Date: 2025-03-13 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00004478
Technology
Social Media
Not very exciting New Case Study on Social Media Use During Disasters ... but link to amazing power of technology to collect Internet data
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
New Case Study on Social Media Use During Disasters
See the pdf referred to above
Robert Marston • It's interesting to me that LinkedIn is barely mentioned in the report. Did this HEDR Linkedin group have any impact on the response to the Haiti earthquake, on fundraising, on public awareness/sentiment, or other dimensions mentioned in the report? Did HEDR have any impact on Ushahidi, or vice versa? 2 days ago• Like• Reply privately• Delete
Peter Burgess • This report did not seem to say very much ... but then it was funded, I believe, by a Government Agency, so expectations should not be very high. On the other hand, some of the other material I found following links from the SafeCitiesSolutions initiative were amazing as for example the material in Open Source Intelligence Using APIs.
My big issue with the modern data driven world is that we are using very powerful tools on data that are not very meaningful. For a reality check listen to Bloomberg News and the continuum of chatter about my terrible trio (1) money profit results for companies; (2) stock prices in capital markets for investors and C-level executives; and (3) GDP growth for macro-economic analysts. The impact on society ... quality of life ... and the environment of decisions that benefit the terrible trio are ignored completely.
With regard to data available and accessible during disasters ... the disaster highlights many important elements of information that are routinely missing ... so work to upgrade data for the normal state of community would be a huge step forward. My impression is that even in normal circumstances the approach to data and information leaves a lot to be desired, with far too much data being compiled for 'one time use' for a specific study or project.
I can go on ... but I will spare you!
It was the raidersec blog that got my attention ... specifically this: http://raidersec.blogspot.com/2012/12/automated-open-source-intelligence.html