Timely knowledge elicitation from geographically separate, mobile experts during emergency response

摘要

Two crucial factors for effective emergency response are the speed with which the response strategy is implemented and the quality of the expert knowledge on which the response is based. We propose a method for using communication and computing technologies for eliciting and aggregating the knowledge of multiple, geographically separate experts that improves our ability to address these two issues. In our methodology, we send a description of the problem to the experts who in turn submit graphical representations of the responses they propose for addressing it. The representations are then aggregated into a hypothesized central representation. A cycle of voting then begins from which emerges either a consensus problem representation or a diagnosis of impasse. The result is a clear definition of the response problem for resolution. Results from an implementation of the algorithm over the Internet are presented.