Twitter is a powerful infotention tool if you use it that way. Discovering experts and learning from them is key. I use Diigo and Delicious as hunting groungs for expertise, then follow the expert candidates I find in a particular field via Twitter lists. These step-by-step instructions can be useful to those who don't already use Twitter this way.
Sometimes you need to quickly immerse yourself in a new field. You might want to gain expertise or quickly gauge what the current issues are around a particular topic. One way of doing this is by creating a dedicated Twitter account to follow a topic. Below some instructions on how you could do this.
Setting up a Twitter account with the right settings
Here is what they have as of today. An extraordinary effort that should soon become automated. You won't find these on LinkedIn! Click for individual Venn diagram similar to the Keystone Pipeline shown below.,
Phi Beta Iota: Now imagine this being done at every level of government from the municipality on up, across every policy domain, with whole systems analytics, true cost economics, and all trade-offs clearly visible. This is where we are going. Humanitarian technology and Open Source Everything (OSE) are going to empower the public in a manner no government or corporation can conceive or achieve.
“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section1. General Principles. Openness in government strengthens our democracy, promotes the delivery of efficient and effective services to the public, and contributes to economic growth. As one vital benefit of open government, making information resources easy to find, accessible, and usable can fuel entrepreneurship, innovation, and scientific discovery that improves Americans’ lives and contributes significantly to job creation.”
The U.S. Government already has already made some information readily available such as weather data from the Global Position System. Thanks to this we can predict weather patterns, issue warnings and use location based applications. Other data resources such as health, medicine, education, public safety and other areas have experienced growth thanks to the free machine-readable information data posted on Data.gov. The government wants to continue to promote both job and economic growth so they have devised a plan to ensure that not only data is released but that it is made easily accessible to the public. In the world where we find much of our information out by clinging to the news or online sources hoping we can catch a glimpse into the world of the U.S. Government it’s refreshing for them to acknowledge our need for information and give us something to grow on and really get us going.
This search engine is a great option if you value your privacy above all else. The team behind DuckDuckGo believes in better search functions without tracking its users. Its features include “goodies” (special search queries such as calculations and programming), browser extensions and perhaps most of all, peace of mind.
Instead of searching the web for answers to your questions, Wolfram|Alpha conducts dynamic computations based on built-in data, algorithms and other methods. The search engine's goal is to build on existing knowledge and become a single, reliable source for definitive answers.
When Facebook doesn't cut it for finding people, Ark comes in handy. As an alternative to Graph Search, you can search through more than 1 billion people based on filters such as location, college and employment. If you just moved to a new city, Ark comes in handy to find others with similar interests.
Taiwan uses free widespread Wi-Fi to lure tourists
Taiwan is making it easy for foreign tourists to stay connected.
The government recently announced that international travelers to the country will be able to access free Wi-Fi at 4,400 hotspots at indoor public spaces throughout the country. By showing a passport, tourists can open an account on the 1Mbps iTaiwan Wi-Fi network that’s found at major tourist spots, transportation hubs, cultural establishments, and government offices, covering much of the island nation.
“The Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission are working to provide the utmost convenience for foreign visitors and eliminate any communications problems they may encounter. This new service will considerably brighten Taiwan’s already shining image for quality travel services,” said the Taiwan Tourism Bureau in a statement.
The iTaiwan program isn’t new. The government started it in 2011, with free Wi-Fi in 3,000 indoor public areas throughout the country. But until now it was only available for citizens.
Last year, Taiwan grew the number of foreign tourists by 20 percent with a record 7.3 million who helped the tourism industry generate $11 billion.
An extended interview with Julian Assange recorded during filming of John Pilger’s latest film The War You Don’t See.
The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders, in politics and journalism.
The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before.
The US Justice Department has established a secret grand jury just across the river from Washington in the eastern district of the state of Virginia. The object is to indict Julian Assange under a discredited espionage act used to arrest peace activists during the first world war, or one of the war on terror conspiracy statutes that have degraded American justice.
Judicial experts describe the jury as a deliberate set up, pointing out that this corner of Virginia is home to the employees and families of the Pentagon, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and other pillars of American power.
Phi Beta Iota: From a professional intelligence point of view, the two take-aways are 01) that insider sources for WikiLeaks are proliferating, and 02) such sources are virtually guaranteed total anonymnity for their one-time or limited “donations.” US military now serving or having recently served in Afghanistan and Iraq appear to be the predominant source group.
