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Communication - Global

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This working group is focused on discussions about communication.

The mission of this working group is to focus on discussions about communication.

Members

Carrielaj Kathy Gilbeaux Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald tkm

Email address for group

communication-global@m.resiliencesystem.org

Chasing The Chatter - VOST - Crowdsourcing - Social Monitoring

           

Photograph - Getty Images - nfpa.org - by Jesse Roman - July 1, 2019

Around the world, an army of volunteers equipped with little more than laptops monitors social media activity during all manner of emergencies. That work is contributing to a fundamental change in how safety agencies interact with the public during large-scale disasters.

. . . a virtual operations support team, or VOST community remains primarily a loosely affiliated network of do-gooder volunteers . . .

. . . Because the work is conducted online, VOST members can be located anywhere in the world . . .

. . . The general term for this work is social monitoring, a concept that has grown steadily since about 2010. Many forward-thinking disaster managers now see this digital sleuthing as critical to their on-the-ground efforts, regardless of the type of disaster they are facing.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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Russian Trolls Promoted Anti-Vaccination Propaganda that May Have Caused Measles Outbreak, Researcher Claims

           

Trolls used the vaccination debate to try to sow discord during the US election, researchers say. Photograph: Buenaventuramariano/Getty Images/iStockphoto

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH REPORT - American Public Health Association - Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate

newsweek.com - by Christina Maza - February 14, 2019

Russian propaganda may be responsible for the persistence of measles as conspiracy theories about vaccinations spread across the Internet, according to researchers.

The same Russian trolls who attempted to provoke racial tensions and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election were also responsible for spreading propaganda against vaccinations. Their efforts may have helped cause the measles outbreak that infected tens of thousands and killed dozens in Europe last year, researchers told Radio Free Europe.

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The Lower Your Social Class, the ‘Wiser’ You Are, Suggests New Study

submitted by Carrie La Jeunesse

           

Growing up working class gives people social skills that help broaden their perspective during conflicts. NICOLAS HOIZEY/UNSPLASH

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations

sciencemag.org - by Michael Price - December 20, 2017

There’s an apparent paradox in modern life: Society as a whole is getting smarter, yet we aren’t any closer to figuring out how to all get along. “How is it possible that we have just as many, if not more, conflicts as before?” asks social psychologist Igor Grossmann.

The answer is that raw intelligence doesn’t reduce conflict, Grossmann asserts. Wisdom does. Such wisdom—in effect, the ability to take the perspectives of others into account and aim for compromise—comes much more naturally to those who grow up poor or working class, he says.

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Here’s the Science Behind the Brexit Vote and Trump’s Rise

           

Illustration by Thomas Pullin

CLICK HERE - FULL TEXT AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION - Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study (6 page .PDF file)

My research shows that when people feel threatened they want ‘tighter’ social norms, with profound consequences for politics

theguardian.com - by Michele Gelfand - September 17, 2018

What is the essential dividing line between human beings around the world? . . . 

 . . . My research across hundreds of communities suggests that the fundamental driver of difference is not ideological, financial or geographical – it’s cultural. Behaviour, it turns out, depends a lot on whether the culture in which we live is a “tight” or “loose” one.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study

 

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FBI Warns Russians Hacked Hundreds of Thousands of Routers

           

FILE PHOTO: A man types on a computer keyboard in front of the displayed cyber code in this illustration picture taken on March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration

CLICK HERE - FBI Statement - FOREIGN CYBER ACTORS TARGET HOME AND OFFICE ROUTERS AND NETWORKED DEVICES WORLDWIDE

reuters.com - by Joseph Menn, Sarah N. Lynch - May 25, 2018

The FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic.

The U.S. law enforcement agency urged the owners of many brands of routers to turn them off and on again and download updates from the manufacturer to protect themselves. . .

. . . Infections were detected in more than 50 countries, though the primary target for further actions was probably Ukraine, the site of many recent infections and a longtime cyberwarfare battleground.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Beartooth - An off the grid network for your smartphone

Beartooth is a handheld device that works with your smartphone to keep you connected when there is no cell service.

Beartooth works as a long range link between you and other Beartooth users. Your phone connects to your Beartooth using Bluetooth, and your Beartooth connects to other Beartooth devices up to 10 miles away over the 900 MHz ISM band.

Download app and pair your Beartooth to your iPhone or Android device. Once connected you can reach other Beartooth users within 10 miles.

https://www.beartooth.com

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UN Centre Improving Lives by Linking People and Humanitarian Data

           

Humanitarian aid workers help fight cholera in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: OCHA/J-L. Mbalivoto

unmultimedia.org - 22 December 2017

Access to data is crucial for humanitarians responding to various crises worldwide.

For example, aid workers feeding hungry people in Nigeria use a mobile-based platform to monitor the price of rice and other staples to know when costs increase.

To better assist these professionals, the UN has opened a global humanitarian data centre in the Netherlands that aims to improve lives by connecting people and data.

Veronique Durroux spoke to Javier Terán Castro, a statistician with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, who explained how it functions.

http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2017/12/un-centre-aims-to-connect-people-and-humanitarian-data-to-improve-lives/#.Wj0Cma3MzFR

The Centre for Humanitarian Data - https://centre.humdata.org

HDX - https://data.humdata.org

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In Puerto Rico, No Power Means No Telecommunications

A car passes among dark homes as people wait for electricity to be restored after Hurricane Maria passed through in Utuado, Puerto Rico.JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

Image: A car passes among dark homes as people wait for electricity to be restored after Hurricane Maria passed through in Utuado, Puerto Rico.JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

wired.com - Adam Rogers - October 10th 2017

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria tore through the Caribbean, Puerto Rico is still mostly an island deleted from the present and pushed back a century or so—with little clean water, little electric power, and almost no telecommunications. For telecom, the biggest problem is the lack of power, because most of the island’s transmission lines were knocked out. “We have to reconstruct the power grid as if we were dropping into the middle of the desert and starting from scratch,” says Luis Romero, vice president of the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Alliance.

(VIEW FULL WEBSITE)

 
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Hurricane Maria: Dominica Aerial Pictures Show ‘Total Destruction’

nbcnews.com - by Yuliya Talmazan - September 20, 2017

Dominica's main hospital "took a beating" from Hurricane Maria while buildings serving as shelters had their roofs ripped off, an official said as the first images showing the devastation unleashed by the storm emerged Wednesday.

The Category 5 storm hit the tiny Caribbean island late Monday, cutting off communications and leaving the rest of the world in the dark about the storm’s aftermath.

Video footage shot by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency shows large swaths of the island suffered heavy damage, with roofs missing and debris scattered for hundreds of yards.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Recovering from Disasters: Social Networks Matter More Than Bottled Water and Batteries

submitted by Joyce Fedeczko

           

Survivors leave Tohoku a day after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Warren Antiola/Flickr

theconversation.com - by Daniel P. Aldrich

Standard advice about preparing for disasters focuses on building shelters and stockpiling things like food, water and batteries. But resilience - the ability to recover from shocks, including natural disasters - comes from our connections to others, and not from physical infrastructure or disaster kits.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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