Location Services: Adding value to incident management?
by Paul Jonk
Surely the last decade GIS has become mature and is a more common used technology.
A lot of innovative applications are developed but not always with the initially expected success. Especially the
amount of mobile geo-applications are growing rapidly. But what makes an application a success or a failure?
In 2005 a business case was drawn up by Spinlab Amsterdam which showed a substantial gain in efficiency when
using Location Services as an innovative information service for the activities of Incident Management. But
this was a theoretical approach. Now in practice: "Is the end-user willing to adopt this new technology?"
In june 2008 I completed my MSc dissertation handling this aspect with the title mentioned above. The main question of this research was:
"What factors do influence the adoption of LS with IM+ by the Dutch highway authority?"
The Dutch Directorate for Public Works and Water Management (RWS) as highway authority
is committed to implementing Incident Management (IM+) measures on the national Dutch motorway network. The aim of these
IM+ measures is to ensure the safe and rapid handling of incidents so that the traffic flow restrictions caused by
an incident are lifted as quickly as possible. In practice, this means some technical measures and co-operation between
the RWS and professional emergency services. For these cooperative partners the availability of reliable and up-to-date
Spatial information plays an important role in handling incident calls. To make the required information accessible in
the field a new Information technology that take your geographic location into consideration, called Location Services,
is planned to become available for the RWS.
This research project explored the acceptance and usage behavior factors of the Dutch Road inspectors of Location
Services (LS) with Incident Management (IM+). By using the Technology Acceptance Model of Fred Davis (Davis, 1989)
the understanding of their acceptance processes is improved, providing theoretical insight into the successful implementation
and adoption of LS with IM+. Factors like age, educational background and GIS related experience didn't seem to affect the
intention to use LS. The availability (speed) of up-to-date information in the field and the choice of hardware configuration
(stability) seem to have a positive influence on the acceptance of LS. Because of a primarily discussion concerning privacy
when using the Tracking&tracing functionality of LS, surprisingly the knowledge of the whereabouts of the colleagues is
appreciated by the Dutch road inspectors and has a positive affect on the actual system use. The gained knowledge of these
factors of the Dutch road inspectors will enable the management of the RWS to evaluate proposed Location Services prior
to the implementation and with that provide useful information about the likelihood of success of adoption.
Concluding: The results of this research project show that the Dutch Road inspectors seem willing to adopt LS with IM+.
|
|
|
Certificate, Nice; Diploma, Great; MSc, Awesome.
I have given the last couple of years to Unigis; But what a joy. Unigis not only enriched me with Geo-related knowledge but
also provided me personally with a more analytical view and changed me somehow in that matter in a positive way.
The long distance learning method Unigis uses encouraged my enthusiasm of GIS and was the only way for me to combine my professional live with the academic one.
Great respect goes to the staff of Unigis Amsterdam (and Manchester Metropolitan U.) who accompanied me with great support to become a
Harry Potter-like MSc (That's the way UK dresses up for graduation). The whole crew has a warm family-like approach of coaching their
students. Always available and sharp when it's necessary.
So a warm "Thank you" and a big hand goes to Unigis for giving me that Unigis-feeling and feeding my never-ending educational GIS-appetite.
Paul Jonk, Master's Student
|
|
Vrije Universiteit, dep. Regional Economics ; De Boelelaan 1105 ; 1081 HV Amsterdam ; Room 3a-38 (Main Building) ;
Telephone: +31 (0)20-5986099
unigis@feweb.vu.nl
|
|
