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Texting 911 in Emergencies

Sat, 2011-12-17 17:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Homeland Security News Wire - November 29, 2011

The Post Falls police department in Idaho is testing a new 911 system that would allow residents to report emergencies via text message or e-mail.

Police say it is not meant to replace phone calls, but is instead designed to provide residents with additional options to communicate with authorities.

Texting or e-mailing is particularly helpful for the hearing impaired or those with disabilities that make it difficult to communicate over the phone.

Charlene Holbrook, PFPD’s emergency communications supervisor, hopes that the new text-based 911 option will encourage young people to interact with the police more.

“Texting allows them a method of communication with which most teens are comfortable,” Holbrook said. “Texting was the next logical step for us.”

“Whether you like it or not, it’s obvious that the future of communication is texting,” Chief Scot Haug added. “You look at young people today and that’s the method of communication. Text messaging is here, and everybody’s using it. We are just looking for new ways to get information to solve and reduce crime.”

The new system also allows photos to be sent to 911 dispatchers.

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Trade in Surveillance Technology Raises Worries

Sat, 2011-12-17 11:41 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Kent Hoffman

(Sari Horwitz/The Washington Post) - Syrian activist Rami Nakhle said that after he set up an online newspaper and started blogging about human rights issues, Syria’s secret police began summoning him for regular interrogations that involved threats of torture and a day in solitary confinement.

By Sari Horwitz, Shyamantha Asokan and Julie Tate

The Washington Post - December 1, 2011

Northern Virginia technology entrepreneur Jerry Lucas hosted his first trade show for makers of surveillance gear at the McLean Hilton in May 2002. Thirty-five people attended.

Nine years later, Lucas holds five events annually around the world, drawing hundreds of vendors and thousands of potential buyers for an industry that he estimates sells $5 billion of the latest tracking, monitoring and eavesdropping technology each year. Along the way, these events have earned an evocative nickname: the Wiretappers’ Ball.

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Video - The People's Skype

Thu, 2011-12-15 23:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez

http://peoplesskype.org/

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Shunning Facebook, and Living to Tell About It

Wed, 2011-12-14 21:56 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

December 13, 2011

by Jenna Wortham - The New York Times

Tyson Balcomb quit Facebook after a chance encounter on an elevator. He found himself standing next to a woman he had never met — yet through Facebook he knew what her older brother looked like, that she was from a tiny island off the coast of Washington and that she had recently visited the Space Needle in Seattle.

“I knew all these things about her, but I’d never even talked to her,” said Mr. Balcomb, a pre-med student in Oregon who had some real-life friends in common with the woman. “At that point I thought, maybe this is a little unhealthy.”

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Mapping Digital Media

Tue, 2011-12-13 10:07 — Kathy Gilbeaux

soros.org - Open Society Foundations

The values that underpin good journalism, the need of citizens for reliable and abundant information, and the importance of such information for a healthy society and robust democracy: these are perennial, and provide compass-bearings for anyone trying to make sense of current changes across the media landscape.

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines these changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics, and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate and influence change. At the same time, this research creates a knowledge base, laying foundations for advocacy work, building capacity, and enhancing debate.

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Report: Child Homelessness Up 33% in 3 Years

Tue, 2011-12-13 09:33 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Marisol Bello - USA Today

One in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness.

The numbers represent a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children, according to a report the center is releasing Tuesday.

"This is an absurdly high number," says Ellen Bassuk, president of the center. "What we have new in 2010 is the effects of a man-made disaster caused by the economic recession. … We are seeing extreme budget cuts, foreclosures and a lack of affordable housing."

http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/media/NCFH_AmericaOutcast2010_web.pdf

America's Youngest Outcasts 2010 (124 page .PDF file)

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Add Quakes to Rumblings Over Gas Rush

Tue, 2011-12-13 09:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Henry Fountain - The New York Times - December 12, 2011

Stephen Thornton for The New York Times

UNLOADING Workers disposing of hydraulic fracturing waste near Guy, Ark.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Until this year, this Rust Belt city and surrounding Mahoning County had been about as dead, seismically, as a place can be, without even a hint of an earthquake since Scots-Irish settlers arrived in the 18th century.

But on March 17, two minor quakes briefly shook the city. And in the following eight months there have been seven more — like the first two, too weak to cause damage or even be felt by many people, but strong enough to rattle some nerves.

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Stanford Social Innovation Review - Collective Impact

Mon, 2011-12-12 23:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Theresa Bernardo

Illustration by Martin Jarrie

by John Kania & Mark Kramer - Winter 2011

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations.

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Local Towns Signing Up for Twitter and Facebook for Emergency Comm.

Sat, 2011-12-10 10:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - December 7, 2011

Following the lead of several other cities and federal agencies, the town of Wilton, Connecticut recently launched a Facebook page and Twitter account to help communicate with residents and share information during a disaster

Following the lead of several other cities and federal agencies, the town of Wilton, Connecticut recently launched a Facebook page and Twitter account to help communicate with residents and share information during a disaster.

Two major storms, including Hurricane Irene, left many Wilton residents without water or electricity for up to a week and sent a strong signal to emergency officials that they needed to improve disaster communications.

To that end, the town created an official Emergency Facebook Page as well as a Twitter account.

Speaking before the Wilton Board of Selectman, Fire Chief Paul Milositz, who is also the town’s emergency response director, said, “We have to get better at [communication with residents].”

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