Patrick Meier: Using Waze, Uber, AirBnB and SeeClickFix for Disaster Response

Crowd-Sourcing, Design, Geospatial, Governance, Software
Patrick Meier
Patrick Meier

Using Waze, Uber, AirBnB and SeeClickFix for Disaster Response

After the Category 5 Tornado in Oklahoma, map editors at Waze used the service to route drivers around the damage. While Uber increased their car service fares during Hurricane Sandy, they could have modified their App to encourage the shared use of Uber cars to fill unused seats. This would have taken some work,  but AirBnB did modify their platform overnight to let over 1,400 kindhearted New Yorkers offer free housing to victims of the hurricane. SeeClick fix was used also to report over 800 issues in just 24 hours after Sandy made landfall. These included reports on the precise location of power outages, flooding, downed trees, downed electric lines, and other storm damage. Following the Boston Marathon Bombing, SeeClick fix was used to quickly find emergency housing for those affected by the tragedy.

Read full post with additional graphics and links.

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Robin Good: Bi-Lingual Curation “Pills” Open Way to Zip-Code Public Intelligence Building Blocks

Crowd-Sourcing
Robin Good
Robin Good

Etceter is a new content curation tool which allows you to create and arrange information pages on any topic, by bringing and organizing together web site links, video clips, images and/or original texts. Ay curated information page, containing as many media elements as you need, is called a Pill. You can group and assign different Pills (which are by themselves collections) to broader categories you define and which are called Boxes. On Pills pages you have the option to organize contents into one, two or three columns and you can easily re-arrange items by simply dragging and dropping them into new positions. Etceter Pills and individual media items can be easily shared on social media networks and are directly integrated with Facebook comments under each page. Etceter also provides intelligible SEO-friendly URLs and personal profile pages, all relevant traits of a good curation tool. My comment: Though Etceter looks still in early development (FAQ and other pages are still in Spanish + the Clipboard import feature does not work yet – no bookmarklet) the features and curation approach offered is interesting. In particular the nesting of media items into Pills and Boxes is quite valuable and the possibility to arrange individual items in any way desired is very useful. Video collections work particularly well as well as multimedia info pages on specific topics. Free to use. Promotional video.

Curate Rich Visual Information Pages On Any Topic with Etceter

Continue reading “Robin Good: Bi-Lingual Curation “Pills” Open Way to Zip-Code Public Intelligence Building Blocks”

Patrick Meier: The Geography of Twitter: Mapping the Global Heartbeat

Crowd-Sourcing, Geospatial
Patrick Meier
Patrick Meier

The Geography of Twitter: Mapping the Global Heartbeat

My colleague Kalev Leetaru recently co-authored this comprehensive study on the various sources and accuracies of geographic information on Twitter. This is the first detailed study of its kind. The detailed analysis, which runs some 50-pages long, has important implications vis-a-vis the use of social media in emergency management and humanitarian response. Should you not have the time to analyze the comprehensive study, this blog post highlights the most important and relevant findings.

Read full post with global graphics.

Jean Lievens: Book Economy of Experiences (Migrating Toward an Economy of Meaning)

Culture, Design, Economics/True Cost, Education, Innovation, P2P / Panarchy, Resilience
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Book: Economy of Experiences.

By Albert Boswijk, Ed Peelen & Steven Olthof.

The European Centre for the Experience and Transformation Economy, 2013

URL = http://www.experience-economy.com

Contents

“In chapters 1 and 2 we present a concise synopsis of the various forms of value creation. Subsequently we describe and delve deeper into the technological and societal shifts, as viewed both from a business context and by individuals in their socio-cultural context (chapters 3 and 4). Following that, we examine new forms of value creation (chapter 5) and new income models (chapter 6). In chapter 7 we deal with the design principles of meaningful experiences, while chapter 8 deals more comprehensively than before with the five phases of intangible value creation. We have also elected to probe more deeply into the experience economy in the health sector (chapter 9), the financial services sector (chapter 10) and the creative city (chapter 11). We concentrate particularly on the transformation that these sectors are undergoing. In these particular areas there is sufficient urgency and potential to facilitate the creation of intangible value and meaningful experiences.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Book Economy of Experiences (Migrating Toward an Economy of Meaning)”

Yoda Wants YOU To Make a Donation!

Crowd-Sourcing, Money
Got Crowd? BE the Force!
Got Crowd? BE the Force!

We could really use your help in sustaining this endeavor — the truth at any cost lowers all others costs.

We collect great minds and attract the future — our focus is on the positive while learning from the negative.

See the donate button and the special interest items on the right, and thank you in advance.

$15 = pin and bookmark, $50 = pin and bookmark and book of your choice from inventory.

Also offering direct Skype interventions anywhere on the planet — email robert.david.steele.vivas [at] gmail [dot] com to organize.

Jean Lievens: Video (1:39:09) Science Beyond Reductionism – “Model Free Methods” as a Holistic Shift

Crowd-Sourcing, Culture, Design, Economics/True Cost, Education, Governance, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy, Politics, Resilience, Transparency
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Monica Anderson is CEO of Syntience Inc. and originator of a theory for learning called “Artificial Intuition” that may allow us to create computer based systems that can understand the meaning of language in the form of text. Here she discusses the ongoing paradigm shift – the “Holistic Shift” – which started in the life sciences and is spreading to the remaining disciplines. Model Free Methods (also known as Holistic Methods) are an increasingly common approach used on “the remaining hard problems”, including problems in the domain of “AI” – Problems that require intelligence. She illustrates this using a Model Free approach to the NetFlix Challenge. Her website provides some background information.

Page for starting video

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Click on Image to Enlarge