November 30, 2011
A- Oh what a time...
November 21, 2011
A- Geo-whatever and Project Malcontent
November 9, 2011
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?
November 7, 2011
A- Twitter, Tweets, & Tweeting
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
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.