People

Research Manager
Jonas Landgren (PhD)
E-mail: jonas.landgren@viktoria.se
Webpage : Blog

Project Members

Adriana Aires Rastén (IT-University)

Shane Kakau (IT-University)

Josefin Karlsson (IT-University)

Affiliated Members

Urban Nulden (PhD)
E-mail: urban.nulden@ituniv.se

Elisabeth Frisk (PhD-Candidate)
E-mail: elisabeth.frisk@ituniv.se

The Public Safety research group investigates and innovate the use of information technology in the public safety domain. We conduct participatory observation, we design prototypes and we evaluate the prototypes together with users from the public safety domain. We are also investigating the effect and consequences of new information technology in this domain. Research projects are close collaborative efforts with end-user organizations such as Rescue Services and the Police authorities.

The research started in 2001 with a project investigating operative police work. A year later we included research on the fire and rescue services, and the private security sector. In late 2004 the research on the private security sector turned to the start-up Blue Mobile Systems. During that time the research focus was on fire and rescue service, and police. The research has been funded by SITI, VINNOVA, Swedish Rescue Agency (SRV), the insurance company Göta Lejon and the Swedish Police.

Quick info in Swedish (1-page slides)

Lägesuppfattning, krishantering,& mobila ledningssystem.

Användning av personlig mobila terminal i krishantering.

Att värdera nyttan av IT-användning i operativ räddningstjänst.

The Public Safety Research Group covers applied research with public safety organizations and industry actors targeting the design and use of information technology for establishing Common Operating Picture in everyday emergencies as well in large-scale crisis. Application areas include time-critical ad-hoc organization, collaborative visibility on mobile devices and inter-organizational accountability.

RESEARCH THEMES: 1. COMMON OPERATING PICTURE Public Safety Research Group will increase its research focus on how crisis response actors use information technology to establish and maintain a common operating picture. A set of studies will be conducted on different types of actors such as fire and rescue services, police, power- telecom- railroad organizations. The objective is to study how different actors in small and large-scale crisis organize a response in relation to other crisis response actors and establish and maintain a common operating picture. Information technology and information systems are fundamental in such work. The relationship between information technology design and the organization of crisis response is not well covered in research. Focus will be set on investigating the underlying concepts of common operating picture in the application domain of emergency and crisis response in a civil society. 2. THE USE OF MOBILE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN CRISIS RESPONSE Evaluation of mobile IT in crisis response Emergency response and crisis management has in the last few years become an arena for major investments in sophisticated mobile information technology. However, making an investment and making efficient use of the technology is often two very different things. The Public Safety Research Group has conducted a set of evaluations of mobile IT for crisis responders and uncovered a range of issues that must be accounted for in order to make the technology work in real world crisis response. Results from this work has been published on ISCRAM2005, CHI2006, ECIS2007. Personal mobile devices for crisis responders. The use of personal mobile devices are a wide spread phenomenon among crisis response actors. Few studies have explored the use personal mobile devices among these actors. There is a clear need for new innovative mobile services on personal communication devices for Swedish crisis response organizations. The objective is to design and deploy new services that improves the ability of crisis response organizations to share information and establish a common operating picture in crisis response work. Results from this work has been published on CHI2007. PROJECTS: 2008: Study of the Protection and Restoration of Critical Infrastructure The study is a joint-research effort between the Viktoria Institute and the Fire and Rescue Services in Gothenburg. The study focuses on the work during and after the 1st of March flooding of the command center facility at the Gårda emergency management complex. This study is funded jointly by the Fire and Rsescue Services in Gothenburg and Viktoria Institute. 2008: Study of IT-use in Regional crisis response work This study focus on the information technology use in the crisis response organization at the County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland in Sweden. 2007: Evaluation of a Mobile Command System for Emergency Response work. Collaborative research project between Viktoria Institute and SAAB Security Systems. (Finished) 2005-2007: Project “Evaluation of the benefits of IT-use in rescue services” In this project, we will study how the use of information technology in the fire & rescue services can be evaluated and potential benefits related to improved emergency response work practice. Interviews, field studies and participation in rescue services IT-projects will be the primary methods in this project. The project is funded by the Swedish Rescue Agency. (Finished) 2002- 2004 : Project Safe Street In project Safe Street, we focus on the work of police patrols, fire crews and security guards and how IT-use could improve the work practice of these professional actors. The project was funded by Vinnova. (Finished)
Selected publications:

Landgren, J (2007). Designing Information Technology for Emergency Response Work, Doctoral Dissertation. Gothenburg Studies of Informatics, Report 29. September 2007. Frisk, E. (2007). Increase the understanding for IT evaluation - A theoretical review. In Proceedings of European Conference on IT Management and Evaluation 2007, Montpellier France Landgren, J (2007). Investigating the tension between information technology use and emergency response work. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS2007). St Gallen, Switzerland. Qing Hu, Elisabeth Frisk, Tom Roar Eikebrokk, Petri Hallikainen, Tero Päivärinta, Antti Nurmi (2007) /IT Investment Evaluation as a socio- political process: Determinants to use? In Proceedings of ECIS 2007, S:t Gallen, Switzerland Landgren, J & Nulden, U.(2007). A Study of Emergency Response Work: Patterns of Mobile Phone Interaction. In Proceedings of the 2007 SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems CHI '2007. ACM Press Frisk, E (2007) ”Categorization and overview of IT evaluation perspectives - A literature review” European Conference on IT management Evaluation”. Landgren, J (2006). Making Action Visible in Time-Critical Work. Proceedings of the 2006 SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems CHI '2006. ACM Press. Nominated for best paper. Frisk, E. (2006) Obstacles for achieving benefits from IT-investments – Case study. European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation (ECITE) 2006. Hu, Q., Frisk, E., Eikebrokk, T.R., Hallikainen, P., Päivärinta, T., Nurmi A., (2006) IT Investment Evaluation Why hasn’t IT Become an Organization Routine? European Conference on Information System (ECIS) 2006. Nominated for best paper. Hallikainen, P., Hu, Q., Frisk, E., Eikebrokk, T.R., Päivärinta, T., Nurmi A., (2006) The Use of Formal IT Investment Evaluation Methods in Organizations: A Survey of European Countries. Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCS) 2006. Landgren, J (2005). Supporting fire crew sensemaking enroute to incidents. International Journal of Emergency Management. Vol2, No3. Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Landgren, J (2005). Shared use of information technology in emergency response work. Second International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) 18-20th April. Brussels, Belgium Frisk, E. and Roztocki (2005) The Effect of Stakeholder Consideration in IT Investment Evaluation on Business Value: Evidence from Sweden. AMCIS-11 (Americas Conference on Information System) 2005 Omaha i Nebraska.
Landgren, J (2004). Fire Crews at Work, Short paper presented at Participatory Design Conference 2004, Toronto, Canada.
Landgren, J (2004). Fire Crew enroute Sensemaking, In proceedings of International Workshop on Information systems for Crisis response and management, Brussels, Belgium.
Lundin, J. and U. Nulden. (2003). Mobile Scenarios: Supporting learning among mobile people. In Educating Managers with Tomorrow’s Technologies, Charles Wankel and Robert DeFillippi (Eds.). Information Age Publisher, Greenwich.
Nulden, U. (2003). Investigating Police Practice for Design of Mobile IT. In extended abstracts of CHI 2003, Miami. Nulden, U. (2003). Efficient dispatch of police patrols: A balance of local knowledge and regional power. Presented at AIWSC200. Perth, Australia.
*Selection of student reports:*
Hallen (2006) ”User Challenges in Adoption and Organizational assimilation of Emergcy Response Information Systems” [pdf]
Pek & Bengtsson (2006)” Att tydliggöra krav på IT genom användarmedverkan och prototyping – IT-stöd för operativ räddningstjänst.” [pdf]
Mockups & Prototypes
{ResQpad, Awareness, Siren, SERIS, Coordination, Modulo, CERP, Initiative, }

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