Advanced Cyber/IO – Page 198 – Public Intelligence Blog

Patrick Meier | June 21, 2011 at 8:36 am |

I get this question all the time: “How do you verify social media data?” This question drives many of the conversations on crowdsourcing and crisis mapping these days. It's high time that we start compiling our tips and tricks into an online how-to-guide so that we don't have to start from square one every time the question comes up. We need to build and accumulate our shared knowledge in information forensics. So here is the Google Doc version of this blog post, please feel free to add your best practices and ask others to contribute. Feel free to also add links to other studies on verifying social media content.

If every source we monitored in the social media space was known and trusted, then the need for verification would not be as pronounced. In other words, it is the plethora and virtual anonymity of sources that makes us skeptical of the content they deliver. The process of verifying social media data thus requires a two-step process: the authentication of the source as reliable and the triangulation of the content as valid. If we can authenticate the source and find it trustworthy, this may be sufficient to trust the content and mark is a verified depending on context. If source authentication is difficult to ascertain, then we need to triangulate the content itself.

Continue reading “Social Media Information Forensics”

2011/06/202011/10/22

Retrospective: Jackie Salit Nails Two Parties in 2010

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Impotency

THE PARTIES ARE OVER

by Jacqueline Salit

Goodbye two-Party system? Discontent is building to open up the political process

NEW YORK NEWSDAY THE SUNDAY SPECIAL

October 31, 2010

Name a problem — poverty, war, out-of-control spending. The political parties offer themselves as the solution to all of the above, and more. We respond by voting for first one party, then the other, then back again. We want to let the world know we are unhappy, but we haven’t yet developed the creative capacity to rearrange the world around us.

This seemingly eternal passivity is the mother’s milk of political partyism. No wonder the Republicans and Democrats and their auxiliaries — the tea parties, the unions, the media — must whip us into a frenzy. Whether we are Foxites, MSNBCists, bloggers or bored stiff, we’re now implored daily to get out to vote. Why? Not because voting develops our capacity to move the country forward. But because we must put one, or the other, or both, political parties in power — even though separately and together, they brought us to this anxious and crummy place.

Read entire article….

Phi Beta Iota: Jacqueline Salit is a force in America, and she has access to Michael Bloomberg. They both made a mistake in spending money on apparatchiks who created the NO LABELS “movement” that would be a monstrocity but for the fact that it is so pathetically “wag the puppy” one can only laugh. She herself is authentic, and there is no denying the fact that 43% or more voters now consider themselves Independent, and over 83% told an informal Wall Street Journal poll they are ready to vote for a third party President. All that is missing now is a Presidential candidate from a third party that can make Seven Promises to America.

2011/06/20

Avaaz People Power: Slams Bahrain & War on Drugs

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of Peace

Formula 1 cancels Bahrain race for 2011

UN established new task force toward ending criminalization of drugs

Huge Wins on Bahrain F1, War on Drugs, and more!!

Within 72 hours, more than 1 million of us joined two unlikely campaigns: one to break the taboo on the global war on drugs, and another calling on F1 refuse to hold the Grand Prix in brutal Bahrain — and we won!! People power works. We see it everywhere, every day.

Seven Promises to America–Who Will Do This?

11 Society, About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Officers Call, Strategy

steele smiling final — Robert David STEELE Vivas

UPDATED 26 Oct 2011 to add YouTube overview

Seven Promises to America – Raising the Bar for 2012

UPDATED 20 June 2011 after talking to Cynthia McKinney. Changes 7th promise to subsume End of Empire to Start of Green Non-Zero World that works for all.

Over the course of the past decade, as I have turned to non-fiction reading and reflections on integrity and intelligence, I have come to realize just how corrupt the US Government is at the political level, and how compliant the good people are that are trapped within a very bad system.

Below are the 7 promises I would demand of anyone who aspires to be President of the United States of America. I know of no one else who can credibly commit to these 7 promises.

1. Electoral Reform (9 points, 1 page)

Continue reading “Seven Promises to America–Who Will Do This?”

2011/06/202011/06/20

US IC In Search of Enemies & Unwitting of Change

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Impotency, Military

Another misstep by the IC…..Zawahiri has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the same group that has brought you the “Arab Spring”, Washington's perception of a move toward democracy…..

Zawahiri's goal has always been to overtake AQ (hence the belief he was responsible for Azam's death) and make it a weapon of the Islamic Jihad. If true, and the Arab Spring is tied to the Brotherhood, then giving up UBL is another step of the ladder. He was no longer needed.

Al-Qaeda’s Zawahiri, Bigger Threat Than Osama?: Raymond Ibrahim

Now that Ayman Zawahiri has assumed leadership of al-Qaeda, it is important to end the widespread perception that he is a dour intellectual who is disconnected from young, would-be jihadists. The fact is, Zawahiri is a wily, dangerous and imposing leader who should be considered no less of a threat — and perhaps even more so — than his predecessor.

Read rest of article…

Continue reading “US IC In Search of Enemies & Unwitting of Change”

2011/06/20

Post-Fukushima Infant Deaths in the Pacific Northwest

03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Family, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Each week, on a Friday, Alexander Cockburn publishes a weekly diary in the weekend edition of Counterpunch, which he co-edits with Jeffrey St. Claire. Last week’s diary included a particularly important entry that expands on earlier CP essay analyzing the possibility of increased infant deaths in the western US resulting from the poisons spewed out by the multiple meltdowns in the Fukushima nuclear power facility in Japan.

Cockburn enlisted Pierre Sprey, a recognized expert in the proper use of nonparametric statistics to extract unbiased information out limited but important data samples, to examine the data/analysis in the original CP essay and to expand or critique the analysis, if possible. (caveat: Pierre is a close friend of mine)

Attached below is Cockburn’s summary of Pierre’s findings … it makes for very important reading for two reasons: it is a good discussion of the limits implicit in in quality statistical analysis, and it is a sobering discussion of a danger that has receded from the public consciousness.

Chuck Spinney, Saint Rafael, France The Blaster

Post-Fukushima Infant Deaths in the Pacific Northwest

Weekend Edition, June 17 – 19, 2011

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN, Counterpunch

Last weekend on this site we ran a piece by Dr. Janet Sherman and Joseph Mangano, reviewing some recent figures from the Center for Disease Control: here's how they interpreted the data in the context of the disaster at Fukushima on March 11, 2011:

“The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:

“4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 – 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 – 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week).

“This amounts to an increase of 35 per cent (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3 per cent ), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster…

Read full article….

2011/06/192011/06/19

Seth Godin: Paradigm Shift toward Cooperation

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

Coordination

Our economy is almost entirely based on a Darwinian competition–many products and services fighting for shelf space and market share and profits. It's a wasteful process, because success is unpredictable and unevenly distributed.

The internet has largely mirrored (and amplified) this competition. eBay, for example, not only pits sellers against one another, it also pits buyers. Craigslist makes it easy for buyers to see the range of products and services on offer, making the marketplace more competitive. Google, most of all, encourages an ecosystem where producers can evolve, improve and compete.

I think the next frontier of the net is going to use the datastream to do precisely the opposite–to create value by making coordination easier.

Continue reading “Seth Godin: Paradigm Shift toward Cooperation”