Micro-Bloggin and Tons of Tweets

Last Monday's class material was one of my favorites of the semester.  Sure we get speakers and such for the class, which are also interesting, but they're basically high level people in their organizations and know for a fact that there are major problems with the NGO/UN relief community.  Current rescue methods don't keep up with new technology, and I feel that this is a major drawback for the whole humanitarian community.  When NGOs don't act in time, and when the UN would rather have a weeklong debate than sending food and water to disaster zones, people are going to do what they can do to save each other until the bigger groups show up.  Some of these grassroots developments have contributed to great things, and especially in this world of social networking, there is a HUGE potential for people to become the advanced first responders.  I like to pick Twitter out of the group because Facebook has really faded from the scene now that the majority of their users are more concerned about their privacy settings and profile creepers than they are of just being careful about what they post.  Facebook data can't be used unless you're someone's friend, hence why I like Twitter, where more people are unprotected and publicly providing information.

The one article I was fortunate to present was on "Voluntweeters" or people who used Twitter as a means of saving lives and providing support to where it was needed through logistical evaluations.  Haiti was a tough example because there was not many people adopting things like formatting, hashtags, and addressing because they were more worried about taking care of their families.  The user base who adopted the "Tweak the Tweet" or "TtT" initiative helped provide messages in a formatted fashion that was conceptually acceptable and perceivably "correct."  People would take these tweets, format them, and then send them around the world.  Some users changed the format and tried to contact rescuers and providers that lived nearby to save those who were originally tweeting.  People wanted to help, and even though they may have not been able to get to Haiti, they were able to use Twitter to properly assemble messages and cries for help to reestablish effective updates and communication with aid groups and others able to provide assistance down in Haiti.

During class we were also given the opporunity to check out the Extreme Events Lab.  For any Penn State IST or SRA students who have not checked out this room, I highly suggest doing what you can to get a tour.  The EEL, as we refer to it, is a semi-secure lab which allows researchers the ability to monitor world-wide events as they unfold in time.  This lab has been used in the past to monitor the disaster in Haiti, the earthquake in Japan, and to monitor the violent actions in Oslo, Norway.  In addition, there is a 3D screen which is used to interpret data on a new level compared to looking at just charts and graphs.  Moving through data prepares you to take additional views into data stream and when combined with sound, can really play with your senses.  It seems that the border between the left brain and right brain perception disappears when creativity of the data exercises the mind in new ways.