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.)
Your introduction to your blog seems to be like the first person’s blog I commented on, Jesse DelRosso. But yes I thought it was super cool that the room everyone walks by wondering what is behind those large class walls blocked by massive curtains. I thought the CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Enivronment) was awesome when I walked in with all the huge TVs and the “CAVE” on the wall. I thought the technology in that room was pretty darn cool. It is a tech junkies dream in that room.
ReplyDeleteThe article you discussed in class made the most sense to me because of how you laid out the information you gathered from it. I don’t know if you agree with the article suggesting that crisis management could and should use Twitter but I don’t know if I agree with that statement. I agree that I wouldn’t want to receive a twenty page report that would state where a water station will be set up. Your last statement, I agree with you!
Haha I enjoyed your enthusiasm and your jokes in your blog. I don't get why people have to be wordy and I am one of the wordy people at times it can be annoying especially when it is something you aren't an expert on.
ReplyDeleteI agree the cave was really neat. I had completely blocked that room from my mind, I mean since I didn't get to go in it it didn't exist to me. But now I know whats going on behind the curtain, it's like meeting the Wizard in the wizard of oz, it wasn't what I was expecting but it was still interesting. I love the idea of them listening to music while they are working and different tones mean something is going on related to their research. Also how they can see if things are related by dragging them together and the music will let them know how related they are by the type of music it plays.
Micro-blogging might have a place yet in emergencies but I am not sure what. I mean in theory communicating info rapidly to people would be a great use of Twitter an things like it but I am not sure it would be practical. You would need to condition everyone to check their twitter all the time like they check their e-mail. Maybe it would work.
Also thank you so much for the cliff notes version of your article. Sometimes things are very heavy handed when they can be made simple because people want to sound smart. It's annoying, you're already an expert just dumb it down so all of us can understand. But it was very informative and hopefully we can find a good use for twitter and other micro-blogging sites yet.
The CAVE certainly represents interesting technology and the tech demo was certainly an appreciated change of pace in a mostly lecture-ish class. We were definitely a lucky bunch to get a chance to smudge up their 3D glasses and see some interesting ideas for future technology up close and personal.
ReplyDeleteI'll agree with you that Twitter and emerging social media might have a place in disaster management and response, but I'll limit that belief to saying it is only useful for sharing time-sensitive and up-to-date information and outputs rather than the optimistic ideas of some suggesting that micro-blogging and Twitter feeds can be harnessed to produce a more effective and individualized form of disaster response.
Effective and correct uses of Twitter, such as the California wildfires, highlight that Twitter is an effective means of people sharing rapidly changing and time sensitive data. Situations like Haiti, though, highlight the misallocation of resources and men working to interpret and share the needs of the afflicted population rather than disseminating information. Simply put, we are not even remotely close to being able to utilize nor validate that form of data and attempting to do so at the present time is silly.