Collaboration and technology: The key to developing an effective coordinating environment

Abstract

This poster presents a concept for linking collaborative efforts of disparate communities through a specified framework to generate an effective resilient, coordinating environment. The poster uses emergency & disaster response management as the exemplar for the over-arching concept. Effective emergency & disaster response management requires a far more mature and complex approach than has been heretofore applied. Current practices have made strides in many areas yet a fully effective integrated system is yet to be developed. A more effective approach requires an inter-organizational, multidiscipline collaborative methodology that enables incongruent communities to situate themselves into a coordinated functional matrix. This matrix would facilitate self-alignment into the overall emergency preparedness, response and recovery environment thereby improving assessment, the identification of gaps and the acceleration of effective response. This more holistic approach requires committed collaboration and the application of appropriate technology to establish a truly useful coordinating framework.