When Worlds Collide: The Importance Of Is Alignment For Effective Disaster Recovery Completed Research

During disaster recovery, agencies, NGOs and support organizations persist with traditional command and control systems to develop situational awareness and manage the recovery process. Over the last decade, however, we have seen the rise of self-organizing systems involving communities and individuals in recovery, through their use of smartphones and social media platforms. Both of these approaches represent two contrasting technological, organizational and structural world-views of 'citadels' and 'webs'. These world-views underpin a complex array of disaster recovery information systems, often supplying poor quality information for recovery managers and communities, which produce less than effective decisions on resource utilization. This paper outlines findings from a one-day research workshop that focused on how to better connect and align both the citadels and webs of disaster recovery. In doing so, we wish to lay the groundwork for a future research agenda for the production of effective situational awareness in disaster recovery.