Technology

Mozilla Ignite Challenge - Real-Time Emergency Response

Tue, 2013-07-23 23:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

mozillaignite.org - March 31, 2013

Mozilla Ignite is an open innovation challenge hosted by Mozilla and the National Science Foundation as part of the US Ignite initiative. The goal: imagine and build apps that show the full potential of next-generation networks, in areas that matter -- like healthcare, education, energy, manufacturing and public safety.

Real-Time Emergency Response - What problem are you intending to solve?

Detection, observation, and assessment of situations requiring intervention by emergency responders depends on high-quality "live" data.

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Geofeedia - Pioneering Location-Based Social Media Monitoring

Sun, 2013-07-14 22:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux

geofeedia.com

Location-based streaming, search, monitoring, and analytics.

Create live, location-based social media streams, or “Geofeeds”. Once you create a Geofeed – by simply entering an address or drawing a boundary around a location on a map – you can search, monitor and analyze all social media activity from that location.

http://corp.geofeedia.com/company/how-it-works/

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Google Launches Internet-Beaming Balloons

Fri, 2013-06-28 13:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

washingtonpost.com - by Cecilia Kang - June 14, 2013

Google has a truly sky-high idea for connecting billions of people to the Internet — 12 miles in the air to be exact — through giant helium balloons circling the globe that are equipped to beam WiFi signals below.

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How Social Media Is Changing Disaster Response

Sun, 2013-06-09 23:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Image: Flickr/John

submitted by Robyn Wyrick

Congress is grappling with the benefits and risks of using Facebook, Twitter and other social media during emergencies

scientificamerican.com - by Dina Fine Maron - June 7, 2013

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Facebook was the new kid on the block. There was no Twitter for news updates, and the iPhone was not yet on the scene. By the time Hurricane Sandy slammed the eastern seaboard last year, social media had become an integral part of disaster response, filling the void in areas where cell phone service was lost while millions of Americans looked to resources including Twitter and Facebook to keep informed, locate loved ones, notify authorities and express support.

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Verily: Crowdsourced Verification for Disaster Response

Fri, 2013-03-01 18:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

irevolution.net - by Patrick Meier - February 19, 2013

Social media is increasingly used for communicating during crises. This rise in Big (Crisis) Data means that finding the proverbial needle in the growing haystack of information is becoming a major challenge.

QCRI and Masdar have launched an experimental platform called Verily. We are applying best practices in time-critical crowd-sourcing coupled with gamification and reputation mechanisms to leverage the good will of (hopefully) thousands of digital Samaritans during disasters.

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Veri.ly
http://www.veri.ly/

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Twitter’s New Lifeline Feature in Japan Helps People Find Relevant Accounts Quickly During Emergencies

Sun, 2012-09-23 21:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Janine Rees - by Matthew Panzarino - September 22, 2012

Twitter just launched a very cool feature in Japan called Lifeline. It allows Japanese users of Twitter to use their postal code to find and follow local accounts that are important in emergencies.

These could be accounts that are maintained by city, district or prefecture governments, which will be updating in the event of natural disasters or emergencies. These accounts could also include local media and utility companies that are informing customers about electricity outages or other necessary services.

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The 'Chemputer' That Could Print Out Any Drug

Fri, 2012-07-27 17:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Chemistry professor Lee Cronin with the 'chemputer' he has adapted from a 3D printer. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

When Lee Cronin learned about the concept of 3D printers, he had a brilliant idea: why not turn such a device into a universal chemistry set that could make its own drugs?

guardian.co.uk - by Tim Adams - July 21, 2012

Professor Lee Cronin is a likably impatient presence, a one-man catalyst. "I just want to get stuff done fast," he says. And: "I am a control freak in rehab." Cronin, 39, is the leader of a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University, primarily making complex molecules. But that is not the extent of his ambition.

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Lee Cronin - The Cronin Group - University of Glasgow, U.K.
http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

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Researchers Use GPS Data to Speed Up Tsunami Warnings

Sun, 2012-05-06 23:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

In this Jan. 2, 2005 file photo, a wide area of destruction is shown from an aerial view taken over Meulaboh, 250 kilometers (156 Miles) west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Researchers in the United States are hoping to use GPS data to speed up current warnings. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

U.S. seismologists currently testing new warning system

by Andrew Pinsent - CBC News - May 5, 2012

Scientists in the United States have been testing an advanced tsunami warning system using GPS data, combined with traditional seismology networks, to attempt to detect the magnitude of an earthquake faster so warnings of potential tsunamis can get out to potentially affected areas sooner.

The prototype is called California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), and is a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, whose focus is on environmental conservation.

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The City as Lab: 21 Metropoles Prepare to Prototype

Sat, 2012-05-05 23:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Living Labs Global co-founder Sascha Haselmayer addresses the crowd in Rio de Janeiro

submitted by Albert Gomez

good.is - by Zak Stone - May 4, 2012

In a megapolis like Mexico City, any planning initiative that moves citizens from cars to busses will pay off in reductions to traffic and air pollution. A major deterrent to using public transportation in the city? Comfort, according to Dr. Julio Mendoza, director of Mexico City's Institute of Science and Technology. Many would rather drive than experience that particular breed of public transportation-pegged anxiety: waiting helplessly on the street corner for a bus that feels like it won't ever arrive.

After participating in the Living Labs Global Award program, a competition designed to help cities solve planning challenges, the Mexican capital may have found a fix. In February, Mexico City and 20 other LLGA participants around the world put out an open call to companies to pitch solutions to important but fixable problems.

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Exercise 24: Using Social Media for Crisis Response

Sun, 2012-03-25 14:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

worldfinancialreview.com - By George H. Bressler, Murray E. Jennex & Eric G. Frost

“Can populations self-organize a crisis response? This is a field report on the first two efforts in a continuing series of exercises termed Exercise 24 or X24. These exercises attempted to demonstrate that self-organizing groups can form and respond to a crisis using low-cost social media and other emerging web technologies.”

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