Stopping GMOs

The overall goal of my final project for ATLS3519 Social Media for Social Good During Crises was to spread awareness of genetically modified foods. Using social media I chose to focus on raising support for the Genetically Engineered Food Right To Know Act. This act would make it law in this country that any food product containing GMOs would require a label signifying so.

The main action I took was to create an “Event” on Facebook that would encourage people to go to a link where they could fill out their name and address and send a pre-scripted letter to their congress representatives. This letter clearly described a desire to have the GE Food Right to Know Act passed in congress. I invited all of my friends to attend this event only if they filled out the letter and submitted it. I also requested that they forward the invite to all of their friends as well since my participation on Facebook is lacking, as is my friend count. This was effective in spreading to a larger number of people than my immediate friends, almost five times the number in three days. Although only a fraction of the invitees accepted and attended the event there were still plenty of people who got the information.

On the event page itself I posted relevant articles and several videos explaining the issue being addressed. I also tweeted and blogged on my efforts and referred back to the group as well as the letter itself. My goal was to spread the word with as many platforms as I thought would work. The blog didn’t help too much but my tweet was picked up by a friend who is a regular on twitter and retweeted it out on his account

One of the ongoing tactics that I didn’t get too much time to work on but will continue is create a fact campaign using short videos. I think quick, to the point videos that address a specific topic can be effective in reaching a large audience. This is where I’ll need more time to research and create quality videos that look better than the bouncing camera phone that dominates YouTube. I want to make sure that what I create is backed up by reputable sources and is still entertaining. The video I was able to create for my presentation was a mash up of several different videos pulled from youtube. I’ll probably use this as a rough draft and elaborate on it. Looking through endless youtube and Google videos taught me a lot about the issues as well as what kind of videos have already been done.

I enjoyed immersing myself in a topic that motivates me to take some action and put some effort into it. I’m glad we were able to choose our own topics and tailor them the way we wanted. This will be something I continue to work on and enjoy spreading awareness of GMOs and their implications.

Genetically Engineered Food Right To Know Act

My campaign has officially launched to get people behind the Genetically Engineered Food Right To Know Act. The first stage is an 'Event' I created on facebook that is aimed at getting people to send a letter to their congress representatives advocating the need for any genetically modified food to be labeled as such. I requested that people only "Attend" if they go to the link and send their predrafted letter to their respective state representatives. We will see where it goes.
Join the Party! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110692202357942

Boulder Creek

Good field trip. Even though we went to many of the same spots as in the videos it was still great to see them in person and think about them – since I see most of the places on a regular basis. I am a frequent user of the creek path, as many are in Boulder, but I’ve never thought about any kind of flood mitigation around the creek before. I knew they raised Pearl St. a while back but that’s about it. I also didn’t realize how much they have prevented a more disastrous flood area. The flood plain for a big storm (not sure if it was 100 or 50 year) was much smaller than I imagined. Living at 20th and Goss St. I just assumed I’d be swimming if there were to be any kind of sizable creek overflow. I guess I’ll hold off on that flood insurance for now, although I would definitely get it if I were any closer to the creek.

The creek artifacts I posted to flicker and Facebook reflect, in a way, my priorities and interests regarding the creek. I’m a big proponent of relaxation so the bench slash foot bathing station is both practical and amusing to me. I would be disappointed if we lost any of the many kickback and relax spots along the creek due to flooding. I’m sure they would return eventually.

Also, I figured I’d share myself capitalizing on the high water flow that creates amazing waves in certain spots. I’ve always scoped out the good holes on the creek that seem to build very ridable standing waves. Unfortunately, for my purposes this only happens here on Boulder Creek for a brief time each year. So, even though there were a few signs deterring tubers and “Other Floatation Devices” (which we didn’t see until we had gotten fully soaked) from using the creek I was forced to ignore them for a higher purpose… fun. And it was. We took our time scoping out our locations for our entry and exit from the river (some more dicey than others) and were very aware of the dangers. A rule to go by is always being aware of the risks involved and accepting them as possibilities but not to let the negative possibilities deter you from enjoying natural recreation.

The power of the water was very visceral in our exploration of the creek. It was easy to imagine what kind of destruction could come from anything more than the routine water level.

Future Lab Study

The future lab study was an interesting look at the kinds of things PIOs are faced with during and after a crisis situation. It was definitely a new way of thinking about a crisis that I hadn’t thought of before. I was a little difficult to think as a PIO not having any previous experience doing so.

I thought that the overall format of the situation cards was a good way to guide the discussion. They allowed for the discussion to be focused and still vary in topics. I do think the cards could be a little more specific. The open discussion format also worked well. I don’t know if the mock iPhones were necessary. A real phone or tablet might work better. I agree with the comments made about changing the location of the hypothetical situation. Having the same scenario as the Boulder Fire made it easy to get stuck talking about what did happen instead of what could happen in the future.

This is a good way to think about crises ahead of time and I think you could get some really good ideas from future lab studies.

Katrina and Columbine

These two separate crises bring up a lot of issues regarding disaster management. They are both unique scenarios that require very different strategies to manage from a PIO’s standpoint.

In the cases of Hurricane Katrina there were warning signs and at least some time to plan for the disaster. In the Columbine High school shooting there was no warning at all. This difference in the onset of these two crises situations presents varying difficulties such as who needs the most immediate help and who is in the most need of the information about the situation.

The fact that Columbine was a quick incident and not as ongoing as the flooding following Hurricane Katrina means that although there were still many devastating effects of the shooting, the incident was at least over where as the destruction of Katrina continued for many weeks after.  The PIOs would have much different challenges in these two different scenarios. 

Guest Speaker: Sue Salinger

Naturally, since I had to miss our second discussion I’m kind of forced to stick with the first one from today’s class. Maybe I’ll get an idea from the other posts in the class but seeing that I’m writing this on a plane, I’ll have to wait until later for any second-half investigations.

I don’t know about you all, but I found myself smirking and chuckling inside during Sue’s discussion because of the rapid barrage of questions and theories. I enjoyed it a lot because of the open-endedness of her discussion. She seemed very passionate and knowledgeable on what social media might be. She obviously has thought about it in great depth. I could barely wrap my head around a question before she threw out two or three more in succession. A bit reflective of how our media has developed. We are constantly bombarded with information as we socially surf on the web. It’s hard to know what information to take and what to leave. We surely do not stop to think about the how or why our information is the way it is. I think this is a very interesting topic that will continue to develop and need to be addressed. The theory behind our social media world may have been somewhat conceived by Mr. Tim Lee, but I wonder if he ever imagined it would grow to the extent that it has today.

Sue didn’t quite make a social media theorist out of me today, but she definitely made me think in ways that I hadn’t before. Anyone else?

From Designing for The Social Web

“Amazon’s reviews are about more than money.” – Porter, “Designing For The Social Web

This is a very interesting observation to me. Not just in the context of Amazon, but also in the light of our ever-changing economy. The fact that individuals volunteering their time and effort challenge the principles of economics is an interesting shift in how work is perceived. Money isn’t the driving force behind personal reviews. It is a willingness and desire to share personal experience with complete strangers that seems to be influencing reviewers. They are doing it not for financial gain, but for a more basic human need to share information. Professional economists must be picking their chins off the tables. I bet they can’t understand how or why all these people are contributing to the marketing of goods without any compensation. I find it very amusing that the “volunteers” are beating the experts, to paraphrase Benkler, in this new web economy. The money must be made somewhere else from now on.

The way that technology is changing the economy is reflected all over the place. With computer graphics and illustration software becoming less and less expensive and increasingly user friendly it becomes more and more accessible. The ability for individuals and smaller businesses to, let’s say, design their own logos and advertisements takes away from the big ad agencies who might otherwise be doing their marketing. More power is being put into the hands of individuals who can now also reach a larger market with a few well chosen tags in their website. This shift in power will surely continue as accessibility grows all over the world. Big companies will always find a way to make money, but they may have to settle for a bit less profit in this socially and technologically shifting market.

Social Crises Project - Take Back Our Food

The food system in our country has a plethora of issues. With such a large landscape of problems I have decided to focus this project on spreading awareness through social media of the “Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act.” If passed in congress, this bill would require any food product containing any GE ingredient to be labeled as containing a GMO. Regardless of the effects of genetically modified organisms in our food, we have the right to know what is in our food. We deserve to have the choice to disregard the risks of consuming gene-altered foods or not.

There is a reason why the European Union has banned GMO foods from being imported and why they refuse to use GE seeds in their fields. They recognize them as unknown, unpredictable, and potentially very hazardous to the health of their citizens. GE seeds are altering organisms that have been evolving for hundreds of thousands of years with which our bodies have developed with as well. Changing these organisms will surely change the way our bodies deal with them and the effects are potentially devastating.

Another issue with GMOs is pesticides. The entire reason seeds are being modified is to withstand the pesticides that get dumped on the plants. This was intended to decrease the need for spraying pesticides but on the contrary has only multiplied the use of pesticides. These are just another unknown hazard that has been linked to birth defects.

The social media site I will be using to spread awareness will be YouTube, Twitter, a blog, and Facebook. In using these outlets I will seek to join groups and organizations that have already been established in the area of food justice as well as use my personal contacts to spread information. The overall goal will be to get people behind the “Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act” and ultimately get it signed by the President. Lofty goal, yes, but I do believe that this can be accomplished with enough support.

With YouTube I will try to produce brief informational videos describing the issues and the bill. By keeping them short and concise they will be easily viewed and shared via YouTube itself or links on Facebook.

Facebook will be a platform to begin a group and link with other groups. In doing so, I will invite my group of friends and encourage this to spread to each of their networks.

Twitter will be used to update where the project stands and inform of any progress made.

As for the blog, I haven’t decided whether I will continue on my own or begin a new blog specifically for this effort. We shall see.

Any suggestions or ideas anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

Knowledge over Things

From “Cognitive Surplus” – Clay Shirky
“Increasing the number of things you have can be useful, but increasing the amount of knowledge you have can be transformative.”

This statement is very interesting to me for several reasons. One is because in our society today there is a great deal of emphasis put on having possessions and material goods. Our economy has become dependent upon spending money for things that fulfill our wants, not our needs. We buy things in excess all the time because we can. This “increase” in possessions may make us feel better about ourselves or give us the appearance of a higher social status, but it doesn’t necessarily yield anything productive. If we lose focus on the more important things like knowledge as a society we will inevitably begin to decline into a dysfunctional and unproductive mass. This isn’t to say possession of things must be negative. Having possessions is a natural instinct that most people embrace. We must use the things we have as tools to be productive as well as remain reminded that our things should not come before, or at the sake of, our knowledge. We must never lose the knowledge that “knowledge” will always be more powerful than any material object.

Aside from my philosophical rant, this quote from Shirky also appeals to me for its profound relevance in any era of time, but especially our current one. Information is incredibly accessible and almost infinite in scope with online databases that are continually growing. Our socially connected world along with all this online data makes sharing our information extremely easy. There has never been a time in history that information has been so accessible by so many in so little time. So, on the brighter side of this quote we see that the possibilities for growth with our current technology are far greater than ever before. We have created a powerful tool that, like our possessions, we must utilize for productive purposes; none better suited than the sharing of information and knowledge. We are lucky to have this tool. If we use it to its full potential, which I believe we’re headed towards, it will “transform” our world for the better.

Public Participation in Crises

I know we've gone over this and read this several times so far in class and in articles but it is still overwhelming to me how underestimated the public becomes during and after a crises. Maybe they're not underestimated but the public definitely is not thought of as playing as large of a role as they actually do. We see their participation and efforts from the first responders in the impact area of a crisis all the way through the surrounding areas and eventually national and global public volunteers arise. Those most immediately affected become the first to deal with the injured and survivors of any crisis or disaster. These people are most likely not trained professionals but must cope with the situation through improvising and instincts. The community just beyond the impact area becomes the immediate refuge for the displaced survivors and the members of the community become caretakers and volunteer aids in many aspects. Farther removed still are those who are not locally or regionally near the disaster area but still find ways to provide some kind of support, whether it may be donations or providing information over social networking sites. Volunteers come in many forms and provide many different services following crises.
Yet, I think it is very difficult to plan for these reactions in organizing a post-crises situation. It is hard to plan for because it is hard to count on specific roles the public will play. Because they are volunteers there is no definite role that will be accounted for. It is entirely up to the goodness of fellow humans and their personal motivation and creativeness. These are things that are incredibly difficult to measure or depend on. From examples and repeated previous evidence we can surely count on some kind of participation by public volunteers because of the human nature to help others, but it is very different to preconceive the amount or specific aid these volunteers will have. 

Reading Quote

“only 8 computers were available for approximately 1000 residence”
(from Citizen Communications in Crisis: Anticipating a Future of ICT-Supported Public Participation)

It is very interesting to me that in our country there are still communities that are unaware or do not have access to computers and the Internet. The ratio of computers to people is somewhat shocking but understandable considering the confusing and difficult aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It must have been difficult to find and set up any kind of computer network to be assessable to the evacuees, let alone organizing a procedure for them to use it with such high demand. This is a great place to examine future plans for post-disaster relief. This technology can be very useful in helping people reconnect with friends and family as well as a coping mechanism for affected victims. Just allowing victims of a disaster to have the ability to understand their situation in a way other than watching the news can be a great way for individuals to feel some sense of acceptance during an incredibly difficult time. In the stages of a disaster this is an example of how technology can be utilized in the “Recovery” stage (Stage 7). Having computers and access to the Internet is an important aspect that should be involved in any post-crises relief effort. This includes the training for those who have never used the technology as well as the hardware to access the valuable resources of the web.

Social Good in Crises Project - Rough Draft

I am still looking for an overall message I want to convey with my final project but I plan on it being a video of some sort, or at least having a video component. I've thought of creating a mash-up of video footage from several different disasters, getting the point of views from victims, the outside public, and officials. How I will tie this together is yet to be discovered. It's early in my brainstorming but ideas are on the way. To be continued...

Crisis Misconceptions

In reading our article “Research on Disaster Response and Recovery” it is interesting to me to see how many misconceptions there are about crisis scenarios. The idea that people's instinct is to panic at the onset of a disaster is confused with the emotion of fear. Fear is a reasonable reaction to a dangerous situation in which people’s lives are in danger, but I agree that fear doesn’t mean that people will be frantically running and screaming away from the danger.

Another interesting misnomer is that during or following a disaster there will inevitably be looting and violence. This is a cynical view of societies based on a few previous examples that does not account for the overwhelming goodness of people. I agree that society is more likely to bond and lean towards helping one another rather than resorting to lawlessness.

In planning and executing recovery and relief efforts it is also interesting that there is a lack of foresight for community involvement. The “uniformed responders” seem to be the only ones considered for equipment and direction when the local community has knowledge of the situation, resources close, and motivation to aid their fellow neighbors.

MOCOM 2020 Hindsight

Yup, this is about right. MOCOM 2020 is a very realistic projection for what our mobile media world may look like not even a decade from now. Of course, unlike the subject of my previous post, which I have the ability to check against actual events in the timeline, the year 2020 is far enough away to be completely clueless as to its characteristics in the mobile realm. But each of the steps in this prediction seems perfectly logical and possible. The accessibility and decreasing cost of mobile devices has already allowed for many unexpected users of the technology owners of the technology. I'm one of them after buying my first smart phone earlier this evening. I am one who has been perfectly happy with doing my surfing and socializing on my keyboard rather than my cell phone, which I have used for calls and texts for years without complaints. It wasn't until very recently that I have found any reason to own a more mobile web device than my laptop. These sudden capabilities come at a time when the technology has fallen nicely into my feasible price range. I recognize that I am one of the lucky upper echelon members of the globe, probably top 1%, but I can see this technology becoming increasingly accessible to more and more of the world at a rapid rate. This will certainly occur at the same time the technology is evolving and hopefully becoming utilized for its positive and productive value as opposed to its time wasting capabilities. Hopefully, we won’t be looking back at mobile device development in 2020 and saying, “Well, in hindsight maybe we should’ve invested more effort in helping society instead of giving everyone a handheld Facebook updater.” The power of the mobile Internet is immense and will need to be guided carefully by its innovators so that it is used for facilitating more valuable information rather than encouraging trivial time wasting.

the EPIC Giant

The EPIC 2014 by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson in 2004 paints a very intriguing and provoking picture of our future news platform. The "EPIC" company they create is equally ammusing in that each is a possible prediction and could still occur, possibly. The idea behind EPIC that each user could potentially have their surfing experience tailored to their personal interest is a reality. With search engines pulling certain biographical information from personal computers they can post aids that target that persons specific demographic and interests. This is happening and will continue to evolve until regulations are set on the privacy of certain information.

The internet is a relatively new phenomenon and it grows exponentially stronger each day. The rapid progression of the internet has not permitted for many, or any, regulations apart from the ones set by those building it such as the "Googlzeons"out there (Ok, there is clearly only one Google but many dominant sites that are closely trailing the Giant). Once this new phenomenon has had time to grow into a more mature being there will be more checks and balances that regulate and restrict the information floating on the Web. This will stop some of the increasing privacy invasions and limit the EPICs to only the users who ask for this service. And there will be plenty, but there will also be many who do not need a self-identifying platform to surf the internet.

Oh, and The New York Times will never quit the internet and switch to paper only. They're much more likely to drop the print side and start charging more for online subscriptions. But, most likely their printing presses will continue for a longer time period, even if in 20 years the inked articles are simply a novelty.

Guess What!

I had a chicken quesadilla for dinner tonight