A System Dynamics (SD) simulation model including factors affecting the accessibility of Norwegian municipal websites was encapsulated in an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). Accessibility is an important aspect of websites... more
A System Dynamics (SD) simulation model including factors affecting the accessibility of Norwegian municipal websites was encapsulated in an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). Accessibility is an important aspect of websites generally and public websites particularly. Many ways could be proposed to enhance accessibility, however the impact of selected actions is hard to predict due to diversification and contradiction, in addition to the existence of the time factor. As the SD model promised to be able to change how users think and take decisions, this ILE was tested by users in an experiment. We have conducted α, β, and γ change analysis on the results of this experiment. Results showed that the ILE was successful in changing 50% of its users' understanding and perceptions about the system's causal relations and policy options, and helping 30% redefining the standards they use to assess or evaluate these relations and policy options.
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While Universal Design principles have been adopted in many areas to ensure that products and services are usable for the broadest possible diversity of users, there is still an open area when it comes to the emergency management domain.... more
While Universal Design principles have been adopted in many areas to ensure that products and services are usable for the broadest possible diversity of users, there is still an open area when it comes to the emergency management domain. This article aims at providing a systematic overview of the current state of the emerging research field of Universal Design of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Emergency Management, and to highlight high-impact research opportunities to ensure that the increasing introduction of ICT in Emergency Management can contribute to removing barriers instead of adding more barriers, in particular for the elderly and people with disabilities. A systematic review on relevant literature on Universal Design, ICT and Emergency Management between 2008 and 2020 was employed using predefined frameworks, to answer the following questions: (1) Who are the target audiences (stakeholders) in research on Universal Design of ICT in Emergency Management ...
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City resilience is a pressing issue worldwide since the majority of the population resides in urban areas. When disaster strikes, the consequences will be more severe in the cities. To achieve resilience, different organizations, agencies... more
City resilience is a pressing issue worldwide since the majority of the population resides in urban areas. When disaster strikes, the consequences will be more severe in the cities. To achieve resilience, different organizations, agencies and the public should share information during a disaster. ICT-based community engagement is used for strengthening resilience. The authors propose a set of metrics for assessing the security and privacy of information sharing tools for resilience. They then apply the selected metrics to a selection of information sharing tools. The authors' main finding is that most of them are reasonably well-protected, but with less than private default settings. They discuss the importance of security and privacy for different important categories of users of such systems, to better understand how these aspects affect the willingness to share information. Security and privacy is of particular importance for whistle-blowers that may carry urgent information,...
The 'Declaration concerning the prevention of unregulated high seas fishing in the central Arctic Ocean' signed by the Arctic 5 nations, limits unregulated high seas fishing in the central part of the Arctic Ocean, and holds potential... more
The 'Declaration concerning the prevention of unregulated high seas fishing in the central Arctic Ocean' signed by the Arctic 5 nations, limits unregulated high seas fishing in the central part of the Arctic Ocean, and holds potential social, economic and political impacts for numerous stakeholders. In this paper, the four Interim Measures in the Declaration are discussed and what value these measures bring beyond the existing international agreements is explored. It is found that even though the Declaration fills a gap in the management of potential fish stocks in the central Arctic Ocean, adopts an appropriate precautionary approach and encourages joint research activities, there are both opportunities and challenges connected to its implementation. The most valuable and urgent Interim Measure is that of joint scientific cooperation , which will facilitate more region-specific research and an increased understanding of the fisheries as well as the broader Arctic environment. Furthermore, the research generated by this measure will provide an important decision base for both regulation and management of human activity in the Arctic.
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Accessibility is an important aspect of websites generally and public websites particularly. Many ways could be proposed to enhance accessibility, however the impact of selected actions is hard to predict due to diversification and... more
Accessibility is an important aspect of websites generally and public websites particularly. Many ways could be proposed to enhance accessibility, however the impact of selected actions is hard to predict due to diversification and contradiction, in addition to the existence of the time factor. A System Dynamics simulation model including factors affecting the accessibility of Norwegian municipal websites was encapsulated in an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). As the model promised to be able to change how users think and take decisions, this ILE was tested by users in an experiment. We have conducted α, β, and γ change analysis on the results of this experiment. Results showed that the ILE was successful in changing 50% of its users’ understanding and perceptions about the system’s causal relationships and policy options, and helping 30% redefining the standards they use to assess or evaluate these relationships and policy options.
Research Interests:
System Dynamics (SD) is a method to build simulation models using computers, to study the behaviour of systems, and apply what-if scenarios aiming at achieving optimal policy design. To have an overview of the current state-of-the-art of... more
System Dynamics (SD) is a method to build simulation models using computers, to study the behaviour of systems, and apply what-if scenarios aiming at achieving optimal policy design. To have an overview of the current state-of-the-art of SD use in the eGovernment field; we have surveyed related literature. Our main goal is to uncover the possibilities for future research by clarifying the shortages. The identified literature is not very large. In most of the literature, SD models use was limited to SD practitioners. We discovered low usage of Group Model Building and workshops despite their usefulness in involving non-SD practitioners in the model building process. Additionally, there is a large untapped potential in using Interactive Learning Environment, in spite of its importance in involving non-technical users in conducting what-if scenario testing, and changing users’ mental models by uncovering the underlying system structure.
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Research Interests:
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ABSTRACT The advanced sensors embedded in modern smartphones opens up for novel research opportunities, as for instance manifested in the field of mobile phone sensing. Most notable is perhaps research activities within human activity... more
ABSTRACT The advanced sensors embedded in modern smartphones opens up for novel research opportunities, as for instance manifested in the field of mobile phone sensing. Most notable is perhaps research activities within human activity recognition and context-aware applications. Along a similar vein, the SmartRescue project targets monitoring of both hazard developments as well as tracking of people in a disaster, taking advantage of smartphone sensing, processing and communication capabilities. The goal is to help crisis managers and the public in early hazard detection, hazard prediction, and in the forming of risk minimizing evacuation plans when disaster strikes. In this paper we propose a novel smartphone based communication framework for disaster specific machine learning techniques that intelligently process sensor readings into useful information for the crisis responders. Core to the framework is a robust content-based publish-subscribe mechanism that allows flexible sharing of sensor data and computation results. The proposed communication platform has been tested at the proof of concept level, with several detailed features providing promising results. We also provide the initial results from the development of this platform and discuss how to enhance the platform to become a disaster monitoring system for practical use.
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Threats to computing prompted by software vulnerabilities are abundant and costly for those affected. Adding to this problem is the emerging vulnerability black markets (VBMs), since they become places to trade malware and exploits. VBMs... more
Threats to computing prompted by software vulnerabilities are abundant and costly for those affected. Adding to this problem is the emerging vulnerability black markets (VBMs), since they become places to trade malware and exploits. VBMs are discussed based on information derived from interviews with security researchers. The effort is enriched by further examination of documents surrounding the disclosure of four
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ABSTRACT In this paper, we model passengers' panic during a ship fire by considering its most influential factors. The qualitative factors are quantified, allowing us to study passengers' panic in a probabilistic manner.... more
ABSTRACT In this paper, we model passengers' panic during a ship fire by considering its most influential factors. The qualitative factors are quantified, allowing us to study passengers' panic in a probabilistic manner. Considering the time-varying nature of these factors, we update the state of the factors over time. We utilize a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) to model passengers' panic, this allows us to represent probabilistic and dynamic elements. By defining several worst-case scenarios and running the simulations, we demonstrate how panic can dynamically vary from passenger to passenger with different physical (mental) conditions. Furthermore, we show how this panic can threaten passengers' health during the evacuation process. The impact of panic on the evacuation time is also investigated. The results in this paper are valuable inputs for rescue teams and marine organizations that aim to mitigate property damages and human fatalities.
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ABSTRACT Managing the uncertainties that arise in disasters - such as a ship or building fire - can be extremely challenging. Previous work has typically focused either on modeling crowd behavior, hazard dynamics, or targeting fully known... more
ABSTRACT Managing the uncertainties that arise in disasters - such as a ship or building fire - can be extremely challenging. Previous work has typically focused either on modeling crowd behavior, hazard dynamics, or targeting fully known environments. However, when a disaster strikes, uncertainties about the nature, extent and further development of the hazard is the rule rather than the exception. Additionally, crowds and hazard dynamics are both intertwined and uncertain, making evacuation planning extremely difficult. To address this challenge, we propose a novel spatio-temporal probabilistic model that integrates crowd and hazard dynamics, using ship- and building fire as proof-of-concept scenarios. The model is realized as a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), supporting distinct kinds of crowd evacuation behavior, being based on studies of physical fire models, crowd psychology models, and corresponding flow models. Simulation results demonstrate that the DBN model allows us to track and forecast the movement of people until they escape, as the hazard develops from time step to time step. Our scheme thus opens up for novel in situ threat mapping and evacuation planning under uncertainty, with applications to emergency response.
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The "black market" for software vulnerabilities makes it in principle possible for criminals and terrorists to launch exploits toward organizations before system administrators have had a chance to apply a corrective patch. To... more
The "black market" for software vulnerabilities makes it in principle possible for criminals and terrorists to launch exploits toward organizations before system administrators have had a chance to apply a corrective patch. To counteract this threat, software vendors and security companies try to establish a legitimate market for software vulnerabilities: They offer rewards for software bugs reported. A system dynamics
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The emergence of vulnerability black markets enhances the opportunities for malicious actors to launch exploits toward computer networks, to commit cyber-crime and to perform other unlawful activities. Asymmetric information, inadequate... more
The emergence of vulnerability black markets enhances the opportunities for malicious actors to launch exploits toward computer networks, to commit cyber-crime and to perform other unlawful activities. Asymmetric information, inadequate software testing, lack of incentive to improve quality of the software are presumed to be the most important grounds of the software vulnerability problems. This work is a preliminary model
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Abstract. To reduce costs (by ca. 30%), increase production (by ca. 10%) and extend the life time (by ca. 5 years) of North Sea wells the Norwegian oil & gas industry is developing an infrastructure of "integrated operations" ... more
Abstract. To reduce costs (by ca. 30%), increase production (by ca. 10%) and extend the life time (by ca. 5 years) of North Sea wells the Norwegian oil & gas industry is developing an infrastructure of "integrated operations" ie eOpera-tions from control centers with reduced personnel ...
The discovery and management of software vulnerabilities after a product is released to the public is an important element of improving software quality and stability. The discovery of vulnerabilities enables exploitation and stimulates... more
The discovery and management of software vulnerabilities after a product is released to the public is an important element of improving software quality and stability. The discovery of vulnerabilities enables exploitation and stimulates the development of patches or other protections, ...