I- If only... if only...

If only the world was perfect. If it was, then Mexico would be the recipient of the technologies we've spend this entire semester dreaming of. From Twitter to Facebook to simple SMS texting. Last night a 6.7 earthquake hit Mexico and killed one.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/national/article/203291/175/Mexico-Earthquake-Kills-At-Least-1-Person

Like the Haitian earthquake, phones were still able to be used during and after the quake hit. So while the rest of us in State College were either hammered, sleeping, or "singing" Don't Stop Believing at the top the lungs, Mexico's earthquake was able to be reported to family and friends as well as how the person, who initiated it, is doing.  Likewise, Japan and Hawaii both had earthquakes as well, and no damages were reported there either.

Suffice it to say that I would just end this blog post there... there's not much else you can say besides an earthquake hit and people had their phones. So, naturally people are going to do what they naturally do: when anything relatively exciting or new happens, they take to their phones. Go figure.

I- From a $20 Tickle me Elmo to a $55 Tickle me Elmo

Is it just me or does anyone else remember using Xanga? In our lifetime, mind you I'm just barely in my twenties, we've seen our technologies for communication grow and expand rapidly. From calling only phones, to texting capabilities, to xanga, AIM, to myspace, to Facebook, to Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Even eHarmony, Chemistry.com, ChristianDating.com help people date by meeting over the internet! The best way I could describe this, is actually through the link below and the table that it shows:

http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/02/deja_vu_all_ove.html

But take a minute to think about this; if we have seen such rapid development in the last decade or so, what is the technology going to be like when our children are that age? My parents grew up with black and white tv, and it was a miracle when they got color and more than ten channels. I grew up with over sixty channels easily, VHS, DVD, Nintendo 64, cell phones, and such. Whenever I decide to procreate and expand my family, what will those creatons be playing with? Holographic "imaginary" friends?

Where on earth is technology going? Will the world of iRobot actually be our future? Or perhaps it will be the Jetsons.

Either way, if we do become the Jetsons in a hundred years, I won't be around... I just hope it's less complicated than today's world. Maybe by then the U.S. Government will learn that they should balance their checkbook like average citizens do... you can't spend more than you earn. 

I- Should CraigsList be retitled MurderList? Or SexList?

            When CraigsList was founded, I doubt that it’s founder meant it to be used as a tool for murder.  Since 2007, even up until today, people have been murdered, and violently attacked by replying to, or placing advertisements on CraigsList.  In 2007, Katherine Olson was found murdered, stuffed in the trunk of her car after responding to an ad.  In 2008, a Michigan woman put a contract out for murder via CraigsList. While in 2009, George Weber was found bound and stabbed over 50 times after meeting a woman on CraigsList, Julissa Brisman was murdered by Philip Markoff after he responded to her massage services ad, and Heather Snively and her unborn child of eight months were brutally murdered after meeting Korena Roberts to discuss her ad about selling baby clothes.

            More recently, in April 2010, Jimmy Sanders was murdered and his family terrorized by four individuals including, one, Kiyoshi Higashi.  Along with Joshua Reese, Amanda Knight, and Clabon Berniard responded to Mr. Sanders’ CraigsList ad regarding a diamond ring for sale.  Higashi was the first of the group to go to trial, and the first CraigsList killer to be found guilty of first-degree murder, as of March 9, 2011.  His presence during the murder of Mr. Sanders was enough to get a conviction on the counts of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and two counts of both second-degree assault and first-degree robbery.  

            Even more recently, yesterday, December 1, 2011, another “CraigsList Killer” was arrested. He is sixteen years old. Brogan Rafferty of Stow, Ohio, along with his fifty-two year old mentor Richard Beasley. (Beasley has not been charged in this case yet, due to other charges against him involving prostitution and drugs.)  The duo met when Mr. Beasley was a chaplain mentoring the young adult.  According to the New York Times article Craigslist Used in Deadly Ploy to Lure Victims in Ohio, by Erica Goode, “The perpetrators appeared to be looking for loners who would not be missed,” and I rather agree. Their CraigsList ad offered a job where the person selected would be responsible for feeding some cows and watching the 688 acre expanse of land, and came with a few perks including a free trailer to stay in and unlimited fishing. Before agreeing to give the fake job to the people who applied for it, they were interviewed by Mr. Beasley. One such man was Ron Sanson; he was denied from the job in the ad on CraigsList. Perhaps it was because he was in the Navy after attending college, and he would be missed. Three men were murdered after ‘receiving’ the fake job, and another was injured and luckily escaped, unraveling this CraigsList serial killing. 

            This most recent CraigsList killing spree got me thinking… is the technology that we love, that we share so much of ourselves on, that we seem to not be able to live without our undoing? Why are we so willing to trust over the internet, yet so unwilling to trust in person? I believe it is because those of us in the world who have a good-hearted nature believe, or wish to believe, that others wouldn’t do such a thing as lure innocent people to their brutal deaths. This naive belief leads many people down a road from which they will never return. Unfortunately many people are murdered each year, but the number of people murdered after initial contact is made through the internet is steadily on the rise.

            Events like the first CraigsList killing, are sadly becoming more and more common. It is easier than ever to find information about people whom you are talking with over the internet than ever before. Between our naïve views, and the amount of readily accessible information, and the amount of information we willingly give out about ourselves it is no wonder why such events are on the rise. I am very much a supporter of the idea, the more privacy an individual has the better, and I think more people should adopt this view. I’m not saying that I don’t have any personal information out and about on the internet, you could probably find some if you wanted to search hard enough, but I think that everyone should be more wary of who they trust on the internet. A new ‘friend’ may not be so friendly when you meet. The most recent CraigsList killings show just that. 

I-Friends? Okay… I’ll Facebook-stalk you first.

When I was younger, I remember having to memorize my friend’s phone numbers in order to call them to see if they could hang out for the day. Now, all I have to do is take out my cell phone, shoot out a text or post a status on my Facebook page saying, “I’m bored at—Saloon—come drink with me!” And then I think to myself… great, well let’s see how many creepers come out to play tonight. “Facebook stalking” has become a socially acceptable phenomenon, more like a socially acceptable blunder. As stated by NCgirl59 on urbandictionary.com,

            The act of monitoring another person's activity (status updates, photo uploads, photo tags, photo comments, wall posts, friend additions, group memberships, attended events, mutual friends, e.t.c.) on the popular social network of Facebook.

                        Person A: I was Facebook stalking Jennifer for two hours last night.                                                             

                        Person B: Oh really?

                        Person A: Yeah, Amber added photos from her birthday party and Jennifer was tagged in one of them. However two weeks ago Jennifer RSVPed 'attending' on the guest list for Jack's                                                             birthday party which was the same night as Amber's. Then she updated her status to: "Jennifer is going on a date tonight" but according to her relationship status, she's not single!

            So this leaves me at the Saloon, waiting for friends, and I end up getting people who I’m pity-friends with who happen to have been Facebook stalking me at the time I put up that status. What a shame. (I would never actually use FourSquare or Places, to “check into” places for my own personal safety reasons, but never the less the point still stands; I’m still stuck at the Saloon with unwanted people.) Due to the social norm of Facebook stalking, I would solidly like to say “F you” to whoever invented the FourSquare and Places apps. Not only have those apps added to the social networking stalking that is occurring, it also opens up various windows to illicit and illegal activities. As stated by Anna Brundage in her September article in The Quinnipac Chronicle, “I do not want everyone to know where I am. If I feel it is important enough for someone to know where I am, I will tell them” and I rather tend to agree.

            Anna Brundage then goes on in the same article to state her, rather similar to my, opinion of the options to subscribe to Facebook friends and groups. It is a tad bit too much. Having someone receive a SMS message every time I post a status not only creeps me out, I think it is a completely unnecessary and rather dangerous integrated part of Facebook. With statuses being posted by myself and my friends on Facebook who use and have enabled the location setting for posts on their Facebooks, the last thing I want is for someone who I don’t really want to know that much about me to be seeing if they can develop a pattern of my behavior via Facebook posts by myself or my friends. The last thing I would ever want is for people to be able to do that to myself or any of my friends, between past experiences of my own, I really do not want anyone at all to see where I am several times per week and see my behavioral patterns.

            More over, if Facebook stalking is “bad” and can enable those who are doing the Facebook stalking to see behavioral patterns of the people who are the targets of such activities, imagine this…a breakup notification application. Guess what? It already exists. It is the brain child of Beverly Hills-based software programmer Dan Loewenherz, originally developed as a joke. This is a prime example of a joke turned potentially harmful and dangerous app available to all on Facebook. Upon its introduction to the world wide web via Facebook, it found seekers of such an application as far as India, and over 100,000 seekers within the first twenty four hours of its release. So, realistically that’s 100,000 people looking, and keeping tabs on at least 100,000 other individuals, and up to 700,000 just within the first twenty four hours that the application was released to the public. Initially a joke, now a world wide stalking tool. What a shame.

            So I leave you with a final pondered thought of mine; is Facebook a social networking site, or a social stalking site? You can keep in touch with far away relatives, and friends. You can keep up with friends near by. You can see what your room mates are up to. You can see who’s dating whom. You can keep tabs on the people you’re trying to hang out with. You can perpetually watch the Facebook pages of people who you’d like to. You can see where they go. You can see what they do. You can see everything they let you see. So I, again, leave you with a final pondered thought of mine…is Facebook a social networking site, or a social stalking site?  

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facebook%20stalking

http://www.quchronicle.com/2011/09/new-facebook-is-stalker-friendly/

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-21/entertainment/28639636_1_free-app-new-app-facebook-relationship-status

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/facebook-timeline-a-stalkers-paradise-mass-exodus-on-the-way/12931

I- Is technology making us more rude?

If you think about it, if you wanted to insult someone fifty years ago you had to say it to their face. Now, however, you can Tweet it, Facebook it, Tumblr it, MySpace it, and loads others... you could text it if you are that bold. If you think it about it some more, this lack of face to face interaction lets people say things via their fingers and text on a screen that they would never say in person to another's face. For example, tonight I was tweeting with two girls that I was out to dinner with and then it hit me... I would probably never say this stuff to the individual that we were talking about. I then had another thought pop into my head: "Well if I wouldn't actually say this to their face, I guess this is rude since it's kind of like smack talking behind their back, but its over Twitter." While the people I was with completely agreed with what us three were saying, it got me thinking none the less. Is Twitter and Facebook influencing my actions this much? To the point where I would feel really mean and like a dog feels when its tail it tucked under its rear when its done something wrong and it knows it, in the event that they found our texts? Sadly, yes. I would feel like an extremely big a-hole since I would never have the cajones (however you spell that correctly) to say it in person, yet I have the audacity to send it out on Twitter like it's national news worthy. All because people I know have a disgusting habit of chewing with their mouths open... #gross. Too much? But now you see my point. Many people now say things over text, email, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites that they would never say before.

Fifty years ago, if you wanted to end a relationship you had to meet with that person, or if you wanted to be a really big a-hole you could simply call and say "It's over."

Today, if you wanted to end a relationship you can Facebook it, text it, or email it, or if you wanted to be a really big a-hole you could simply Tweet it and say "I'm freakin #single! Done with @JohnDoe!"

Marriage ending... all recorded on Twitter by a bystander.

So do you think that technology is increasing the rudeness of our society today? And if so, do you think that we'll ever be cordial again, and do as the old phrase goes: "Treat others the way we would want to be treated" ?

A- Oh what a time...

ASSIGNED BLOG POST 12:

Reflecting on the readings and speakers of the entire semester, in what ways do you see IST, SRA and Penn State students as perfectly well-suited to address issues arising with the integration of technologies into crisis response?

This class has been a great experience, it has not only taught me more about disaster response, but how technology that I, as well as my classmates, already use on a daily basis for fun can be implemented in crisis situations. The IST and SRA, as well as other Penn State students in this class are well suited to address issues arising with the issues arising with the integration of technologies into crisis response. SRA and IST allows its students to help integrate technology into areas that don't readily incorporate technology that would help benefit that industry. This class has helped us visualize ways to integrate technology into humanitarian relief efforts through the use of twitter, facebook, open-source mapping, etc. 

Our interest and near immediate integration of technology into our own lives definitely allows for IST and SRA majors for the seamless crossbreeding in between technology and physical, information, and other types of security. This allows us to implement the uses of various technologies to achieve the goals of a particular concern, especially when linking human and technology elements. Innovation is also a key part of both of the IST and SRA majors; innovation of technology, innovation of new ways to do old things, and innovation of new processes. All of these things together have been taught in our Crisis Informatics class and other SRA and IST classes, which is why students from both majors can address issues arising with the issues arising with the integration of technologies into crisis response well. 

A- Geo-whatever and Project Malcontent

At the start of our class we decided that, since all of our first two entries for our final project were horrendous, we ditched the presentations and worked on our projects. Originally the group that I am in wanted to do something regarding health care, which turned into doing a mapping system for 911 dispatchers to help them prioritize their calls, which we then found out already exists. So our project at the current moment is null. It also didn't help that we sought help from our professor that was not responded to in a timely manner to say the least. 

Never the less, after we discussed our projects, what a requirements analysis actually was, and what a high level design was, we had a presenter about GIS. He works for Penn State as a professor and researcher in the Department of Geography for GeoVISTA. His presentation was okay, I have to say that Geographic Information Systems do not spike my interest in the least therefore I didn't really pay too close of attention to his presentation. One thing I did pick up on though was how he was using social media to geographically see what was occurring in geographic areas; and that Penn State wanted to use that technology on Penn State students during the rioting and protesting during the last few tumultuous weeks. Luckily, he saw a conflict of interest so that technology was not made available.

All in all, he knew his stuff, and my group is still struggling with our project.  

 

I- Penn state protests joe paternos firing

As I write this on the steps of old main, I can't help but to think of all the media and social networking that enabled such a gathering so suddenly. I first found out that espn would be showing the board of trustees press conference from my roommates text she got. I then texted my boyfriend and my parents. I then watched it; disgusted, my room mates and I were speechless. Soon after the media covered the press conference, along with twitter, facebook statuses, texts, and calls from friends protests and riots started. Could such an event have been possible if this kind of mass convergence could only be heard about through word of mouth, like in abe lincolns day? I think not. Social media today is such an immediate spread of knowledge; so I pose this question to you....in the case of mass convergences, is social media and instantaneous connectivity among peers a force for good or bad?

A- Twitter, Tweets, & Tweeting

Today's class started out rather unusually for our Crisis Informatics class session; we went to the CAVE. At the Extreme Events Lab in Penn State's Information Sciences and Technology building there was a room that could only be accessed by a few people AND WE GOT TO GO IN IT! :) While this room had a CAVE (not like a batman cave, but a piece of technology called CAVE), it was a smaller version of Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory's CAVE, but none the less awesome. The CAVE that I saw today with my fellow classmates was basically a huge screen that could project 3D images and data in various formats with images that could be manipulated. It was so cool; but I have to admit ARL's whole room of 3D projecting screens would be even more awesome to play with.

More information about the CAVE technology can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_Automatic_Virtual_Environment

The CAVE technology was based off of this woman's theory, which is explained in a video and also demonstrates how CAVE is generally used:
http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=8&type=8&indi=72



We also talked about Twitter today; I presented an article that I found to be pretty informative, even if it did get a bit wordy sometimes. (But, as it was a scholarly paper I guess it would be in its nature to be wordy.) The paper detailed five results that came from the research performed for that study

1- The quantity of Twitter activity measured correlated to both size and significance of happenings.
            aka: The more important and the more people it affects, the more people will
                     tweet about it.

2- The number of Twitter senders decreases as the number of tweets sent increases
            aka: This supports but doesn't prove the idea that people serve as information
                     hubs that they collect and distribute information while others absorb
                     that information

3- The percentage of reply tweets was much higher in random tweets than in the data samples used

4- The percentage of tweets containing URLs was higher in the data samples used than in random tweets
            -The use of URLs have been on the rise; in 2007 13% of all tweets contained
              a URL, but in 2008 it rose to just under 25%.

5- When faced with a need and having important and direct usefulness with it, people are more likely to adopt a new technology for the long term.
            aka: When people need to use a new technology because it will provide them
                     with some use that they can't get elsewhere, they are more likely to use
                     that new technology and keep using it into the long-term.

Overall, my article suggested that crisis management could and should use Twitter and other micro-blogging technologies to release rapid information when in crisis or mass convergence situations. After all, when a crisis happens I doubt anyone will want to get a twenty page report stating in overly-complexified terms that a water station will be set up at such and such corner... crisis managers need only send out a tweet saying "#crisis.at.x.location water station will be at such and such corner ".   Sometimes, and especially in crises, simplicity can never be over rated when it comes to meeting the needs of the individuals affected.

(As in last week's blog, I will state again that I think Twitter and other micro-blogging technologies should be used to communicate information rapidly TO people affected; not to collect information FROM people affected.)

A- Japan, aka: The Land of Newly Radiated Sushi

In the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake-tsunami combo hit, twitter emerged as a top source of communication between those affected who wanted to share information and those wanting to gain information about people and places.  Over seventy percent of the earthquake's responders used Twitter, thirty-eight used Facebook, and sixteen used Youtube to communicate to the outside world about how they were, what they were experiencing, where they were, and what they needed according to the article The Effects of Social Media on The Disaster Relief Effort Following The March 11 Earthquake in Japan.

Dr. Tapia, the course instructor for SRA 397a: Crisis Informatics posted a video link in this week's list documents to read, and I have to say that I have never seen such widespread devastation occur so fast, with such force, and it made the landscape nearly unrecognizable after all of the destruction was over. The video link was unfortunately unable to be accessed at the time of this post, so similar videos can be seen from the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiENf1f1tIA&feature=related

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12725646

While some people affected by Japan's disaster were Tweeting true emergencies, facts, needs, sights, and other things, there were those who were and were not affected by the disaster who were using the same hash-tags but were posting false needs, information, locations, and other tweets. Because of this, I feel that tweets aren't the best go-to-communication tool to use when trying to help populations in crises. The devastation that occurred in Japan is no doubt a tragedy, but we should be wary when offering help to those who need it... making sure those people are the people who actually need it and aren't leading humanitarian aid workers on a false trail of help.

A- Ushahidi: Swahili for "testimony" or "witness"

In today’s class Patrick Meier, the Director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi, gave a presentation via remote presentation technology. Dr. Meier was a previous co-director at Harvard University’s Program of Crisis Mapping and Early Warning and is a co-founder of the International Network of Crisis Mappers. In this week’s presentation he started out discussing how communications were during World War 1 and comparing them to how communications were during the recent Hatian Earthquake.

In World War 1 how was information get communicated and shared? In real time? The answer is…. You needed to be in the military. It would often take weeks for news to reach home; but on the frontlines of World War 1 carriers on motorbikes, even mirrors were used to communicate messages. Radios were too large at the time to bring onto the frontlines, so those were not in use to stay connected and communicate messages in and around 1914.

Today, however, Facebook, twitter, myspace, tumblr, and other social media sites are used to instantaneously spread communication across international boundaries as well as SMS and MMSs. In 2010 this was especially true. When the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on January 12^th; Dr. Meier and a few other good hearted people launched a live crisis map within a few hours of the earthquake striking. This live map was based off of the Usahidi website, and was started by a group of friends and colleagues of Dr. Meier in his living room in Massachusetts. An astounding accomplishment and help to humanitarian workers. This live crisis map became more valuable, even more valuable to the humanitarian aid workers than GoogleMaps, as time went on, because they had the most detailed mapping of the Port Au Prince area from OpenStreetMap. Thanks to the shortcode 4636, survivors were able to text Ushahidi with information about their most urgent needs and locations. This information was then crowdsourced and used to update the live crisis map; the map was changing every ten to fifteen minutes.

While Haiti was an example of the good uses of Ushahidi and modern communication technology. The riots in London recently are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Twitter, Facebook, and even Usahidi were used to coordinate, tell the rioters stories, and to map their riots as well. This exemplifies what Dr. Meier reluctantly admitted… Ushahidi is an open source software that anyone can use. By having Ushahidi be an open source software, anyone can add to it, edit it, make it better; but, they can also use it to the detriment of others. What would stop Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hammas, and other terroristic groups from using this kind of technology to their advantage? Nothing. It’s an open source software. So while Ushahidi has been most beneficial to humanitarian aid efforts, particularly in Haiti, in the words of Dr. Meier, “It only takes one jerk to mess it up.” 

More information about Ushahidi can be found at:

http://www.ushahidi.com/

A- Happ's Happy Presentation

Edward G. Happ, the Global CIO of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Chairman of NetHope, came to speak with us this week. He is one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT, and is also one of the Top 100 CIOs. The NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network) presented Mr. Happ with a Lifetime Achievement Award for technology leadership in the nonprofit community in 2010.   Through his presentation he noted three take away points: Crisis, Connections & Collaboration.

Crisis- The world stage is becoming more challenging.

No matter how much training you’ve had in crisis response there will always be two steps; a disarray will occur and then your training will kick in. Catastrophic events have been on the rise in terms of both man-made disasters and natural catastrophes from less than 100 crises in 1970 to over 300 in 2010.  In crises there are generic needs that everyone wants met, especially when it involves information. Is my family okay? Can I get to food? Water? Shelter? Can we communicate via voice or data? These are often the most sought after tidbits of knowledge during a crisis. The new information crises that are starting to arise. An example of such a problem was the social response to the Virginia earthquake on August 23^rd at 1:51 p.m. of this year. Tweets were faster at reporting what was happening than the seismometers because the tweets were nearly instantaneous. “In the social media world, everyone is a sensor…data source…and in some cases that data is faster and better than the data we have typically relied on,” stated Mr.Happ. He started discussing eight information challenges in need of solution shortly there after.

Relevance- is it actionable?

Verification- It is true, or is it a hoax?

Duplication- Has this already been dealt with?

Access- Do the most vulnerable have the tools?

Privacy- Is confidentiality being respected? Are there security risks?

Expectations- Are we creating unrealistic expectations?
Impact- Are we converting data into aid delivery?

Proximity- Are we understanding new proximity dynamics?

Connections- Responding to crises with technology is becoming increasingly social

Cell-phones are becoming the dominant gateway to the internet in Kenya and other non-first world countries across the world. Smart phones are slowly replacing SMS-dumb phones. (BTW China is rumored to have a sub-$75 smart phone coming out soon.) In Haiti and the after effects of its devastating earthquake, a company named Trilogy used an app called TERA that allowed targeted SMS texts to be sent to survivors. Over six million texts were sent to survivors in seven days; 385k SMS per day were received; 1.1 million early warning SMS texts were sent out; and one million cholera health SMS texts were also sent out.

Collaboration- Working together isn’t an option; it is imperative.

That definition speaks for itself. However, if you’d like some more to read I’ll gladly reiterate the story that Mr. Happ shared with us in class.  He was in Zaire doing humanitarian relief work when they were driving on a road and came to a HUGE tree that fell across the road blocking their way. It was too large of a tree to cut through without taking an absurdly long time, it was too large to go around, and it was too large to try to simply go over it, or try to move it on their own. After a half an hour or so, some locals had heard of their troubles and had come to see if they could help. The local tribe shaman started to chant in a rhythm that went up and down, as the rhythm went up the local tribesmen lifted the tree and moved it about an inch until the rhythm went down and they put down the tree. This process lasted about an hour until the tree was moved, inch-by-inch, out of the way so Mr. Happ and his crew could pass. This story exemplifies the fact that working together to achieve a goal is not an option; it’s imperative.

Overall, I feel that this was by far the best presentation of the set so far. I truly learned from Mr. Happ’s presentation, and I implore you to view his personal youtube cannel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ehapp99

A- Alphabet Soup? UN-OCHA? What?

In yesterday’s class, Andrew Alspach came to speak to us directly. Mr. Alspach is currently a Programme Officer Information Management, since 2007. Formerly he was a Training Coordinator for the US Peace Corps from 2005-2011, an Iraq Programme Officer Information management from 2003-2005, and an UN OCHA Refugees Information Management Officer from 2000-2001 with UNHCR.  While he was speaking I noticed that he had somewhat of an accent from living and working in Geneva, although he grew up on an Ohio farm as a beekeeper, hmmm just an odd thought.  Some of the more striking things that I noticed during his presentation were the mention of a “check-in” app, Larry Prusak, and how everyone wants to know the number of something.

A “checking-in” app was previously developed for humanitarian aid in any given place, however the app failed for multiple reasons. First and foremost, the app was meant for information managers, for people who were used to querying and searching in deep crevices of a database for information that they wanted, but was later released to the public to be used. This created problems for people who didn’t know how to properly search a database for useful information, because even though the information that the users were seeking was in the database, the search processes for that information were absolutely not helpful. It was developed as a proprietorship, but marketed as an open source software, another flaw.

Larry Prusak was absolutely hysterical and completely right when he was shown via previously recorded video regarding knowledge management versus information management and developing knowledge. His personal website is in a link below:

http://www.laurenceprusak.com/

Another think I especially picked up on was when Mr. Alspach mentioned how when in a disaster relief situation everyone wants to know the number of something, but often times we do not really know the number they want. Ranges are possible, but hardly ever the real actual number. “The Number” includes two subsections: the affected population made up of displaced persons, refugees, asylum seekers, others and nondisplaced people, as well as casualties made of the dead and missing. (The injured are not included in the casualties as part of “The Number”.)  

Overall, I thought his presentation was very enlightening and very interesting. I do have to say that his presentation was the most interesting to date, and he did put on the best presentation.

A- A New Digital Evolution and Generation

In this week's class on Crisis Informatics we were lucky to be able to Skype with Mr. Gisli Olafsson, the Emergency Responce Director of NetHope. NetHope is an organization whose goal is "to be a catalyst for collaboration among international humanitarian organizations. By working together to solve problems and share knowledge...our members have access to the best information and communication technology and practices... We do this by working across our membership as a highly collaborative team, solving common technology problems, fostering strong relationships with private industry, and educating our members and the wider community of humanitarian organizations worldwide."  Mr. Gisli Olafsson, since 2010, has been the Emergency Response Director of NetHope where he has been responsible for emergency preparedness and emergency response activities within NetHope.
More information about NetHope can be found at their website:
www.nethope.org

Going into the discussion, about how digital age technologies are changing humanitarian responses, as well as the role of technology and information in humanitarian responses and how crowd sourcing, mass collaboration, information, and self-organization will affect approaches to disaster and crisis response methods, I had a few questions. How has technology advanced and impact the realm of disaster relief, and where is it headed, and where can it improve? What would be an ideal disaster relief technology, and what are the discrepencies between what that ideal technology is and the capabilities of today's technology/ society? Which area of disaster recovery is the most difficult to achieve in regards to communication efforts in disaster response, and how would the difficulty of accomplishing that be ideally resolved?

Throughout the Skype video chat, I found a few of the answers that I was looking for. Surprisingly, the first thing that I learned (but should've deduced for myself already) was that most of the institutions we rely on today for help in disaster situations were created in the Industrial Age. Now, more than ever, we are beginning to notice the difference in the way things were run back then, and how they should be run now; since communication costs are going down, institutions are no longer the go-to-fix anymore. We are beginning to see a convergence of a technical revolution and social revolution...a new digital evolution and generation. This was especially noticeable about seven years ago, in the South-East Asia tsunami; we began to see a humanitarian effort "reform". Changes that have occurred in the past five to ten years have been more drastic than decades prior.

Although, we have come a long way in a short amount of time, we're still not there yet. Technologies described by Mr. Olafsson which would be most beneficial to humanitarian aids and relief efforts were such things as a "check-in" for NGO's to see who is there, who is doing what, where they are, and how much they have accomplished so far; sharing data better at an international level, not a word document, excel table, or pdf file, actual data from which conclusions can be drawn independent from who collected the raw data; as well as capabilities to visualize data in certain ways to make it more appropriate to work with, such as geo-spatial-analysis of tweets done by Ushahidi during the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts.

Technology has come a long way, and it will continue to go further beyond our wildest expectations into the future. Perhaps, by then we will have the technological capabilities and social expectations to make some of the technologies described by Mr. Olafsson possible. Until then, we'll just have to keep inventing 'til something clicks!

A- Technology Galore!!

Haiti was a technological display of all new gizmos and gadgets that had not been previously used in disaster response. SMS services, Mission 4636, Local Media, Geo-Tagging, and Crowdsourced Maps were the tools implemented for the first time in the response effort to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. SMS services were established by the International Federation of the Red Cross with the Viola cell phone company, and by Ushahidi.  These SMS texting services allowed texts to be sent by people who needed help or who needed to be rescued. That’s where Mission 4636 came in. Mission 4636 was an SMS service that was established in the living room of a Massachusetts professor that wanted to do some good. Local media was destroyed in the quake except for local radio stations. The radio stations, especially SignalFM, were used to broadcast information to survivors of the quake and to broadcast about local areas that were damaged or still in place. Geo-tagging was used to find people who had sent messages to the short code 4636. The geo-tagging was also used to make crowd-sourced maps. These maps became the standard for the search and rescue teams that were in place to help the survivors get to stable and secure places where they could receive help. All five of these technologies and areas were never previously used in a disaster response. In a way the response effort to the earthquake in Haiti was a technological experiment to see how technology could play a role in disaster relief, and what areas it could most help and most be impacted by technology. 

The "map" above explains all five areas that impacted the technology used in the disaster response to the Haitian earthquake. 

A- Failure and failure yet again.

"During Katrina, virtually every system failed: Internet communications, radio transmissions, cell phones, even backup gear such as satellite phones handed out by federal relief workers after the storm. Even when the equipment worked, officials from different agencies and jurisdictions could not talk with one another. Their radios were simply not compatible."

            -http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120902039.html

Not only did nearly every communication system fail, communication between agencies and officers on the ground were hardly cooperative towards each other because of bureaucracy. A lot of the damage caused by the Hurricane Katrina could have been avoided if bureaucracy was put aside for the betterment of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. One of the biggest things that bureaucracy stove piped was the need for improved technology in the area. There were the wrong type of cell phone towers located in New Orleans and in the surrounding areas. In addition to having the wrong type, they were not waterproof. The generators were also neglected in New Orleans in the same ways that the cell phone towers were. Those two areas alone led to having massive power outages when they were rendered useless by the hurricane that hit the coast.

After the attack on the twin towers on September 11, 2001, the NIMS system was created to help coordinate federal, state, and local agency’s emergency preparedness and incident management. When the National Incident Management System was created we thought that the communication crises and failures that we faced during and after the attacks on the twin towers would be a thing of the past. Hurricane Katrina undid that optimistic view of the NIMS system. When Katrina hit and caused mass devastation to the Gulf Coast Region, we had thought that the NIMS system would solve the problems we faced in the aftermath of 9/11, rather it showed us that NIMS was a band-aid but not a permanent fix to the communication failures that occurred again. 

A- The Current Humanitarian System

            Humanitarianism began because of Henry Dundant, and has four main principles: Humanity, to alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found; Neutrality, to not take sides in a conflict; and not help one side win over the other; Impartiality, aid should be based on needs alone, regardless of race, class, gender and sex; whoever needs it more gets it ; and Independence, from benefactors and institutional donors. Three additional principles of Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality were added later.

            A video we watched in class yesterday, found at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqRo4Xkix8, detailed International Humanitarian Law, and the Geneva Conventions. I hadn’t previously realized the full extent of the Geneva Conventions and their current shortcomings until this video. While the Geneva Conventions state that in war civilians, wounded, sick, and detainees/captured combatants must be spared and may not be targeted at all costs, detainees and captured combatants must be allowed to maintain contact with their families and bans any violence including torture against them, and that breaking the Geneva Conventions you can be prosecuted by any country, or by the International Criminal Court.  Something was brought to the viewers attention that was potentially a circumvention of the Geneva Conventions, and that was rebels and private hire guns and how they present a problem regarding adherence to the rules of war panned out by the Geneva Conventions.  What I found most interesting about this video is that it points out two very good points: there has been a polarization post-9/11 in war and humanitarian efforts towards anti-terrorism goals and combats which have helped to destabilize entire regions, and that traditionally war has been two sided between countries; now it is a group of people or an organization against a country or another group of people.

            We also covered complex emergencies in class. A complex emergency is a multifaceted humanitarian crisis in a country, region, or society where there is a total or considerable breakdown of authority resulting from internal or external conflict and which requires a multi-sectoral, international response that goes beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency.  

 

            By this definition the tsunami that affected Indonesia and India, among many other countries, could be considered a complex emergency due to India's near non-existent national government and the horrible after effects of the tsunami.

            Given the definition of a complex emergency, a country is considered stable when most of the people within the country have enough food and medical care, most kids are taken care of, most people live in homes, and most are not afraid of being shot. That being said, Afghanistan has not been a stable country for at least twenty, if not thirty years, so if a natural disaster, man-conceived disaster, or a complex emergency were to occur in that country, how much humanitarian aid would be necessary? And how much humanitarian aid is too much aid? Where is the cut off? And how do we regulate the humanitarian aid we give to ensure that it is used for the intended purposes for which the aid is sent? 

A- Introduction of myself

            Hello Everyone! This is my first official blog post, and it is the start of many more to come. I am Jennifer Reimann, I am currently a third year student at Penn State University majoring in Security and Risk Analysis with a concentration in Intelligence Analysis and Modeling and minoring in Psychology with an emphasis on Psychology of Fear and Stress, and Behavior Modification.  This blog was created for my SRA 397A: Crisis Informatics class, taught by Dr. Andrea Tapia. I chose to take this class to increase my knowledge in how technology plays a role in crisis response and how we, as individuals and as a nation, can improve our technologies and crisis responses to various natural and man-made crises. I am taking this class with him and one of his roommates, both of whom are excellent bullshitters, and are absolutely ridiculous. In combination with them and some of the other people in the class, this should make for an interesting class this semester.

            When I’m not on the Penn State campus, I’m usually at my place, or my boyfriend’s.  I love two of my three roommates and I like the other one, all girls that generally function well together minus when we have the same shark week. Beware male population. Luckily, my boyfriend is also my best friend and my boyfriend so we get along well, and I’ve pretty much become another roommate to the guys in his apartment. Which isn’t that bad aside from the constant belching contests, awkward comments, and other manly what-have-yous because I get along better with the male species than the female.

            While my parents are enjoying the constant weather in Florida, I am in cold, snowy, rainy Pennsylvania. As you can probably tell, I am not a fan of cold weather. I was born in Delaware, then moved to New Jersey and graduated from South River High School in Maryland one semester early. I then went to Penn State: Altoona starting Spring of 2009 for my first collegiate semester. I have one brother who is a Nursing major at Misericordia College in Pennsylvania, and “my” dog, a black miniature poodle, is at home with my parents in sunny Florida. Rocky is more like my mom’s shadow than anyone else’s dog, wherever she goes, he goes with the exception of chasing lizards and the world’s ugliest ducks ever created.

            So, what am I planning on doing with my degree from Penn State? Putting it in a frame and hanging it. Really, that’s what I’m going to DO with my degree. What am I planning on doing with the KNOWLEDGE I have gained obtaining my degree? I have no idea. I’ve worked retail, at PacSun and Target for over 3 years, and I am good at it, so I’m hoping to combine that with what I’ve learned in SRA: IAM to get into asset protection. Either that, or making my way into the tactical and operational intelligence communities, not so much the strategic intelligence communities. I am also hoping to incorporate the language I’ve been completing for my major, Russian,  into the job that I eventually find myself in.