Digital Ecosystem

In the last 20 years, the world has seen an increasing number of crises and disasters, such as terrorist attacks, earthquakes, tsunamis, refugee flows and financial crises. The crises seem to be occurring more frequently, with many of them being cross-border. Dependencies between actors are becoming increasingly complex, and the causes are often found outside the actor's own control. Consequences are also becoming increasingly difficult to relate to causes, which in turn places greater demands on collaboration and often requires the need to coordinate and focus joint efforts. An example of this challenge can be found in the Swedish Corona Commission, which reports a lack of information due to the limited number of sources that could describe the spread of infection (Corona Commission, 2021, p. 65).

In this context, one sees risks with today's interconnected service providers that form, among other things, vulnerable logistics chains, which in turn give a digital ecosystem a central role; it must be adaptive, resilient and robust by including crisis management as a basic principle in every part of the business, rather than treating it as a separate add-on.

A key feature that enables this resilience is a pooling system for sharing resources and capabilities. For example, the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience finds that a pooling system contributes to 1) cost savings, 2) improve response times, 3) increase availability of specialised equipment, 4) improve coordination, and 5) increased capacity (Sutton, 2023).

Adding a human perspective, such as trust and confidence, is crucial in encouraging the sharing of resources, especially in crisis situations. These social characteristics, together with technological advances, drive the five benefits listed above.

An established and practised collaboration ensures that actors feel comfortable borrowing and sharing a limited amount of resources. These cooperative capabilities, developed over time, make society more resilient and demonstrate the central role of the digital ecosystem.

Value Chain

To develop a digital ecosystem, the key point is how information, social and cognitive collaboration is supported within the digital ecosystem. Imagine a scenario where sensors indicate a critical shortage of supplies in a healthcare facility. A value chain enables a structured view of how actors themselves detect disruptions, which then lead to coordinating logistics to ensure the delivery of essential supplies. This incident illustrates how adaptive collaboration emerges with the support of a value chain, which in turn leads to a form of self-synchronisation.

Collaboration Arena

To translate this value chain into a solution, the digital ecosystem needs a supporting capability for information exchange. A collaboration arena is an example of a flexible and secure concept that facilitates this, as shown in the figure below.

Within this collaboration arena, the actors first need a technical platform to ensure interoperability. Then consider the above scenario, which begins with a real-time warning of supply shortages. This enables a Community of Interest (COI) that supports the development of an operational plan. Here, resources and expertise are activated for a joint mission with the goal of minimising shortages of supplies.

References

Coronakommissionen. (2021). Delbetänkande 2: Sverige under pandemin, Volym 1 Smittspridning och smittskydd. https://coronakommissionen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/sverige-under-pandemin-volym-1_webb.pdf

Sutton, N. (2023). The benefits of sharing emergency response resources. Australian Journal of Emergency Management (AJEM), 38(3). https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/ajem-july-2023-the-benefits-of-sharing-emergency-response-resources-1