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Emergency response operations are usually initiated by emergency calls from lay bystanders at the incident scene, providing information that is vital for assessing the situation. While the communication is mainly verbal, the use of live video systems for providing real-time visual information is increasingly being focused. This study presents an analysis of work practices in command and control centres (CCC) in Norway and documents experiences from early-stage adoption and use of a live video system. Based on interviews with emergency dispatchers, our study contributes knowledge on how this new source of information is incorporated in the emergency response decision process in the CCCs. The results show how the use of live video can enhance situational awareness in multi-agency operations, especially in unclear situations. However, the benefits of using video need to be balanced against the additional manual operations required, which may cause delays in time-critical situations.

City resilience is a pressing issue worldwide since the majority of the population resides in urban areas. When disaster strikes, the consequences will be more severe in the cities. To achieve resilience, different organizations, agencies and the public should share information during a disaster. ICT-based community engagement is used for strengthening resilience. The authors propose a set of metrics for assessing the security and privacy of information sharing tools for resilience. They then apply the selected metrics to a selection of information sharing tools. The authors' main finding is that most of them are reasonably well-protected, but with less than private default settings. They discuss the importance of security and privacy for different important categories of users of such systems, to better understand how these aspects affect the willingness to share information. Security and privacy is of particular importance for whistle-blowers that may carry urgent information, while volunteers and active helpers are less affected by the level of security and privacy.

Managing crises with limited resources through a serious game is deemed as one of the ways of training and can be regarded as an alternative to a table-top exercise. This article presents the so-called “Operasjon Tyrsdal” serious game, inspired by a real case of extreme weather that hit the west coast of Norway. This reference case is used to add realism to the game. The game is designed for a single player, while the mechanics are framed in such a way that the player will have limited resources, and elevated event pressure over time. Beside applying an iterative Scrum method with seven Sprint cycles, we combined the development work with desk research and used the involvement of testers, including crisis responders. The resulting game has expected features and behaviors, is game(ful), but allow the player to learn through an “After Action” report that logs all player's decisions, which is intended to trigger discussions.