Common vocabularies for collective intelligence - work in progress

Web based applications and tools offer a great potential to increase the efficiency of information flow and communication among different agents during emergencies. Among the different factors, technical and non technical, that hinder the integration of an information model in emergency management sector, is a lack of a common, shared vocabulary. This paper furthers previous work in the area of ontology development, and presents a summary and overview of the goal, process and methodology to construct a shared set of metadata that can be used to map existing vocabulary. This paper is a work in progress report

Mapping Health Care Innovation: Tracing Walls & Ceilings

Health care is in need of innovation on many strands. Patient-centered care appears to be the key to the realization of the main objectives: service quality, cost reduction, access, patient satisfaction and the quality of working life. Innovation, and more precisely, the diffusion and implementation of new methods, new techniques and new processes and systems appears to be a difficult task. Consequently, there is a strong need for knowledge about innovation processes in health care and the drivers and barriers affecting these efforts. This paper presents a framework for mapping innovation processes in health care services. The framework consists of two axes: (1) the horizontal axis of the health care process and the inter-functional walls which can complicate innovation efforts, and (2) the vertical axis of the echelons of power, which often create ceilings too impermeable to permit effective learning and decision making. The study is based on the experiences gathered in Publin, a running research network supported by the Fifth Framework Program and Innoflex, which ended in 2003.economics of technology ;