Montreal, CA, June 1, 2007 -- Organized by AIS SIG DSS, the International Society for Decision Support Systems (ISDSS), this workshop will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of research regarding systems which support managerial decision-making through communication technologies, modeling, knowledge management, data and document management. Topics might include the design, history, theory, practice, methods and techniques, new developments, and applications of computing technologies to support decision processes and decision-making by individuals, groups and/or organizations. The website is http://sigs.aisnet.org/sigdss/ .

More specifically the main goal of this fifth workshop is to explore the theme “Decision Support for Extreme Events.” The key idea of this year’s program is to focus on real possibilities and concrete examples, whether successes or failures.

By exploring this subject area the Decision Support research community can unify its efforts to study extreme events as key manifestation of complex systems, in both the natural and human world. It also allows further networking with other communities such as ISCRAM (International Community on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management), the XE workshops of the “Decision Risk and Management Science program” sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the E2-C2 (Extreme Events, Causes and Consequences) project initiative of the European Commission.

Deadlines

Abstracts, full papers and panel proposal due Monday August 20, 2007 (extended to Monday, September 10, 2007

Notice of acceptance /rejection: Monday, October 8, 2007

Workshop Program Topics

Extreme event situations are characterised by their rare occurrence and the high risk of negative consequences and damages if response decisions are slow, uninformed, or inadequate. Well known examples include Chernobyl, Hurricane Andrew or Katrina, major earthquakes, and Tsunamis. In business, extreme situations include economic ‘crashes’, international political crises, corporate scandals or ‘human made’ or naturally caused disasters. In the area of decision making these extreme event situations are often qualified as ‘ill’ or unstructured decision processes or are associated with wicked or “messy” problems or linked to ambiguous and uncertain environments; they all critically test human cognitive limitations and organisational capabilities. As such this problem area is part of an ongoing debate, initiated by Herbert Simon, on whether advanced decision support systems have the potential for assisting decision makers during extreme events or by contributing to risk/damage reductions.

In past pre-ICIS SIG DSS workshops this issue of extreme events has been addressed under different labels. The solutions generally proposed comprise a critical interplay between (i) a hard modelling approach to gain structure and (ii) a soft interpretative perspective expressed via story telling, improvisation, debate using dialectics, soft system thinking, intuition, feedback or use of metaphorical interfaces.

Of particular interest to the 2007 workshop are paper submissions that share the experiences and results of DSS practice in the context of extreme events. The following are some of the representative topics:

-	DSS for extreme events: learning from past experiences 
-	Success and failure case studies.
-	Risk considerations including the linking of risk assessment, risk perception and risk management strategies.
-	DSS technology contributions to extreme events decision making.
-	Validation of existing theories, paradigms and framework. 
-	Performance of DSS models in predicting extreme events including timing, causes and consequences.
-	Impact of behavioral factors on model-driven DSS success and failures.
-	Using communications-driven DSS during extreme events.
-	Role of data-driven DSS during extreme events. 

Other classic topics that relate to the theme of the workshop are also welcomed.

The program will include a panel discussion on the theme featuring members of the SIG DSS Advisory Board.

Format of Submissions

Both in-progress, completed research, and "extended abstract" papers are welcome. Submissions will be double-blind peer reviewed. Contributors will also be asked to review one or two papers. In-progress submissions should be no more than seven double-spaced pages (using Times Roman 12 point font). Completed research papers should be no more than fifteen double-spaced pages. Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) is preferred. The specified lengths include the abstract, references, and figures. Extended abstracts can vary in length, but are usually around three to four pages and are useful in presenting research in early stages where authors would like to receive feedback regarding their ideas. The extended abstracts will be reviewed, but evaluated separately from the in-progress and completed research papers. Submit papers and panel proposals to jacques.ajenstat@uqam.ca. Papers will be published in an on-line proceedings for the AIS eLibrary.

Workshop Committee

Jacques Ajenstat, University of Quebec at Montreal, Workshop chair, email jacques.ajenstat@uqam.ca

Co-chairs:

David Paradice, Florida State University, email dparadice@cob.fsu.edu

Daniel Power, University of Northern Iowa and DSSResources.com, email Daniel.Power@uni.edu or power@dssresources.com

Registration

You can register for the workshop through the ICIS 2007 website at the same time as you register for the conference. The registration fee is USD $80, which includes lunch and break refreshments. A complete program will be available via the workshop’s web page.

Questions? Problems submitting? Want to help? Please direct your requests for to: Jacques Ajenstat, Workshop Chair, jacques.ajenstat@uqam.ca.

Jacques Ajenstat, Workshop Chair
jacques.ajenstat@uqam.ca