[AISWorld] Call for Papers: Special Issue on IT in Crisis Management

[Leidner, Dorothy]

Call for Papers
Cutter IT Journal
Dorothy Leidner, Guest Editor
Abstracts Due: 21 October 2010
Articles Due: 26 November 2010

The Role of IT in Crisis Management

Crisis management is the process by which an organization attempts to identify potential crises that it may encounter, take precautions to prevent the crises, or minimize the effects of a crisis in progress. A crisis is a specific, unexpected, and non-routine event that creates high levels of uncertainty and threatens high value priorities such as life, financial well-being, or physical infrastructures. Crises take many forms: economic (recession), informational (theft of proprietary information), physical (industrial accident), personnel (strike), reputation (rumors), psychopathic (product tampering), or natural (hurricane).

Given the dependencies of large global firms on suppliers and business partners in many locations around the world, it is unlikely that an organization will not at some point be disrupted directly, or indirectly, by some sort of crisis. The specific nature and timing of the organizational crisis cannot be predicted, yet organizations may benefit from having a general crises management strategy.

One element of crisis response that is particularly important to large-scale crises is that of information flow and network management. Because decision making is constrained by time urgency, managing information flows such that updated crisis information flows vertically and horizontally among crisis response organizations in a rapid manner is critical in crisis situations. Crisis responders face many information-related challenges, including information overload -- e.g., too much information coming from too many different sources, information interference -- e.g., information that has been omitted, delayed, filtered or incorrectly processed by intermediate parties, and the availability of fewer communication channels. The huge amount of information that flows through existing channels as well as the complexity of the situation and number of stakeholders involved, may lead to channel bottlenecks and information breakdown.

Crises are relevant to IS professionals both because IS may be the source of a crisis (system failure, system tampering or falsification of records) and because IS are an integral aspect of crisis response in terms of coordination, personnel and aid tracking, expertise identification, training, simulation, and infrastructure. The IS field has long been ensuring secure and backup system facilities in case of system failures resulting from disasters (natural disasters that wipe out a company's computer facility or from hackers that shut down a company's systems). Recently the field is also becoming more engaged in helping organizations prepare for non-IT related crises.

The January 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal will examine the role of IT in crisis response. Topics of interest may include (but are not limited to):

1. How can IS be used to help in the identification and prevention of potential crises? (hazard prediction and modeling, risk assessment and mapping)

2. How can IS help coordinate access to vital information during a crisis response?

3. Do social media tools enable bystanders at the scene of the crisis to become important parts of information flow?

4. What innovative applications in mapping and tracing are available to facilitate crisis response?

5. What innovations in mobile applications are most useful to crisis responders?

6. What network structures work best in facilitating coordination between multiple agencies during crisis response?

7. What network infrastructures are needed for fast response to large-scale crises?

8. How can IT help in the collection and dissemination of aid resources?

9. How can visualization tools help crisis responders assess the situation and make good decisions in a timely fashion?

10. What are the best ways of integrating information from incompatible systems (fire, police, medical teams) in a timely manner?

TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE IDEA
Please respond to the Guest Editor, Professor Dorothy Leidner, at dorothy_leidner at baylor.edu with a copy to itjournal at cutter.com by 21 October 2010. Include an extended abstract and short outline showing the major discussion points.

ARTICLE DEADLINE
Accepted articles are due by 26 November 2010.

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
Most Cutter IT Journal articles are approximately 2,500-3,500 words long, plus whatever graphics are appropriate. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact CITJ's Group Publisher, Christine Generali at cgenerali[at]cutter[dot]com or the Guest Editor, Professor Dorothy Leidner, at dorothy[underscore]leidner[at]baylor[dot]edu. Editorial guidelines are available at <<http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/edguide.html>>

AUDIENCE
Typical readers of Cutter IT Journal range from CIOs and vice presidents of software organizations to IT managers, directors, project leaders, and very senior technical staff. Most work in fairly large organizations: Fortune 500 IT shops, large computer vendors (IBM, HP, etc.), and government agencies. 48% of our readership is outside of the US (15% from Canada, 14% Europe, 5% Australia/NZ, 14% elsewhere). Please avoid introductory-level, tutorial coverage of a topic. Assume you're writing for someone who has been in the industry for 10 to 20 years, is very busy, and very impatient. Assume he or she will be asking, "What's the point? What do I do with this information?" Apply the "So what?" test to everything you write.

PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
We are pleased to offer Journal authors a year's complimentary subscription and five copies of the issue in which they are published. In addition, we occasionally pull excerpts, along with the author's bio, to include in our weekly Cutter Edge e-mail bulletin, which reaches another 8,000 readers. We'd also be pleased to quote you, or passages from your article, in Cutter press releases. If you plan to be speaking at industry conferences, we can arrange to make copies of your article or the entire issue available for attendees of those speaking engagements -- furthering your own promotional efforts.

ABOUT CUTTER IT JOURNAL
No other journal brings together so many cutting-edge thinkers, and lets them speak so bluntly and frankly. We strive to maintain the Journal's reputation as the "Harvard Business Review of IT." Our goal is to present well-grounded opinion (based on real, accountable experiences), research, and animated debate about each topic the Journal explores.