Knowledge Cartography for Controversies: The Iraq Debate

In analysing controversies and debates—which would include reviewing a literature in order to plan research, or assessing intelligence to formulate policy—there is no one worldview which can be mapped, for instance as a single, coherent concept map. The cartographic challenge is to show which facts are agreed and contested, and the different kinds of narrative links that use facts as evidence to define the nature of the problem, what to do about it, and why. We will use the debate around the invasion of Iraq to demonstrate the methodology of using a knowledge mapping tool to extract key ideas from source materials, in order to classify and connect them within and across a set of perspectives of interest to the analyst. We reflect on the value that this approach adds, and how it relates to other argument mapping approaches

Risk accelerators in disasters : insights from the typhoon Haiyan response on humanitarian information management and decision support

Published version of a chapter in the book: Advanced Information Systems Engineering. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07881-6_2Modern societies are increasingly threatened by disasters that require rapid response through ad-hoc collaboration among a variety of actors and organizations. The complexity within and across today's societal, economic and environmental systems defies accurate predictions and assessments of damages, humanitarian needs, and the impact of aid. Yet, decision-makers need to plan, manage and execute aid response under conditions of high uncertainty while being prepared for further disruptions and failures. This paper argues that these challenges require a paradigm shift: instead of seeking optimality and full efficiency of procedures and plans, strategies should be developed that enable an acceptable level of aid under all foreseeable eventualities. We propose a decision- and goal-oriented approach that uses scenarios to systematically explore future developments that may have a major impact on the outcome of a decision. We discuss to what extent this approach supports robust decision-making, particularly if time is short and the availability of experts is limited. We interlace our theoretical findings with insights from experienced humanitarian decision makers we interviewed during a field research trip to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan

"An Innovative Design and Studio-based CS Degree"

The University of Queensland has recently established a new design-focused, studio-based computer science degree. The Bachelor of Information Environments degree augments the core courses from the University's standard CS degree with a stream of design courses and integrative studio-based projects undertaken every semester. The studio projects integrate and reinforce learning by requiring students to apply the knowledge and skills gained in other courses to open-ended real-world design projects. The studio model is based on the architectural studio and involves teamwork, collaborative learning, interactive problem solving, presentations and peer review. This paper describes the degree program, its curriculum and rationale, and reports on experiences in the first year of delivery

Optimizing Cooperation in Spatial Planning for eGovernment

As a reaction to societal, economic and technological changes, new forms of cooperation are applied in projects of urban and regional development. We argue,that this trend can significantly be amplified by the use of information and communication technologies (ICT): Through ICT more persons can participate in a more open, fairer and more transparent way. More complex information can be analyzed; discussions can become more focused, the process is documented and becomes reproducible and comparable. Methods and media can be combined in a very flexible way to design:more efficient and-effective processes. to the extent that projects are stored in a knowledge base, knowledge management tools can exploit growing - experience in order to continuously improve a methodology for cooperation in spatial development. Our approach aims at exploring the opportunities that new ICT offer for new cooperation methods in e-Government and planning - beyond the extension of traditional methods to electronic communication media. It acknowledges the need for experimentation and an evaluation, not only concerning isolated methods but the combination of methods based on knowledge, management concepts

Human-agent knowledge cartography for e-science: NASA field trials at the Mars Desert Research Station

This chapter describes the sociotechnical embedding of a knowledge cartography approach (Conversational Modelling) within a prototype e-science work system. This was evaluated over two 2-week field trials, simulating collaborative Mars-Earth geological exploration. We believe this work is the first demonstration of a knowledge mapping tool embedded within a human/software multiagent work system, with humans and agents reading and writing structures amenable to agent understanding and autonomous agent execution, and human understanding, annotation and argumentation. Secondly, in terms of the applied problem, we have demonstrated how human and agent plans, data, multimedia documents, metadata, discussions, interpretations and arguments can be mapped in an integrated manner, and successfully deployed in field trials which simulated aspects of mission workload pressure