Hastily Formed Networks

Description

"Networks can spring up under a variety of conditions. Sometimes they are desperately needed when a crisis has knocked out both physical systems and social connections. In other cases, they are a more organic response to an unpredictable combination of opportunity, coincidence and timing. There are a few things that we take as givens: complexity and uncertainty call for the capacity to collaborate in the absence of authority, and we will be most effective if we build the competence for this type of interaction before the need arises." (http://www.heartlandcenters.slu.edu/kmoli/assignments/Hastily.pdf)

Special Issue of 'Reflections' Journal

• Hastily Formed Networks: Collaboration in the Absence of Authority, Peter Denning

URL = http://www.heartlandcenters.slu.edu/kmoli/assignments/Hastily.pdf

"Disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami or Hurricane Katrina, give rise to hastily formed networks. He focuses on the results of research, some of it action learning by NPS, at the scene of these disasters, and notes that the quality of response was not related to disaster planning or equipment, but on the quality of the network that came together to provide relief. He highlights a set of research-based guidelines for effective emergency response networks that have broader applications for all of us."