that will be able to support the dynamic nature of collaborative processes and provide users with task-relevant information. We expect that this will reduce problems due to information overload and will lead to more effective collaboration between all actors in the crisis management environment. Keywords Crisis response and management, trainable information distribution, dynamic workflow model, adaptive user profile.