New Communications Technology Recap

I found this course to be very informative. Previously I had taken Social Media Optimization, and that class really didn't do anything except introduce us to new social media sites. Which was alright but with New Comm Tech I feel that we learned more about how people are affected by these sites. Dr. Wachanga always found an interesting way to look at something and analyze things. I felt that his real life examples and stories that he told us made learning about these things more interesting as well. This course also introduced me to a new site, Ushahidi. I found that to be one of the more interesting topics we talked about.It's just unreal to me that that many people can come together and connect in such a short period of time and during a crises. The ways they were able to use that to help others during these times were very impressive. Overall I come away with a better understanding of the ways different social networks can be used and how they are most affected.

Journoterrorists and Ethics

The article on journoterrorists which consisted of a number of different steps and pieces of advice was informing but in my opinion not that interesting. I'm not specifically interested in journalism but I can see and understand how a lot of the same issues and problems can be applied in many other areas.

The article on blogging seemed a bit out dated and had a lot of information I think a lot of us area probably already aware of.

Ushahidi

Ushahidi

            Volunteers came together to revolutionize humanitarian response and changed the way information can be gather and shared during a time of crisis or to document human rights violations. Similar to Wikipedia and its use of crowd sourcing users generate the information and can edit and change the information as they see fit.

 Ushahidi, which mean witness in Swahili, began in 2007 during the post election violence in Kenya. Main stream media was not reporting on human rights abuses and the people and outlets who were supposed to be sharing information were not. It began as a number people could text for free to report violations of human rights that they are seeing. Basically allowing users to tell the story of what is happening first hand. Ushahidi reconstructs an unfolding story by using information from users who text in, news stories, pictures and so on.

Smart phones and aps are making a system like this easier. People can take pictures right on their phone and upload them within seconds to Ushahidi. What I found interesting is that Ushahidi can basically be transformed to map whatever issue they are concerned with or for a purpose they are interested in.

Ushahidi played a large role in saving lives after the earthquake in Haiti. Originally the members at Ushahidi took information that people in Haiti and around the area had been posting on their Twitter and Facebook accounts to begin mapping. With an explosion of information they couldn’t keep up with all the mapping so they trained hundreds of people all over the place to help in the efforts. They could live skype with people on the scene to gain information, they also used Flickr and YouTube to map information as quickly as possible.

Ushahidi gained attention in the media and was even mentioned by Hilary Clinton. This gave them a good deal of publicity and information continued to poor in and the map continued to fill up with about 2000 different things mapped after only 3 weeks. The Marines and Coast Guard utilized Ushahidi and used it to decide where to deploy units. With 30% of individuals in Haiti having cell phone accessibility it was easy to communicate through text messaging. People could also receive a text back from Ushahidi, something that before was never capable from a crisis management organization.

Ushahidi

·         Based upon crowd sourcing and receiving information.

·         Smart phones have Aps that can be downloaded for Ushahidi

·         Ushahidi platform can be changed to map and monitor any issue or crisis.

·         Relies on volunteers and the desire to help others.

·         FEMA told them they were doing a great job and that they were saving lives.

·         Used by the Marines and Coast Guard.

·         People who wanted to help and do more than donate were finally able to do so.

·         Mapped several thousand messages and mapped them by most urgent, and help was sent where it was most desperately needed.

·         For the first time there was two way communication with those who need help and those who are providing it.

·         Can set it up to receive information from a selected, designated area when something happens there simply by getting a text from Ushahidi.

·         Improves real time and real space situational awareness.

Article Review

Darin Heinrich

New Communication Technology

Social Media Used During Crisis

            Social media is everywhere, and is beginning to be used for a number of things. A popular trend we have seen lately is the use of social media and cell phones to report news stories and important events that are taking place around us. The article that I read on Mashable was called 5 Social Media Lessons From the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort. The article talked about how social media was used to not only generate stories about the earthquake but also to do a great amount of fundraising as well. Through its texting campaign the Red Cross was able to raise $20 million simply by people texting a number to give a donation that would be taken from their cell phone bill. The article talked about how social media was used during the time of crisis in relations to the earthquake but what I found interesting was the actual 5 lessons that it pointed out and how we can learn and improve from what we already know. 

1.      Haiti represents the maturation of mobile giving.

            The Red Cross was about to generate nearly $20 billion in donations, these donations came from text messages sent that would charge the sender $10. This was a very impressive number which far topped any other donation service set up and since the Haiti earthquake has only raised $4 million. Knowing and understanding how to utilize texting and the use of cell phones to generate revenue or funding will remain important. 

2.      Online participants did more than just give money.

           Those who were helping were able to share their experience firsthand by tweeting, updating statuses and uploading pictures of what they were doing. This made the issue seem more real to others who were not actually in Haiti and gave them a better sense of how bad things really were which would eventually lead to more wanting to be involved.

3.      Integration of social with traditional media.

           There were a number of examples of how social media began to interact with traditional media. Traditional journalists began using social networking platforms to reach a number of other readers and individuals who may not have seen their stories otherwise. CNN and the NFL did a lot of broadcasting about how their audience could get involved and help out on the various social networks.

4.      The story was emotional but not fully told.

           We were made aware of the issues and saw the photos of destruction and individuals suffering but never really understood the real issue of Haiti’s poverty and terrible living conditions. In 1989 San Francisco had a earthquake that was as bad as the one in Haiti but only 63 people died as opposed to the approximately 500,000 people who were killed in Haiti. This was mainly due to their unstable housing and relief efforts once the earthquake actually hit. 

5.      Immediacy and impact are not the same.

            Although we did a lot initially to help Haiti, are we still doing enough? Haiti is still rebuilding and still needs a lot of money and help. However the fear is that with social media controlling so much of the way we do things and news stories we see we become involved with the next big issue and generally forget about those who still need help. 

http://mashable.com/2010/01/20/social-media-lessons-haiti/

Covering Disaster

Covering Disaster

            Covering Disaster is an article that discusses the way information is gathered, shared and distributed during a time of crisis, whether it is a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Both natural disasters and terrorist attacks have been on the rise in the past few decades and more is finally being done to help ensure the safety and prevention of injury of those who happen to be living in the specific area that is being affected. With the growing popularity of cell phones in all areas of the world this effort is becoming easier. Cell phones are more popular than ever according to the article, by the end of 2008 4 billion people in the world had cell phone subscriptions, basically 61 in every 100 people. Many of those cell phones have access to the internet which can access social media sites like Facebook and Twitter which are now becoming popular ways to get out important information during a time of crisis.

            With our constant advances in technology we experience a number of opportunities and also challenges when it comes to sharing information through social networks and while using our phones. Information flow must be two-way to be effective, information will not be used unless it is trusted, and information will be helpful only if it is accurate. Keeping those three things in mind organizations have formed to help ensure the safety of locals during a time of crisis. However, it isn’t just the simple fact of informing people that something bad is about to happen. What seems to lack the most is the knowledge of people as to what they should do if something is about to happen, and what they should do after. The article talked about being able to provide individuals with information before and after crisis but often times it wasn’t the information that people were looking to hear. People want to know where they can go for housing or supplies if they have lost everything and until lately that was never considered.

            Using social media networks allows others to reach a large population and alert them about a threatening issue or storm that is forming. Not only have individuals began to use social media and cell phones just to warn people about something but also to help them after. It is very common now that through social networks and by texting, people can contribute to relief efforts even if what has happened is half way around the globe. Many have utilized text messages to donate to relief efforts or social networks to form groups that will mobilize or do other things to help provide supplies or support for those in a time of need.

            I think the article is best summed up when the author says on page 14, “The impact of disasters and conflicts on lives and livelihoods can be greatly reduced by giving affected communities advance warning” (Coyle, Meier, 2009). Although there is still a long way to go in early warning precautions and technology it is reassuring to see that organizations and governments are taking steps in the right direction. Being prepared before hand and having a plan is half the battle, following that is the ability to communicate and execute that plan with the public within moments with a system that is reliable and can reach as many individuals as possible.

Beginning to Follow

Recently I started following two new blogs. JoshisElectric is Josh Fishburn's blog. He is actually a professor at Whitewater and his blog consists mainly of posts and articles about new technology, social media and some gaming. I had Josh as a teacher last semester and always found his material very interesting so I thought it would be beneficial to follow his blog as well.

The other blog I started to follow  is called soshable.com and is a blog that writes original stories, reposts and analyzes stories about anything that has to do with social media. It also talks about new trends or emergences of new social media platforms. There are many interesting articles on the blog, many of which seem to relate to topics we had been discussing in class.

Along with beginning to follow these two new blogs I also set up an account on sitemeter to measure the traffic on my blog. Also I will begin to promote my blog through my twitter account.

Follow me on twitter @Darin_Heinrich

Facebook and Twitter Articles

Don't Fear Twitter:

This was an interesting article that talked about how Twitter can be used to help improve journalism. People seemed to be afraid that Twitter would take over journalism and general news reporting but the fact remains 140 characters is not enough to thoroughly report. John Dickerson, the author of the article, brought up an interesting argument. Twitter actually broadens the amount of information he views or reads more about because of what the people he is following on Twitter are tweeting. I would agree with him on that. I have just recently gotten more involved in the "Twitter game" and I think I do find out more information about different things because they're being brought to my attention. I like that Twitter only allows 140 characters, it keeps tweeters from babbling and they get right to the point.



Engaging Youth in Social Media: Is Facebook the New Media Frontier?

This article discusses a research project that was conducted to see what it takes to get teens and tweens to actively engage in discussion about current events and information. In the past decade or so less teens discuss current events with one another. Researchers decided to use Facebook as a platform and create applications where users could go to share, read, and comment on articles and really create a niche community. Creating these niche communities allowed users to connect with other individuals they may not know who are passionate about the same issues they are. Through these networks people can come together and make a difference. I think using social media is a great way to find people and interact with them about the same things you are interested in and I believe that the number of different niche communities will continue to grow.

Readings for 2/9/11

Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media:

5 Key Elements

1. Social media is developing and improving everyday. A number of new users are joing the fad and creating profiles on a number of different sites on a daily basis. I personally belong to nearly 10 different social media sites so I can understand all the hype. What blows my mind is the amount of content the article talks about that is uploaded to various social media sites such as YouTube and Flickr on a daily basis. The article stated that "every minute, 10 hours of content were uploaded to the video sharing platform YouTube" (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2009).

2. The fact that many major businesses have found ways to benifit from social media sites increases their popularity. Businesses are now able to do a lot of research and advertising simply by tracking people and posting content on a number of different social media platforms. In fact, social media has also presented the opportunity to create businesses out of what is basically a social media site, for example craigslist. Users can post in a number of different cattegories and others can see what they are selling and offereing, its mainly used for buying different items and finding jobs.

3. What people fail to understand is that it takes time and dedication to become successful on the Web. The more research people do on what they are talking about on their site and blog the more factual their site will become. People will come to see this and will start to turn to those type of pages because they are confident their information is coming from a relible source. Also it is important to create and encourage discussion amoung users. If somebody is able to generate a large conversation with a number of comments, likes, or shares, more people are going to see this topic, because their freinds have already been veiwing and disscussing it.

4. Create an image or online personality and stick with it. People begin to return to the same pages if they found them useful and relevant to what they were looking for. If one week somebody wants to be the inside man in the sports world, next week he can't be talking politics. It is also important to honest, humble, and current.

5. Since social media sites allow users to connect, share, and talk to friends and family members it has become increasingly popular with users who may not have been so interested in computers or the Web until such sites. Grandparents are beginning to use such sites to connect with their grandchildren and other family members. Users can also communicate with users in other countries, which as we discussed in class has really flattened the world.



From Mine to Mobile Phone:

5 Key Elements

1.  Tin, tantalum, and tungsten, or the 3Ts. I previously had no ideas how they made, or what they made cell phones with, so reading and finding out about that was entertaining. Finding out what happens to get those minerals, not so much. Seems to be the same issue with conflict diamonds.

2. Armed groups control these areas and the people that live there. The people are basically treated like slaves, being forced to work in terrible conditions and are threatened, injured or killed if they disobey.

3. They are trying to uncover more about this type of business and are trying to get workers, transporters and others involved in the mining to discuss how the process works and where different matterials are moved. Workers are very reluctant to discuss anything or give any information as they are worried they will be killed for disclosing any information.

4. It is important for companies to document and trace where they are getting their materials from so they can be ensured that they are not contributing to the terrible tragedy that is taking place in Congo. If they fail to document, there are chances of the minerals from Congo getting mixed in with minerals from other, lets say, more legal minning efforts.

5. I like that the end of the article give a call to action. Meaning they inform the readers on how they can get involved and how they can help. Knowing and understanding what is going on is only the first step. If we hope to improve working conditions, and stop armed groups from controlling people like slaves we need to act.

It Takes a Village to Find a Phone

Ivanna looses important information about her upcoming wedding after leaving her cell phone, which the information was stored on, in a New York City cab. Lucky for Ivanna she was able to retrieve this information from her phone provider which also transfered some new pictures that had been taken on Ivanna's camera phone. They were of Sasha, a girl who had found the phone in the cab and after being contacted by Ivanna and her friend Evan refuses to give the phone back. This leads to Evan blogging about the events and just keeping it updated as the story develops. The public responded and the story gained a lot of attention. Other social media sites were used to identify Sasha, and the popularity of the matter ended up getting the police involved, and Ivanna got her cell phone back. 

1. The influence users can have on their followers either on a blog or twitter. 
2. Social media sites are so interactive now that people are beginning to be able to form groups and fight for a purpose or cause that is important to them. Where as before it was much harder to communicate and organize anything.
3. Some people's moral compass is so far off.
4. Should police officers and investigations be determined based upon what is more popular among the public?
5. Sasha and her family continue to threaten Evan and Ivanna through different social media platforms. Online bullying has become a real issue from younger children.

How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history

Clay Shirkly

--- Clay Shirkly discusses how different social media sources have become so influential in every day life in his speech; How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history. Shirkly argues that professionals are beginning to no longer deliver the news to various publics. The way many social media sites work allows users to interact with one another on so many different levels that friends are reporting current events to their friends and colleagues seconds after witnessing it. China does all they can to keep social media sites from influencing their citizens life or opinions by monitoring, and screening information they allow internet browsers in China to view. This is referred to as The Great Firewall of China. But how long can China really keep doing this? Social media is expanding and is used more and more for different things on a daily basis. With China being amongst one of the world's leaders in technology they can't afford to be so naive when it comes to censoring information available to the general public.  Social media is everywhere around us, literally with FourSquare and it seems everyone is joining a new social media site every other weeks. Parents and grandparents have even jumped on the bandwagon as a way to keep in touch with their kids or monitor their behavior. With social media becoming increasingly ever more popular I am interested to see what the next big break through will be, and whether it will come from an already existing site or something new that will sweep the Web.