Rescue and Virtual Community
Virtual community in natural disaster
In April of 2013, earthquake which magnitude was Ms 7.0 has been placed at Ya’an, Sichuan province. The people who were living in earthquake-hit region have immediately suffered from lacking of water, food and medical support. The region is deeper in the mountain area, which make communication and rescue extremely difficult. Life matters and people from the rest of world are compassionately willing to help and support, the rescue resources are waiting to be dispatched. However, the reality is crucial, most of the time the rescue may be delayed due to inefficient arrangement and lacking of information transparency, which may cause repeatedly dispatching of rescue resources and even created wasting. Rewinding back to Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, due to the lacking of transparency information and accuracy of communication, rescue resources which were worth for millions of RMB were unable to fulfill their duties and even rotted in the storeroom. Therefore, if there was a system that would help each parties to well-managed the information of rescue resources and resources distribution, the problem of waste can be reduced. Also through such transparency platform, the rescue efficiency will also improve accordingly. The system is Virtual Rescue. Org.
Wasted resources in Wenchuan
The Design of Virtual rescue system
Inspiration
The inspiration of the concepts was not that difficult to get, nowadays the booming development of Information Technology has improved the quality of communication, and varied the communication channel. In the past, traditional communication channels like telephone and cellular telecom are very easy to get distorted and interrupted because of the transition can be interrupted during earthquake. Today, through the smartphone apps and internet, it is very easy to get in touched with others. For instance, people communicate via tweeter in the 2011 earthquake in Japan. The huge coverage of social network such as Facebook and tweeter would provide sufficient and updated information which would be very helpful during the situation in natural disasters. Therefore, what if the information from social networks, forums and instant messengers can be consolidated and established on one dashboard which is reflecting the real-time information and resource in-demand so that the rescue parties will know exactly what they are responding for. Thus, the consolidating of information and real-time reflection has formed the basic concepts of virtual rescue system.
Dashboard examples
The concepts
1. Interaction between parties
Under such special circumstances such as natural disaster, it is evidently clear that most of the resources such as food, water and medical supply were destroyed, therefore the demanding of these physiological needs [1] are binding with the rescue supply. The interaction between demand and supply parties through virtual system would help to achieve high level accuracy and perfectly matching of demand and supply. For instance, Demand parties will list their needs in the virtual system, which will reflect through real-time update and acknowledge such information to the supply parties. Then, after the shipments of supply were dispatched, the supply parties will acknowledge the demand parties through the real-time update. Such effective interaction will help the demand and supply parties to build strong trust relationship because of the real-time information update created transparency which allows for supervising from each party, and also people who suffered in the disaster would feel comfort because their requesting are received and responded, so that the region would be more stable and victims would seldom easily get panic.
2. Commanding System
Under any emergency situation, each country would equip them with a systematical, controllable and durable system in order to have an organized management and control, as U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed “is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazards incident management approach that:
1, Allows for the integration of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications operating within a common organizational structure.
2, Enables a coordinated response among various jurisdictions and functional agencies, both public and private.
1. Interaction between parties
Under such special circumstances such as natural disaster, it is evidently clear that most of the resources such as food, water and medical supply were destroyed, therefore the demanding of these physiological needs [1] are binding with the rescue supply. The interaction between demand and supply parties through virtual system would help to achieve high level accuracy and perfectly matching of demand and supply. For instance, Demand parties will list their needs in the virtual system, which will reflect through real-time update and acknowledge such information to the supply parties. Then, after the shipments of supply were dispatched, the supply parties will acknowledge the demand parties through the real-time update. Such effective interaction will help the demand and supply parties to build strong trust relationship because of the real-time information update created transparency which allows for supervising from each party, and also people who suffered in the disaster would feel comfort because their requesting are received and responded, so that the region would be more stable and victims would seldom easily get panic.
2. Commanding System
Under any emergency situation, each country would equip them with a systematical, controllable and durable system in order to have an organized management and control, as U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed “is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazards incident management approach that:
1, Allows for the integration of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications operating within a common organizational structure.
2, Enables a coordinated response among various jurisdictions and functional agencies, both public and private.
3, Establishes common processes for planning and managing resources (FEMA, accessed on May 3rd 2013) [2]”.
The original system would allow its users to adopt in an integrated organizational structure to match the complexities and demands of single or multiple incidents. The model has provided a complete structure which is capable of dealing with any emergency incidents. However, ICS seems not capable of involving any kinds of interactions, but rather a complicated organization structure that is strictly follow the top-down order because it has predesignated roles and responsibilities for members (FEMA, accessed on May 3rd 2013) who are involving with ICS operations. Therefore, even ICS is functional and claimed flexible that would be able to handle under different emergency situation, but it may lack of certain flexibility especially facing issues of real-time update during the situation which needs extra precautions of the timeline.
ICS
structure (FEMA, United States)
Führung und Leitung im Einsatz (Leadership and Command
in Emergency Operations, Germany) [3]
Beside the complicated system that used by United States, other countries such as Germany has a similar system but more simplified. Therefore, if the commanding system was simplified and capable to be integrated into the Virtual Rescue Org for allowing more interactions from various parties, the efficiency of the rescue would be improved and certainly the goal of reducing resource wasting and perfect matching can be achieved.
Commanding System for Virtual Rescue Org
Thus, the virtual community that is serving the rescue purples has to fulfill the capability of interaction and systematical structure of the commanding system. Therefore after carefully reviewing the structure and functions of different emergency commanding systems, and the possibilities of integrating with interaction and commanding system, the solution is to make a customized Virtual Rescue Commanding System which would be able to extend its capabilities and values through the effective interaction of different parties.
The commanding system is constructed by two major parties which are the Team Now and the Team SOS. And this paper would focus on Team Now’s perspective in the overall practice. The Team Now is formed by four members: government representative, IT specialist, Logistic Specialist and Charity representatives. Each of
the representatives are capable of performing crisis management and risk management under emergency situation such as natural disaster. Government representative is representing the government’s position and providing necessary administration assistance and resources arrangement, such as holding press conference and organizing rescuing manpower. IT specialist (information officer) is representing the technical support of the virtual system, which shall be capable of administrating the all the technical issues and problems. Logistic specialist is representing the logistic expert, who should be able to assess the disaster condition and application for relief the rescue supplies. Charity Representative should be those NGOs who shall provide more secondary support to other three parties during the entire operation. The incident commander in this case would be the liaison officer which would be activated after the first login of the virtual rescue.org.
The commanding system will activated immediately after the first login by any of these four representatives. Whoever login to the Virtual-rescue.org first will automatically became the liaison officer in the virtual platform. The liaison officer will take responsibility of commanding and coordinating among all the other representatives of Team Now for information consolidation, verify the information accuracy and publishing on the dashboard. Meanwhile the liaison officer will also be the contact agency between the rescue suppliers and recipients, which is also responsible of coordinating with Team SOS with the resource distribution. The ID of the virtual platform should be issued to each party once after the establishing of the virtual system. The login ID for Liaison Officer on the virtual platform is “Project 423” which will also linked with other representatives’ login ID (logistic 423, IT 423 or Chrty 423) to allow them have right to monitor and supervise of the information validity. And through the detailed and real
Example of login windows
time updated information on the virtual dashboard. Team SOS which is the rescue party would acknowledge the demands for rescuing needs and starting to prepare the rescue supply.
Skills that required of performing
Rescue organizations often bear much pressure under emergency situation, as our activities concern the matter of life. It has vital significance for us to make the rescue processes effective so as to save more lives. To reach the minimum outlay of time, energy and capital, both general and specific skills are required for rescue organizations. As a virtual organization, we need to have more skills to perform with high effectiveness.
Knowledge Management
The industrialist giant, Andrew Carnegie once said, “The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it”.[4] Knowledge management therefore is able to improve the rescue performance to a large extent, by infiltrating all activities from data collection to decision making.
Knowledge management covers both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Nonaka (1994) defines explicit knowledge as the knowledge that is transmittable in formal, systematic language, while tacit knowledge has a personal quality, which makes it hard to formalize and communicate. Tacit knowledge is deeply rooted in action, commitment, and involvement in a specific context [5]. For the knowledge management applied in our rescue organization, the explicit knowledge refers to the knowledge derived from collected information. The action, commitments which belong to experience is tacit knowledge for the organization.
Marwick (2001) indicates that explicit knowledge is represented by some artifact, for example a document which has typically been created with the goal of communicating with another person [6]. Knowledge is different from information. However, we create explicit knowledge based on information. Explicit knowledge is found in databases, memos, notes, documents, etc. [7]. We create explicit knowledge by building the powerful database for rescue arrangements. Our system, above all, has the function of effective data collection. The advantage of the virtual system is that information flows in time. After the two parties (“give” and “need”) upload the real-time information onto the dashboard, an overall database is there to be organized. In the following we consolidate them into explicit knowledge for decision making. The explicit knowledge management in Rescue.org involves ensuring that people have access to the refined information they need; that important knowledge is stored, and that the process of knowledge reviewing, updating and discarding.
[8]
There are two types of tacit knowledge—technical tacit knowledge and cognitive tacit knowledge. Technical tacit knowledge is created by or through individual’s actions and direct experience in the “here and now”, and can be acquired through apprenticeships, or learning by doing, but does not require the use of language. Different from technical tacit knowledge, cognitive tacit knowledge is transmitted through language involving, for instance social activity and informal discussion of work problems [9]. We create both technical and cognitive tacit knowledge and store them for further use or sharing. By practicing and operating our organization, we receive experience so as to create technical tacit knowledge. We also convert our meaningful experience into cognitive tacit knowledge which can be understood and learned by others, for example, through interactions (discussions, social activities etc.) with others. Since tacit knowledge is more about actions and experience, it is more complex to be managed. We try to organize our rescue activities based on previous successful experience, modify reasonable and effective actions, and rethink these actions and extract effective experience for knowledge consolidation.
The existing of Virtual Rescue Org is for saving peoples’ lives. When considering sustainability, it is also our responsibility to share our knowledge with others, which may enhance other rescue effectiveness. As a practical organization, tacit knowledge is more significant for us. Our core decision making activities are based on tacit knowledge and supported by explicit knowledge we consolidated. The following “Iceberg” exactly describes the application condition for explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge in Rescue.org. As a consequence, we believe it is essential to transmit the tacit knowledge for other rescue organizations.
[10]
We reach this goal by artifacting knowledge between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. We artifact knowledge according to the model of knowledge creation developed by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995).
[11]
Socialization process refers to tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge. It involves social conversion to share experience thereby to create and exchange tacit knowledge. The socialization in Rescue.org contains the interaction with the public. All feedback and suggestions for our activities are more than welcome and be considered seriously. For each rescue stage, we summarize our behaviors and thoughts, and share them with the public through our website or blogs. We also have seminar schedules which are open to the public, discussing how to effectively planning rescues.
The conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge is involved in externalization process. All tacit knowledge we rationalized, we attempt to articulate it into explicit concepts and formal models. For example, arranging specific specialists of Rescue.org who are responsible for writing seminar minutes, as well as decision making manuals on how and why we made such decisions. Externalization is significant for knowledge management and sharing, as explicit knowledge is much easier to spread and be learned.
In the process of combination we convert explicit knowledge into more complex and systematic sets of explicit knowledge. It is based on the externalization process. For example, we analyze the summarized information and upload essence of information to the database, not only the primary data collected from the public, but also the systematic rescue reports and literatures generated by ourselves.
Internalization concerns the embodying process of explicit knowledge to tacit operational knowledge. In other words, the system allowed us to learn from the others. In order to conduct effective operation, the parties would refer to the previous successful practices as well as the professional literatures. While integrating the existing explicit knowledge to our specific situations, the parties are able to create new experience and knowledge to the next knowledge creation cycle.
Problem Solving Skill
The definition of problem solving varies with different conditions. The primary step for problem solving is to represent the problem clearly. As a rescue system, we aim to save more lives with minimum waste and high efficiency. However, the traditional rescue processes were less effective, as they were lacking of the latest technology applications as well as information accuracy and transparency. Our concept is to combine the latest technology, especially the advanced social media, together with the rescue activities and highly transparent process to reach high effectiveness. Nevertheless, we have very limited previous successful experience to learn from. Thus, in our organization, the problem is how to arrange rescue activities effectively applying with technology, such as the virtual dashboard to save more people with the most effective way.
The problem-solving cycle developed by Bransford & Stein (1993) has indicated a systematic process for problem solvers [12]. So that the problem would solve quickly therefore we can participate in rescues as soon as possible by following with the seven steps in the problem-solving cycle.
1. Problem identification: at the same time identifying the problem, and determine our goal to reach. The nature of problem-solving is to find the path to the goal. Above all we need to recognize that we are facing a problem. Since the foundation of Rescue.org we have recognized that there is a problem for current rescues, which refers to the lack of technical applications and information accuracy in rescue processes.
2. Problem definition and representation: as stated above, defining the problem as how could we apply the virtual rescue org to rescue processes to reach the highest cost-effectiveness.
[13]
3. Strategy formulation: when the problem has been identified, the next step is to construct a strategy for problem solving. There are many techniques which we can use as problem-solving strategies, such as analogy, barnstorming, divide and conquer, and research etc. While relating to Rescue.org, we would possibly consult similar practices from specialists in Team Now, which is analogy. For instance, through the real-time messages from tweeter that releases the latest rescue information, the specialists would look into the solution by applying their knowledge. As for the type of technology, we decided to concentrate on social media and social network. And during the test and operations we have divided the complex problem into smaller problems and conquer them separately.
4. Organizing information: after collecting and organizing the reliable information to solve the problem effectively. As the system would provide more practical and high responsible rescue outcomes and solutions, besides basing on the professional opinions from literatures and specialists, it is also possible to hear from public opinions as well. And then organizing the information strategically, to make clear logics to implement our strategy.
5. Resource allocation: different from other problems, we are facing limited resources, restrictions of time, money, equipment, rescue capital and labours. Yet, for many times we have to take action even though the resources is not 100% in place. As we are running out of time to save lives, under such circumstances, the resource allocation becomes the most essential part. Therefore, the liaison officer has to negotiate with all rescue parties and provide solutions on their needs as soon as possible, and integrate with the capability of the Virtual Rescue org to arrange the corresponding activities. During the rescue process, it’s necessary to arrange and balance the manpower for system updates and maintenance, as well as communicating with the public and generate improvement recommendations to enhance effectiveness. Even though these resources are allocated indirectly with the rescue activities on scene, yet they are still essential for the whole operation.
6. Monitoring: during the problem-solving process it is important to monitor each step to ensure we are on the right track towards our goal. The monitor of overall processes can be done by regular meetings and seminars, both internal and open to public. From the feedbacks we can verify and enhance the actions through the reflection. Once realizing that we are set out on a path, or we find a more promising path, there will be an adjustment towards the final outcome.
7. Evaluation: it is essential to evaluate the solution after the problem-solving process is finished. Often, key advances occur through the evaluation process. Through evaluation, new problems may come to light, and new resources may become available or existing ones may be used more efficiently. Hence, the cycle is completed when it leads to new insights and begin again.
4. Organizing information: after collecting and organizing the reliable information to solve the problem effectively. As the system would provide more practical and high responsible rescue outcomes and solutions, besides basing on the professional opinions from literatures and specialists, it is also possible to hear from public opinions as well. And then organizing the information strategically, to make clear logics to implement our strategy.
5. Resource allocation: different from other problems, we are facing limited resources, restrictions of time, money, equipment, rescue capital and labours. Yet, for many times we have to take action even though the resources is not 100% in place. As we are running out of time to save lives, under such circumstances, the resource allocation becomes the most essential part. Therefore, the liaison officer has to negotiate with all rescue parties and provide solutions on their needs as soon as possible, and integrate with the capability of the Virtual Rescue org to arrange the corresponding activities. During the rescue process, it’s necessary to arrange and balance the manpower for system updates and maintenance, as well as communicating with the public and generate improvement recommendations to enhance effectiveness. Even though these resources are allocated indirectly with the rescue activities on scene, yet they are still essential for the whole operation.
6. Monitoring: during the problem-solving process it is important to monitor each step to ensure we are on the right track towards our goal. The monitor of overall processes can be done by regular meetings and seminars, both internal and open to public. From the feedbacks we can verify and enhance the actions through the reflection. Once realizing that we are set out on a path, or we find a more promising path, there will be an adjustment towards the final outcome.
7. Evaluation: it is essential to evaluate the solution after the problem-solving process is finished. Often, key advances occur through the evaluation process. Through evaluation, new problems may come to light, and new resources may become available or existing ones may be used more efficiently. Hence, the cycle is completed when it leads to new insights and begin again.
The Application of Virtual Rescue.org in Project 4.23
Figure 1 The Process of Project 4.23
Virtual Rescue.org is not a conceptual idea without any practicalities, whereas it can be thoroughly applied into the earthquake-stricken areas and help to save more lives and time. Project 4.23, as a typical real case mentioned before, will be used to explain and clarify completely how the virtual platform works based on the Virtual Rescue.org. Figure 1 shows that the whole process of Project 4.23 can be divided into four major steps, namely Resources Needed, Supply Matching, Delivery Channels and Rescue Execution. TEAM NOW is responsible for the Resources Needs and TEAM SOS is in charge of the rests. The details will be explained below. The running of Project 4.23 in the whole process is based on Virtual Rescue.org.
Step 1: Resource Needed
In the Step 1, there are three major parts stated above. All of them occur nearly synchronously when the earth quake suddenly happened in 23 April. People who need help will use different sources such as Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Wechat, MSN, QQ, Medias, Government agency, Charity group and so on as much as possible to inform of what emergency requirements are. The Internal tools such as data entry software will directly link with Virtual Rescue.org and transfer the data and information to the Virtual Dashboard. The information gathering from physical communities such as media, government agency and so on also will be uploaded to the Virtual Rescue.org. Using Twitter as an example, one person in the disaster area will use Twitter in his mobile to inform of Virtual Rescue.org. The situation is alike Figure 2. Simultaneously, the Commanding System in Virtual Rescue.org immediately is initiated. As mentioned before, whoever login to the Virtual Rescue.org will automatically become the liaison officer who is responsible for commanding all the other representatives in the virtual platform. All of gathering information and data will be published in the Virtual Dashboard by
Figure 2 The Example of Twitter As one of Sources of
Gathering Information
the liaison officer. However, the raw
real time data cannot be used directly so that liaison
office will organize relative professional experts to assess the real
requirements based on the raw information and data and then the adjusted or
actual real time data will be published again in the Virtual Dashboard less
than one hour. Figure 3A shows the raw
real time data gathering from Twitter platform and Figure 3B represents the adjusted or actual real time data. The red
rectangles represent the most emergency requirements. The yellow and white
Figure 3A Twitter’s Real Time Data
Figure 3B Actual Real Time Date
rectangles represent less emergency and least emergency respectively. The clear ranking system can help experts and liaison officer to selectively and preferentially deal with pool of information and data.
Step 2: Supply Matching
After gathering and processing the information and data, the major responsibility of TEAM SOS is to best match the demand sides (the emergency requirements showed in the Virtual Dashboard) and the supply sides (any individuals or entities who would like to donate or give by paid) under the Commanding System around the world. Figure 4 indicates the supply matching situation in one of materials -“Water”. The demand of water with required places is
Step 2: Supply Matching
After gathering and processing the information and data, the major responsibility of TEAM SOS is to best match the demand sides (the emergency requirements showed in the Virtual Dashboard) and the supply sides (any individuals or entities who would like to donate or give by paid) under the Commanding System around the world. Figure 4 indicates the supply matching situation in one of materials -“Water”. The demand of water with required places is
Figure 4 Supply Matching Situation in Virtual Dashboard
provided by TEAM NOW and TEAM SOS can watch and download those information and data from Virtual Dashboard. TEAM SOS will contact with different organizations around the world who would like to provide those materials in order to satisfy the demand side as soon as possible. Additionally, organizations also allow taking initiative to contact with TEAM SOS when they see the requirement of demand side in Virtual Dashboard. “Gap=99” in Figure 4 shows a lack of 99 bottles of water in the disaster area in that time. TEAM SOS will continue to find different sources in the society to fulfil those shortages.
Step 3: Delivery Channels
The next step is to use the best way to transport those materials to the disaster area as fast as possible. For instance, ML, which is one of the serious disaster area in Taiwan, asks for water, food, medicines and equipment. TEAM SOS will evaluate the situation of prepared materials in Amsterdam (one of Central Collection Centers in Europe) and also evaluate the situation of requirements in ML (Despatch Center). TEAM SOS will further consider comprehensively the degree of emergency, routes, time, cost, and the capability and availability of logistic companies in order to find a best way to transport the prepared materials to disaster areas. Due to the long distance between Amsterdam and ML, to transport materials by air is more suitable. However, ML does not have airport so that materials only can reach KS Airport so that TEAM SOS still needs to include transportation time by trucks from KS to ML.
Step 4: Rescue Execution
Under the Commanding System, when the materials have arrived at the disaster areas, liaison officer and TEAM SOS will immediately arrange the rescue teams to implement distribution based on the previous collective data provided by TEAM NOW
Figure 5 Real-Time Transportation and Distribution Situation
Significance
of Virtual Rescue.org
Same with
other rescue organizations, we operate our rescue.org with noble
considerations. Whereas differently, we enhance rescue processes through the
virtual community, which we believe has an extensive power to improve rescue
effectiveness. Thus, reflecting great significances and values.
Consistence
with humanism and peace
First of all,
as mentioned above, the organization activities consists with humanism and peace,
therefore the aiming to save human lives and reduce loss caused by disasters. Meanwhile
we bring rescue capitals to people frightened by disasters, and we are bringing
hope and belief toward them. The virtual community we are building is a platform
which connects individuals and organizations that have information on hand for
people who need help. Thus the virtual community are creating opportunities for
people in the physical society to provide compassions and helps to others. Especially
those people who are suffered in troubles and difficulties. With the efforts
that providing from the virtual community, lives are saved and people who
suffered in troubles can be rescued from the harmony, peace and compassion from
the entire society.
Effective
information collection
Different from
the traditional information collection channel, the majority information we
collect was through more advance technologies such as social media and
networks. In virtual community millions of message can be organized at the same
time. Therefore we developed the dashboard which can systematically organize
information without much manual work involved. And certainly it will
effectively reduce the time waste. After all by categorizing the data within
the virtual community and summarized them into accurate information therefore
to generate better decision-making and practices.
Effective
communication promotion
While the
virtual commnity provides opportunities for helping each other, it is also providing
a place for various parties to communicate with each other. It is an
interaction process when we receive information from the public and release
information to the public. Through our virtual community, individuals,
communities, organizations and government would exchange opinions with the same
purpose. The result we are expecting by promoting communication is that all
parties will know and understand with each other better, whereas the effectiveness
is benefit from the mass communication as well.
Develop
transparency for rescue process
One pitfall of
traditional rescue process is that rescue information is lack of transparency. It
is rescue operators’ responsibility to act with transparency. Many people who
donate or contribute to the rescue get no feedback about how their resources
allocated. Rescue.org has the nature to solve this kind of problems. As the
information we collected come from social media and networks, all resources we
received are known by the public. On the other hand, we release the real-time
news and progress through the virtual community. All parties are able to follow
their resource allocated by us. By only organizing information rather than
adding or deleting information, we can ensure the transparency of rescue
process. The other benefit by developing transparency is that we can avoid
waste to a large extent. All resources allocated will be monitored by us and
the public, after rescue, relief supplies remained will be managed according to
the specific condition. For example, we could follow the allocation of surplus
donations and supplies, and provide efficient feedback to donors and the
public.
After all, Virtual Rescue org has created a platform which allows the parties to be more effective and efficient during the rescue activities and other supportive operations. Based on the concept from Incident Commanding System, Virtual Rescue Org has successfully established with more meaning fulfillment by providing more interactions than original ICS structure. With more transparent and updated information that reflected through Virtual Rescue Org, rescuing in natural disaster would be easier to perform and more life would be saved on time. Most importantly, with high extent of transparency, Virtual Rescue Org would certainly reduce the waste of rescue resources and also can provide more supervising of overall rescue activities therefore to makes sure the incorruptness of the rescue resource allocation. Further, the victims would also be able interact through Virtual Rescue Org to express their appreciation towards all the parties who were involved into the overall application. Thus, Virtual Rescue Org would be indeed practical to be a good example for managing future emergency situation.
Reference
[1] Maslow, A. H. (1973). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.
[2] FEMA. (2013). http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=6251 Accessed on 05/05/13
[3]Dienstvorschrift 100. Führung und Leitung im Einsatz. http://www.idf.nrw.de/projekte/pg_fwdv/pdf/fwdv_100_engl_org.pdf. Accessed on 05/05/13
[4] Madanmohan Rao. (2003). Leading with Knowledge: Knowledge Management Practices in Global Infotech Companies. United States: McGraw-Hill Education.
[5] Nonaka, I. (1994). A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science. Vo.5, No.1, 1994. (pp. 14-37)
[6] Marwick, A. (2001). Knowledge management technology. IBM systems journal. Vo 40. No 4, 2001. (pp.814,830)
[7] Anthon P. Botha. (2008). Knowledge: living and working with it. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta & Co
[8] http://www.nickfinck.com/presentations/bbs2005/03.html
[9] Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995), The knowledge-creating company, Oxford: Oxford University Press
[10] http://www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com/KM/ExplicitTacit.htm.
[11] Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. 1995. The knowledge-creating company; how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.
[12] Bransford, J.D., & Stain, B.S. (1993), The ideal problem solver (2nd ed.), New York: W.H. Freeman
