Ethics in Technology

This report summarizes an 18-month, evidence-based study that sought to understand practitioner information needs by asking the question: What are successful Red Cross/Red Crescent (RCRC) preparedness practitioners already doing that works, and how can the organization better support their information needs in what they are already doing? A research team from the University of Washington conducted a qualitative, ethnographic study consisting of 116 interviews conducted across the 5 regions and multiple levels of the RCRC movement and six, two-week visits to national societies to observe and interview practitioners who had been named as doing good work by their peers within the RCRC.

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Study Abstract: Decades of research have been committed to developing effective business logistics systems. In contrast, the important design principles for effective humanitarian logistics systems remain poorly understood. Current research focuses largely on applying business models to humanitarian logistics, however, there remains a fundamental mismatch between business logistics models and humanitarian logistics ways of operating. Specifically, business logistics systems are utility-focused; designed to prioritize cost minimization and profit maximization, to sustain long-term market demand for their service, and to limit the opportunity for uncertainty within their supply chain. Alternatively, humanitarians and their logistics systems aim to prioritize a shared moral code over economic outcomes, reduce beneficiary dependence upon their service, and specifically operate in a contingent environment characterized by high uncertainty and context flux. Thus, we argue that business logistics models and tools designed for precision outcomes and control cannot merely be re-engineered for a humanitarian context that calls for approximation and parallel option flexibility. Instead of adapting economic-based logistics systems designed for maximizing business effectiveness, we believe academics could better contribute to the science of humanitarian logistics by pursuing new designs supporting the goals and constraints driven by humanitarian values.

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Bringing Technology and Humanitarian Values Together:

Designing information systems (IS) in support of humanitarian work has been a challenge widely pursued for decades. However, one aspect that has been undervalued within systems design is the role of underpinning humanitarian values and culture as part of system effectiveness. Further, it remains understudied how we might incorporate those values into the information system design process. We address both these aspects by 1) analyzing humanitarian values of effectiveness as they impact information systems design, and 2) incorporating humanitarian values as part of the design criteria. In this paper, we present the idea that the “maturity” of an IS design to be effective for the humanitarian context is assessed by how well it incorporates humanitarian values. Therefore, we move away from a product-centered design towards an approach, which features the socio-technical relationship. We present a maturity matrix, which aims to translate and communicate humanitarian effectiveness into the design and development terminology used by technology designers. This matrix is housed within a participatory framework that allows for the development of trust and shared understanding between these two domains. The framework serves as a roadmap for designers and humanitarian agencies to adapt the IS design and development process to better accommodate the IS needs of the humanitarian mission, its values, and culture.

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This paper offers an in-depth analysis of how technology emerged in stories of success from interviews with Red Cross/Red Crescent (RCRC) humanitarian aid workers named for doing good work. Our findings reveal that in these contexts, technology exists, for the practitioners, much like a language-diverse according to environment, culture, and skill. As such, practitioners' core mission to effectively identify and communicate the needs of communities among stakeholders and throughout different organizational levels drives innovation. The environment demands innovations by practitioners to ensure the transfer of information, and its embedded meaning is bridged across disparate technological modes and information systems. We found a common problem-solving perspective toward work, awareness of gaps in the flow of meaning and information across stakeholders, along with multi-modal, multi-cultural, and interpersonal fluencies active where innovations occur. When empowered with the autonomy to adapt tools, successful practitioners are able to support the effective transfer of meaning across cultures, organizational perspectives, and technological environments. Ultimately, these findings enhance our understanding of the use of technology in humanitarian work. It provides insights for ways to maximize technology effectiveness and reconsider the focus of design beyond the technology alone and instead calls for a socio-material approach acknowledging technology as part of a larger, more complex system of systems.

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Strategies for Designing RCRC Preparedness Messaging in Digital Applications.

As Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) societies move forward to deliver digital disaster information and preparedness messaging, the Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) is asking how best to capitalize on the growing accessibility of digital communications for future outreach. Emerging questions like, ‘Should we invest more in gaming or in applications that educate and/or deliver services?’ and ‘Which platforms and messages allow us to best reach people in a way that influences behavior toward better resilience?’ are important for more effective decisions around funding and design. Yet, answers to questions like these are impacted by many diverse factors, such as the needs of the specialized work practices of the RCRC organization, the capacity of different digital design strategies to support social practices, and the actual impact of messaging on the lives of users. To begin to assess a baseline understanding of the “as-is” state of many of these factors, this report synthesizes the findings of three lines of research on effective preparedness messaging and digital design. They are (1) a disciplinary literature and RCRC documents review on messaging and design, (2) a user study of current RCRC digital applications, and (3) a process review of the design and development decisions of those RCRC applications.

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