Social contexts and narratives in knowledge management for situational awareness

Crises require a quick and effective response performed by the response organization in order to minimize the negative consequences of the crisis, such as societal and economic costs and the number of deaths. The response actors and the response organization have to create and share situational information and to achieve situational awareness (SA). These goals are usually supported by information systems, such as common operational pictures (COP). However, the information systems also have problems which impede the user's achievement of SA: information overload and the complexity of the situational information. The problem of information overload refers to the challenges involved in perceiving the relevant situational information when a large amount of information are created and shared. The problem of the complexity of the situational information refers to the challenges involved in the comprehension of how the elements of situational information constitute an overall picture of the situation when put together. Reducing these problems would make the response more effective and reduce the negative effects of the crisis. The main goal of this research is to reduce the problems of information overload and the complexity of the situational information in a crisis response. This research focuses on: 1) how SA is created both at the individual and organizational levels in the interactions that occur in a decentralized manner in several parts of the response organization and 2) how to reduce the problems of information overload and the complexity of the situational information. The analysis part of the research process includes data collection from four case studies and literature research. The design part includes developing a concept of a context-aware common operational picture (CACOP). The methods used in the development of the CACOP concept are conceptual and theoretical research and analogical reasoning in which human cognition is imitated. The demonstration of the conceptual solution is developed in a case study where the situational information relates to critical infrastructure failures. The CACOP concept potentially reduces the above-mentioned problems. Based on the analysis of response organizations, SA is created in the form of a situational narrative in social contexts. In contrast to the many traditional COPs, the CACOP concept is developed on the basis of the analysis of the response organization from the perspective of knowledge management. CACOP identifies the context and supports the user in perceiving the elements of situational information relevant in that context and combining the elements of the situational information into the form of a situational narrative. Situational narratives support the CACOP user's comprehension of the overall picture of the situation.