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Abstract:
Increasingly, organizations are formed by individuals and groups that share common interests and goals but are not tied to each other by traditional authorities or financial relationships. Membership in these new organizations tends to shift over time as the environment changes, participants enter and leave, and roles, activities, and interests of members evolve. This evolving organizational structure can be described as an open or porous network, one in which the boundaries are highly permeable across functional interest areas within the organization, as well as between the organization and the external environment.1 In late 2007, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at National Defense University launched an international research project called Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support (TIDES) as part of a broader research effort called Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research (STAR).2 STAR-TIDES projects, conducted mostly by volunteers from around the world,3 together with a small core team at CTNSP, seek to develop and share knowledge and technologies to enhance the capacity of disparate groups to respond effectively to disasters and humanitarian crises. With participants from government, academia, industry, and non-profit organizations, the STAR-TIDES organization fits the pattern of an open, porous network. From late 2007 through mid-2009, STAR-TIDES sponsored 14 field demonstrations, displays, and field observations of novel, low-cost approaches for providing emergency shelter and life support to stressed populations. It also has supported decisionmakers and field operators in real-world contingencies, such as rural brushfires and tropical cyclones.
| Limitations: |
 APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE |
| Pages: |
19 |
| Report Date: |
Sep-2009 |
| Report Number: |
A408705 |
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