Over the past six years, there have been several recurring discussion threads emerging at the Workshops involving data requirements, understanding operational needs, and tools for addressing those needs. For the 2014 Workshop, these threads will be drawn together under the umbrella of utility in the fields of stabilization and disaster response. The major Workshop objectives and questions will be geared toward answering:
What do we need to make socio-cultural knowledge useful?
How do we effectively share our knowledge and methodologies?
Outside of the organizations represented by Workshop attendees, who would be interested in utilizing socio-cultural data?
What aspects of socio-cultural knowledge are applicable beyond the Defence sphere?
What are the barriers to sharing and utilizing information both within and without the Defence sphere?
What approaches are needed to overcome the barriers?
How best to create a sharable record of what has been learned?
How to utilize socio-cultural knowledge to spot stability problems before they start?
Can the identification of information and models be formalized to enhance utility?
These questions will be addressed through a combination of plenary speakers and extended breakout sessions. The plenary sessions will be oriented toward specific Workshop questions, and will be composed of both academic and practitioner presentations. The breakout sessions will provide opportunities for facilitated discussion that elaborates ideas from the plenary presentations and allows multiple perspectives to be incorporated. Breakouts will be focused on specific questions dealing with utility through regional, organizational, technical, functional, and practical considerations.
