VOI and VOA in our dynamic domain depends primarily on whether the information will influence decisions/responses. The execution aid must also ensure human awareness of high-value data to support decisions only the human user can make. Thus, the system must estimate or model what the human needs to know (e.g., by specifying reporting requirements), even if the system cannot predict how the information might influence a decision. For example, an emerging adversarial or friendly pattern might be crucial. If the system does not have a human-level ability to recognize plans and patterns, then it should ensure the human decision maker is aware of the relevant data.
One obvious but important property of VOI is that it is zero if the user is already aware of the information. Another property is that information indicating that plan execution is proceeding according to plan can be valuable, because it influences the decision to continue as planned. The value of such confirming information depends on the features of the domain -- such information will be more valuable in domains with high uncertainty and active adversaries.
Another feature that may be useful in certain domains is classifying the responses suggested by a piece of information or an alert. For example, any new report may require a significant plan modification, a minor plan modification, the invocation of a contingency plan, the application of a standard operating procedure (SOP), or the identification of a new opportunity. However, the type of response does not necessarily correlate with VOI, as a minor plan modification might be life saving, while a major modification might simply reduce resource usage by ten percent. The distinction is important because the simpler responses can more likely be handled in an automated fashion, thus reducing the need to involve the user.
Determining what information to present in an alert requires addressing human factors. Initially, it is important to present an alert concisely so the human can determine its import at a glance, and assess whether to divert his or her attention from other tasks. In our EAs, the user can drill down for more detailed information on any alert in order to assess the situation more accurately. Finally, some domains may have concerns other than making informed decisions. For example, the emotional state of the user or recording data of scientific value might be beneficial. In particular, if the concern is analyzing or debugging system performance rather than making good execution decisions, a different VOI estimator can be used to provide alerts about system behavior.