Yesterday, on December 29th, Jonas Landgren joined the Swedish MSB team to conduct field research on their operations in Liberia. Starting in Monrovia, and later moving to the MSB-run Ebola Treatment Unit in Greenville, Jonas' work aims at understanding how to further advance technology use in the field.
The work of synthesizing fragmented information and transform it into meaningful reports, describing critical aspects of ongoing operations is widely perceived as time-consuming, difficult, and frustrating. The response to Ebola is no exception: data collection and reporting are often done under time pressure, as a part of a dynamic organizational processes, and with limited technology support. Reporting that ideally should support decision making and improve coordination, creates friction in and between organizations and is often perceived as drawing resources and attention away from the real work. For initial findings from Accra on these topics, see our initial brief.
To find out more about the challenges of reporting, Jonas will conduct observational research to study team leaders, information managers and coordinators in their local work settings with specific attention to the situated use of information technologies.
The work of synthesizing fragmented information and transform it into meaningful reports, describing critical aspects of ongoing operations is widely perceived as time-consuming, difficult, and frustrating. The response to Ebola is no exception: data collection and reporting are often done under time pressure, as a part of a dynamic organizational processes, and with limited technology support. Reporting that ideally should support decision making and improve coordination, creates friction in and between organizations and is often perceived as drawing resources and attention away from the real work. For initial findings from Accra on these topics, see our initial brief.
To find out more about the challenges of reporting, Jonas will conduct observational research to study team leaders, information managers and coordinators in their local work settings with specific attention to the situated use of information technologies.