Promise and Concern: The Future of Social Media and Real-Time Awareness
by Luisa Castellanos, Communia Blog, Woodrow Wilson Center, February 14, 2012
On Feb. 3, 2012, the U.S. State Department hosted its eighth conference in the Tech@State series. The two-day symposium focused on how social media and other internet-enabled data streams are used to create real-time awareness in different contexts, with sessions looking at analyzing large amounts of data, enhancing the understanding of consumer behavior, and live-mapping crisis situations. One particularly interesting panel focused on the future of social media and real-time awareness, not only for individuals, but for a society that is still learning to deal with developments in social media, communication technologies and crowdsourced information. The speakers discussed how this pervasive technology could aid in real-time awareness, but also raised legitimate concerns about impacts on security and privacy. …
For full text of the article, visit Promise and Concern: The Future of Social Media and Real-Time Awareness « Communia.
Lawmakers Take Closer Look at DHS’ Social Media Monitoring
by Luisa Castellanos, Communia Blog, Woodrow Wilson Center, February 17, 2012 at 10:40 am
There have not been many unifying issues for House Republicans and Democrats this congressional session. But, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, members of both parties took time at a Feb. 16 hearing to raise concerns with officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the agency’s approach to social media monitoring. The House Homeland Security Committee’s counterterrorism panel held the hearing, which sought to examine the intersection between DHS’ monitoring of social media channels and online news for real-time information on disasters and ensuring privacy for users of Twitter, Facebook and myriad other online forums. …
For full text of the article, visit Lawmakers Take Closer Look at DHS’ Social Media Monitoring « Communia.
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Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ Privacy from “Eyes in the Sky”
Wayne Madsen, Lead Scientist, Computer Sciences Corporation, 1994
Abstract: This paper investigates the problems associated with remote sensing from space-based platforms as they relate to the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples around the world. Many nations and international organizations recognize a right of individual privacy. This paper advances the notion of a right to collective privacy, what can best be described as a “communal right of privacy,” especially as it relates to the rights of indigenous people to be free of wanton exploitation from data on their lands and waters that are collected from orbiting surveillance and sensing platforms. Indigenous peoples argue that since they are the direct descendants of the original peoples who settled their lands before conquest by outsiders, they have an “inalienable” right to their territories and the natural resources contained therein (Nagengast, Stavenhagen, and Kearney, 1992, 31). Clearly, the sparse number of international treaties and other regimes that seek to protect the rights of indigenous people to their lands and resources must be strengthened to address privacy protections against wanton snooping from overhead surveillance satellites.
For full text of this article, which is still very relevant today, click here.
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Ethics, CrisisMapping, and Data Protection Standards 2.0
By Anahi, Stand By Task Force, February 14, 2012
As noted in Patrick Meier’s blog post on “Crowdsourcing, Crisis Mapping and Data Protection Standards”, humanitarian organizations have yet to develop and publicize data protection protocols for social media, crowdsourcing and volunteer geographical information. This is why, in November 2011, the Standby Task Force (SBTF) actively participated in an important workshop to discuss these challenges. The workshop was organized and sponsored by World Vision (WV) and deliberately scheduled around the 2011 Crisis Mappers Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. This was quite possibly one of the most important meeting that we (as the SBTF) participated in all of 2011. For the first time, we had a dedicated space to share our challenges and questions with data protection experts. Participants included representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Care International, Oxfam GB, UN OCHA, UN Foundation, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and obviously WV. …
For full text of the article, visit Data Protection Standards 2.0.
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Stranger than Fiction: A Few Words About An Ethical Compass for Crisis Mapping
by Patrick Meier, iRevolution, February 12, 2012
The good people at the Sudan Sentinel Project (SSP), housed at my former “alma matter,” the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), have recently written this curious piece on crisis mapping and the need for an “ethical compass” in this new field. They made absolutely sure that I’d read the piece by directly messaging me via the @CrisisMappers twitter feed. Not to worry, good people, I read your masterpiece. Interestingly enough, it was published the day after my blog post reviewing IOM’s data protection standards. …
For full text of the article, visit Stranger than Fiction: A Few Words About An Ethical Compass for Crisis Mapping | iRevolution.
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Crisis Mapping Needs an Ethical Compass
Nathaniel Raymond, Caitlin Howarth & Jonathan Hutson, GlobalBrief, Feburary 6, 2012
The recent global heroics of digital dissidents and witnesses betray a larger kink in their armour – a desperate need for standards and professionalism. In 2011, civilians using communication technologies to obtain information and to coordinate political action defined the year more than any other development in foreign affairs. Time magazine chose “The Protester” as its 2011 Person of the Year, noting how last year’s protest movements made use of Twitter hashtags and digital platforms in order to share imagery and map locations, and to spread their messages around the world.
Individuals using smartphones and social networks sparked and sustained the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement in North America, as well as the Russian Winter that gripped Moscow. Maps displaying near real-time data collected from the ‘crowd’ aided the response to a devastating earthquake in Japan. And DigitalGlobe’s commercial satellites monitored violence along the border between Sudan and South Sudan, allowing Harvard analysts as part of the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) – funded by actor and activist George Clooney and the charity Not On Our Watch – to capture evidence of war crimes hours after alleged mass atrocities occurred. …
For full text of the article, visit Crisis Mapping Needs an Ethical Compass : Global Brief.
Haiti Earthquake a Year Later What Has Space Learned
Guest Blog: Haiti Earthquake a Year Later: What Has Space Learned?
Adriane Cornell, Space News, January 12, 2011
… After a disaster strikes, current practice ideally has it that the affected country requests aid from the United Nations, and the International Charter Space and Major Disasters is then activated. Space derived data is collected from organizations that are part of the Charter and this information is sent to other organizations who then produce maps and informational reports on the disaster. These organizations then send their information to the disaster responders and the international community. The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) tries throughout the process to support the complicated information exchange. …
For full text of this article, visit Guest Blog Haiti Earthquake a Year Later What Has Space Learned | SpaceNews.com.
FCC Bars the Use of Airwaves for LightSquared Broadband Plan
By Edward Wyatt, NYT, February 14, 2012
A proposed wireless broadband network that would provide voice and Internet service using airwaves once reserved for satellite-telephone transmissions should be shelved because it interferes with GPS technology, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday. The F.C.C. statement revokes the conditional approval for the network given last year. It comes after an opinion by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which said that “there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference at this time” with GPS devices. The telecommunications and information agency oversees telecommunications policy at the Commerce Department. …
For full text of the article, visit F.C.C. Bars the Use of Airwaves for a Broadband Plan – NYTimes.com.
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Does Government Geographic Data Belong to the People?
By Bruce Joffe, Cadalyst, February 8, 2012
After nearly three years of legal wrangling, the Sierra Club and Orange County are now facing off in the California Supreme Court. The issue that brought the two organizations into conflict is one of great importance to GIS professionals and non-users alike: public access to government databases. After the California First Amendment Coalition won a California Public Records Act (PRA) lawsuit against Santa Clara County, in April 2009, Sierra Club filed a similar suit against Orange County. Sierra Club needed Orange County’s parcel basemap in the GIS-compatible database format, but couldn’t afford to pay the price Orange County was charging — $475,000 — and didn’t believe that the County had the right to charge more than the cost of duplication, as prescribed under the PRA. Orange County defended its data sales policy with the so-called “software exemption” of the PRA, which states that government agencies do not have to provide software for the cost of duplication, as they do for the data that they use to make public decisions. … Sierra Club appealed the case, but the 4th District Court of Appeal affirmed the decision in support of Orange County. The County’s logic was that GIS includes software and data (citing ESRI’s definition of GIS as “a collection of software and data”), the County’s landbase is a GIS, GIS is a type of computer mapping system, and CMS is excluded by PRA section 6254.9; therefore, the County’s GIS landbase data is excluded….
Read more about this important debate. For the full text of the article, visit Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People? | Cadalyst.
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French Court Rules against Google for Providing Free Web-Mapping Services
February 13, 2012
A French court ruled in early February 2012 that Google must pay €500,000 in damages and €15,000 in fines as a result of business practices alleged to be anti-competitive. The ruling stems from a complaint by French company Bottin Cartographes, which claimed that Google France and Google Inc. competed unfairly by offering Web-mapping services for free to some businesses. Bottin offers similar services, but charges a fee.
For full text of article, visit Geoplace.com.
