NEWARK, NJ, Feb. 28, 2006 —- The third international meeting of the Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) will be held May 14-17, 2006, at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The theme is integration of phases of the Emergency Management and Preparedness lifecycle: planning, training, mitigation, detection, alerting, response, recovery, and assessment. Three outstanding keynote speakers will anchor the meeting on Monday through Wednesday, with topics ranging from the requirements for emergency management of New York City, through worldwide humanitarian relief efforts, to nationwide planning for New Zealand.

Opening the conference will be keynote speaker New York City Chief Information Officer Gino P. Menchini on Monday morning, speaking on “Citywide IT Preparedness for Critical Events: Accomplishments and Challenges.” Menchini will discuss the creation and growth of NYC’s 311 Citizen Service Center as well as the construction of a citywide broadband wireless network for public safety. When completed, this citywide network will provide a wireless backbone for applications running on both mobile and fixed devices.

A keynote address on “A Tale of Two Cities: Banda Aceh, New Orleans and Humanitarian Operations,” by Paul Currion, Lead Consultant for Humanitarian.info, will highlight the sessions on Tuesday May 16. While most support during a disaster is provided by local actors, international organizations often provide the framework for funding and co-ordination of responses in those countries where national or local institutions are unable to cope – whether because of the scale of a disaster (such as the Pakistan earthquake) or because of issues around government capacity (such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo). While domestic emergency management practice relies on certain assumptions – the establishment of clear lines of communication and command, centralized and coordinated decision-making, specialized agencies providing critical public services, continuity of presence (particularly of government) – humanitarian actors proceed on directly opposite assumptions. As a result there are critical differences in the design and implementation of information systems for relief and peace operations, compared with the requirements of emergency management. Comparing the responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, Currion will describe many of these differences.

On Wednesday, “Resolving Resilience: Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM), risks, and information management in New Zealand” will be described by Peter R Wood, Emergency Management Planner for the Ministry of Civil Defense & Emergency Management for the government of New Zealand. The recent comprehensive national plan (CDEM) is New Zealand’s response to the uncertainties of the next “big one.” New Zealand's location on the boundary of two or the Earth's tectonic plates makes it vulnerable to earthquake, volcano, and tsunami. As an island nation in the "roaring forties" and surrounded by vast areas of southern ocean, New Zealand is also vulnerable to extreme weather and the related storms, floods, landslides and erosion. Additional are the risks of any developed country including life-line failure (energy, telecommunication, water, and transportation), hazardous materials, biosecurity, and commercial failures. Wood will describe the kinds of information that is essential for risk assessment, mitigation, and monitoring; information that represents the natural, built, social, and economic environments to relevant spatial and temporal resolutions.

“We are excited about this upcoming event,” said Murray Turoff, PhD, professor of information technology at NJIT, one of the founders of the organization. “We expect upwards of 200 participants from around the world. ISCRAM was started in 2004 by a group of researchers, scholars, teachers, students, practitioners and policy makers interested or actively involved in the design, development, use and evaluation of information systems for crisis response and management. Today more than 900 members from 80 countries are registered in the online community of ISCRAM. We received over 90 paper submissions for this third international conference, so the quality of the accepted papers and sessions is very high. Half the papers submitted are from outside the United States. We are also arranging two special panels: one on the Katrina Experience, and the other on the Role of the Auditor in Emergency Management.”

For more information about attending the conference and hotel information, see http://ISCRAM.org or http://iscram06.njit.edu for details and online registration. The full conference program will be published in mid March. Or for phone contact for meeting arrangements, hotel information, or registration 800-624-9850. For questions on content or sponsorship of ISCRAM contact Murray Turoff, program chair, turoff@njit.edu .

New Jersey Institute of Technology, the state's public technological research university, enrolls more than 8,100 students in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 100 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and eLearning. In 2006, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation’s top 25 campuses for technology recognizing the university’s tradition of research and learning at the edge in knowledge.

http://www.njit.edu 
CONTACT: Sheryl Weinstein
(973) 596-3436 Sheryl.m.weinstein@njit.edu