Fredrik Bergstrand is a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg studying how to design ICT to support a common operational picture for emergency response. He is funded for three years by the Swedish Civil Contingencies agency. His research examines using live video, social media, and other information feeds to improve situation awareness for first responders. Through participatory and human-centered design methods, he aims to understand emergency responders' work context and information needs to effectively support decision making during incidents.

1. Fredrik Bergstrand
University of Gothenburg, Sweden

2. Background
2006
B.Phil, Applied IT, Software Engineering and
Management - GU
2008
M.Phil, Applied IT, Mobile Services - GU
2008-2009
Design and development - Viktoria Institute

3. PhD Studies
Started in Feb. 2009 with a three year funding
from the Swedish Civil Contingencies agency on a
project called “Common Operational Picture”
The research question is how to design ICT to
support a common operational picture

4. Common
Operational Picture
An abstraction of the situation, viewed as a juxtaposition of
objects with attributes, relations and projections. Adjustable
by resolution and role.The COP should support
sensemaking, situation awareness and decision making.

5. Cases
LiveResponse Live video broadcasted from the
incident site to the command center
Social Construction of an Emergency How
situations are constructed from public and
private information feeds

6. LiveResponse
Live video streamed from the incident site to the
command center to improve situation
awareness using cost effective technologies
(Information Sharing Using Live Video, Bergstrand & Landgren, ISCRAM 2009)

7. Social Construction
Lessons from following the construction of the emergency
context through various forms of information feeds.
Information from own personnel, police, media and activists
was used to create a COP and situation awareness

8. Action Reporting
Live reporting from the incident site to the command center
improves situation awareness and creates rich
documentation of the site

9. Rich Media
Natural language provided through speech and text have
limitations. Videos and pictures provides a large amount of
information in a compressed format.

10. Design
Design oriented work with the focus on the intended users.
Participatory- , and human centered design, together with a
contextual understanding

11. Ethnography
True sense of “people - writing” and focus on the actual
people doing emergency response work, the tools they use
and the context within they operate. Important to get an
“understanding of their understanding”

12. End Users
Focus on first responders, fire and rescue service,
paramedics and police, and also the Swedish County
Administrative Boards since they have the role to organize
collaboration

13. Context
IT is always used within a specific context.
Actions and predefined settings create the
environment where in your design decision are
put to test.