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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D Breakout Session Descriptions." National Research Council. 2009. Applications of Social Network Analysis for Building Community Disaster Resilience: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12706.
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Page 69
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D Breakout Session Descriptions." National Research Council. 2009. Applications of Social Network Analysis for Building Community Disaster Resilience: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12706.
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Page 70

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Appendix D ________________________________________________________________________ Breakout Session Descriptions The workshop agenda included breakout sessions during which workshop participants were divided into two groups. Participants of each concurrent session were to discuss specific issues related to themes defined by the workshop planning committee. The planning committee described the themes and provided questions to guide discussions. This section includes the text of materials regarding the concurrent breakout sessions provided to the participants prior to the workshop. CONCURRENT SESSIONS SESSION 3: Improvisational Disaster Response and Social Network Analysis This session examines opportunities for social network analysis in understanding and facilitating preparedness and response to emergencies in two different venues: networks among and between organizations and networks within local communities. In organizational response (Session 3a), we are interested in how more productive interactions and flexibility for improvisation and how these can be enhanced through social network analysis and social networking technology. For local networks within communities and among individuals (Session 3b), the concern is how to empower and engage such communities and foster collective behavior in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. Session 3a: Improvisational Disaster Response and Social Network Analysis: Networks of Organizational Connections This session examines opportunities for social network analysis in understanding and facilitating preparedness and response to emergencies in two different venues: networks among and between organizations and networks within local communities. In organizational response (Session 3a), we are interested in how more productive interactions and flexibility for improvisation and how these can be enhanced through social network analysis and social networking technology.  Participants are provided the following questions to help guide the discussion. The session rapporteur will summarize 69

70 APPLICATIONS OF SNA FOR BUILDING COMMUNITY DISASTER RESILIENCE the discussion to all workshop participants during the plenary session following the discussion.  1. How do social networks operate organization to organization and what are current knowledge gaps in our understanding of their functioning? 2. To what extent is this currently measured using Social Network Analysis (SNA)? 3. To what extent is SNA used and how can SNA facilitate, maximize, and foster pre- conditions that will permit improvisational response during disasters? 4. What SNA research or change in practice is required to facilitate more productive interaction between the Incident Command System (ICS) and the emergent networks and responders? What tools would be most useful in this effort? 5. How can social networking technology be used to maximize the utility of emergent responders? 6. How can SNA be used in choosing what social networking technologies should be utilized? 7. What are the gaps in knowledge and technology that inhibit the application of social network tools and theory to improvisational response? 8. What are the barriers in terms of training, technology, and policy to applying social network theory and tools to improvisational response? Session 3b: Improvisational Disaster Response and Social Network Analysis: Networks within Local Communities and Between Individuals This session examines opportunities for social network analysis in understanding and facilitating preparedness and response to emergencies in two different venues: networks among and between organizations and networks within local communities. For local networks within communities and among individuals (Session 3b), the concern is how to empower and engage such communities and foster collective behavior in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters.  Participants are provided the following questions to help guide the discussion. The session rapporteur will summarize the discussion for all workshop participants during the plenary session following the discussion. 1. What Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools are used currently to identify pre- existing networks in communities? 2. How is and can SNA be used to understand the collective and emergent behavior of social networks before, during, and after the disaster cycle 3. How can the collective and emergent behavior of social networks be fostered and directed before, during, and after the disaster cycle? 4. What technologies are most appropriate for engaging and empowering social networks at the community level? 5. What SNA tools can be used to determine what we don’t know about how such social networks are built, function, grow, prosper during both pre- and post- disaster? What are the gaps in knowledge and technology that inhibit the application of social network tools and theory to improvisational response? 6. What are the barriers in terms of training, technology, and policy to applying social network theory and tools to improvisational response? 

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Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the identification of the relationships and attributes of members, key actors, and groups that social networks comprise. The National Research Council, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, held a two-day workshop on the use of SNA for the purpose of building community disaster resilience. The workshop, summarized in this volume, was designed to provide guidance to the DHS on a potential research agenda that would increase the effectiveness of SNA for improving community disaster resilience.

The workshop explored the state of the art in SNA and its applications in the identification, construction, and strengthening of networks within U.S. communities. Workshop participants discussed current work in SNA focused on characterizing networks; the theories, principles and research applicable to the design or strengthening of networks; the gaps in knowledge that prevent the application of SNA to the construction of networks; and research areas that could fill those gaps. Elements of a research agenda to support the design, development, and implementation of social networks for the specific purpose of strengthening community resilience against natural and human-made disasters were discussed.

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