To develop and deploy resources effectively in a disaster, information systems (IS) must produce an accurate, reliable, and trustworthy assessment of the situation at scale and in context. The images, text, sounds and data to achieve this objective are most often processed and mapped from multiple systems and sources. Trusted situational awareness, however, is also contingent on trusted information governance (TIG) approaches. How the value, authenticity; accuracy; reliability; and legality of image, text, sound and data is determined and assured is critical i.e. "the ways in which these representations are articulated into knowledge that structure our overall understandings".
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have accelerated the erosion of public trust in situational awareness assessments and processes. There is an information governance (IG) 'gap' with AI tools which are opaque in their construction and intent, and that mimic 'intelligence' by accessing and processing large volumes of data without appropriate governance 'guardrails'. This is most evident in the application of GenAI tools to use and alter images, text, sound and data to create 'deepfakes'.
Altering our approaches to IG through a transitional focus would allow us to develop mechanisms for: 1) complex IG and leadership for social sustainability by better understanding available IS tools like AI and GenAI as well as frameworks, concepts, descriptions, rules and communications approaches based on self-producing/constructing physical systems i.e. technical, social, economic, and cultural; 2) how to work in large and diverse teams - understanding, developing, implementing and accommodating approaches to complex IG; and 3) understanding the IG of local/global critical infrastructure and supply networks and logistics and their effective incorporation into emergency, crisis and disaster response i.e. life lines for social sustainability. This session will briefly explain the current issues with IG and a transitional approach to the development of TIG.