An activity theory approach to modeling dispatch-mediated emergency response

Emergency response involves multiple local, state, and federal communities of responders. These communities are supported by emergency dispatch agencies that share digital traces of task-critical information. However, the communities of responders often comprise an informal network of people and lack structured mechanisms of information sharing. To standardize the exchange of task-critical information in communities of responders, we develop a conceptual modeling grammar. We base the grammar on an activity-theory perspective and ground it in an analysis of emergency dispatch incident reports. The paper contributes to research in dispatch-mediated emergency response literature by (1) developing a framework of elements and relationships to support critical information flow within emergency communities of responders, (2) developing a conceptual modeling grammar for modeling emergency tasks in dispatch-mediated emergency response, and (3) implementing a prototype system to demonstrate the utility of the conceptual modeling grammar.