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San Francisco Subway System Admits Cutting Cellphone Service to Stop Planned Protest

Sat, 2011-08-13 21:09 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CNN - August 13, 2011

       

Demonstrators shut down a BART station in July to protest the shooting death of 45-year-old Charles Hill.

In a controversial move that has riled up free speech advocates, San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway system said it cut off cellphone signals at “select” stations in response to a planned protest this week.

“BART temporarily interrupted service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform,” the transit agency said in a statement on its website Friday.

BART said it took the actions because protesters said they “would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police.”

Demonstrators had planned a rally to bring attention to a number of transit police officer shootings, the latest one resulting in the death of 45-year-old Charles Hill, who was shot last month after a confrontation with officers.

The transit agency said protests during rush hour endangered the safety of commuters and employees.

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Averting Bridge Disasters: New Sensors Could Save Hundreds of Lives

Mon, 2011-08-01 18:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security Newswire - August 1, 2011

                              

Sensor mounted to bridge member // Source: gizmag.com

One of every four U.S. highway bridges has known structural problems or exceeded its intended life-span. Most only get inspected once every one or two years; University of Maryland researcher has developed a new sensor that measures indicators of a bridge's structural health, such as strain, vibration, flexibility, and development of metal cracks; the sensors are expected to last more than a decade, with each costing about $20

Millions of U.S. drivers cross faulty or obsolete bridges every day, highway statistics show, but it is too costly to fix all these spans or adequately monitor their safety, says a University of Maryland researcher who has developed a new, affordable early warning system.

This wireless technology could avert the kind of bridge collapse that killed thirteen and injured 145 along Minneapolis’ I-35W on 1 August 2007, he says — and do so at one-one-hundredth the cost of current wired systems.

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Software Uses Twitter To Track Dengue Outbreaks In Brazil

Wed, 2011-07-20 16:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Mary Suzanne Kivlighan

Kaiser Family Foundation - July 19, 2011

The New Scientist reports on a software program that is being used "to identify a high correlation between the time and place where people tweet they have dengue and the official statistics for where the disease appears each season."

Researchers at two Brazilian National Institutes of Science and Technology worked together to create the software, which filters tweets containing the word "dengue" and user location details. "Dengue outbreaks occur every year in Brazil, but exactly where varies every season. It can take weeks for medical notifications to be centrally analyzed, creating a headache for health authorities planning where to concentrate resources," the publication notes. Using Twitter could speed up response time, according to Wagner Meira, a computer scientist at the Federal University of Minus Gerais who led the study (Corbyn, 7/18).

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World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data

Mon, 2011-07-04 17:18 — Kathy Gilbeaux

World Bank - Washington D.C.

 . . . "the most valuable currency of the World Bank isn’t its money — it is its information" . . .

 . . . "The bank, he says, is essentially widening the circle of people it can brainstorm with." . . .

 . . . "Having created models for open-sourcing and crowd-sourcing, the bank is now moving toward mash-ups. A new Mapping for Results program offers interactive maps pinpointing locations of almost 3,000 bank projects in more than 16,000 places worldwide. Links open up pages with information about each project, and users can add overlays that show, say, where infant mortality is highest to see whether the bank’s work in those areas matches the need.

The program is sensitive because it involves releasing data provided by client governments and others, but the hope is that it will prompt these parties to link their own data on economic and social development to the site or otherwise make it available." . . .

World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data

HeraldTribune.com - Stephanie Strom - July 3, 2011

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Video - Crisis Mapping Helps with Disaster Relief

Sat, 2011-07-02 10:36 — Kathy Gilbeaux
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Crisis Mapping Helps with Disaster Relief

Sat, 2011-07-02 10:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Voice of America - June 30, 2011

After devastating natural disasters, mobile phone networks, satellites and other computer software are often used to help to pinpoint where help is needed the most.  They are crucial for the creation of crisis maps.

The power of the mobile phone and other social media became clear in the aftermath of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan.  Just hours after disaster struck, Japanese volunteers used social media information  to create a crisis map.  The map indicated hazardous areas and emergency services.  Hundreds of people each day posted updates to the map on the Internet, including information from radio stations.

Crisis maps also helped with relief efforts in Haiti. Thousands of text messages provided information to international aid organizations about shelter, food supplies and sanitation.  A mapping team helped pinpoint search and rescue requests for people trapped in the rubble.

Sheldon Himelfarb is the director of peacebuilding at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington. "The word went out that if you texted a certain short code number with your call for help, it would be captured, mapped and it would enable responders to help… We saw very quickly how the emergency responders of all sorts, from the Red Cross to the military to the NGOs started to rely on this map," Himelfarb said.

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Why a Hyper-Personalized Web is Bad for You (Q&A)

Sat, 2011-06-25 13:06 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Joyce Fedeczko

CNET News - May 17, 2011

We all like having things tailored to our specific needs and interests. But Eli Pariser thinks we should beware of the substantial risks inherent in the increasing personalization of the Internet.

Better known (so far) as the executive director of the progressive political action committee MoveOn.org, Eli Pariser is making noise these days as the author of "The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You." His new book, which was released yesterday, argues that the latest tools being implemented by the likes of Google and Facebook for making our Internet experiences as individual as possible are taking us down some very unsavory paths.

First, of course, Pariser explains the dynamic we all face online today: that no two people's Web searches, even on the same topics, return the same results. That's because search engines and other sites are basing what they send back on our previous searches, the sites we visit, ads we click on, preferences we indicate, and much more. Not to mention the fact that we are more and more shielded from viewpoints counter to our own.

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