“Is Google making us stupid?” Wednesday, Nov 4 2009

I mostly agree with this response to Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google making us stupid?” 

However, I do understand both sides of the argument.  For example, when I see a movie or hear a song and I am unsure what the ‘meaning’ is behind the art, I will not ponder the reason for its creation for long.  I will quickly look up what the meaning given by the producer or find out what other people think about it.  The cognitive ability for me to absorb and critical think about abstract information may have been minimized by finding easy answers on the internet, (then exclaim “Ah yes… NOW I get it!”).  It is like someone sitting next to you in philosophy class giving you every answer during an exam.  The movie Idiocracy also provides rather extreme (and quite hilarious) examples of computers performing all of our thinking for us, making us ‘idiots’ unable to preform simple everyday tasks.

However, when it comes to research, I know the internet has made me stronger.  I am able to access numerous articles in no time at all.  I am able to scan through each one quickly, getting the pieces of information I need to better my personal project.  I can see what has been done well and what research could be improved.  Years ago, it would have taken several trips to the library and prolonged my research significantly.  Additionally, any articles I found could not be seen by other people with similar research.  Today I can find information in seconds and easily share my research articles via delicious.

 If you want to be on-top of your game, I suggest using your brain instead of losing it.  We all know how to critically think, do simple math, and absorb information, but these simple operations can dull over time.  Exercising the brain a little bit can never hurt… right?

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Everthing is Miscellaneous – Take Aways Sunday, Oct 25 2009

Everything is Miscellaneous describes how the internet is redefining categorization.  When creating a scrapbook, you are the one that decides how to order the pictures.  You may decide to categorize the pictures in chronological order, by certain events, who are in the photographs, etc.  The scrapbook will used from time to time on occasion and after a few years, you may rarely look through them.  However, now you can place these photographs online and tag them in certain ways in which other people can view them.  Other people can continue to tag the photograph and people can view your picture all over the world. 

By tagging photos, videos, and articles we can organize our way through the information age any way we see fit.  However, a problem mentioned in the book is figuring out how people tag these pieces of information.  This is important in order for information to be found easily on the internet.  So I am doing a little experiment.  Below is a picture I captured from Flickr.  This random photo had 14 tags attached to it, can you guess what they are?  How would YOU tag this picture?

 

How would you tag this picture?

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Here Comes Everybody – Take Aways Wednesday, Oct 14 2009

Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky, is a book about how social media allows for groups to work together to accomplish a goal.  The first example displays an effort to retrieve a cell phone that was left in a cab in New York.  By retrieving photographs and an email address from her stolen cell phone, they could identify and contact who currently had it in their possession.  After many failed attempts to have the cell phone returned to its rightful owner, they turned their story to a personal blog site.  First the story was forwarded around to their friends, but eventually got national attention.  I love this story.  Even though it is just a stolen cell phone, you cannot help but get emotionally attached… mostly because we have all been there.  They were able to get attention from officers, lawyers, online detectives,  and journalists.  Through the collaboration online, people were able to work together to eventually get the phone back.

The book continues to display how groups working together can bring about change.  Whether it be giving up to date information on global events, organization in the workplace, or solving the dilemmas in our world, we are able to pursue these problems faster with our social media tools.

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Born Digital Take Aways Wednesday, Oct 7 2009

Characteristics of a Digital Native

Way they find information:  Instead of using a library card, digital natives are more apt to find information quicker via internet search engines (i.e., google, yahoo).  Advantage, digital natives can search to get information quickly.  Disadvantage, digital natives have to beware of mis-information.

Way they show their identity:  Instead of only defining their identity by the clothes they wear and the crowd they hang out with at school, digital natives can create an identity digitally.  Advantage, digital natives can create (and recreate) their digital identity and explore others that have similar identities.  Disadvantage, digital natives could find a group with a negative impact on their identity.  If I was a parent, I would want to be well aware of forums, blogs, and groups my children are apart of.

Way they socialize:  Not only can digital natives consistently communicate to friends and family, they are able to meet new people with all over the globe.  Advantage, digital natives will have a bigger social network, and therefore a greater social support.  Disadvantage, digital natives could communicate with dangerous people.  Children/teens need to be very aware of the dangers of meeting ‘strangers’ online.

I still remember floppy disks… so I believe I am on the cusp of the digital native generation.  I worry more for the future generation.  Education needs to a big push early on to ensure the safety of these new digital natives.

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RAND Corp. Friday, Oct 2 2009

I have fallen in love with producing tabletop exercises (TTXs) having helped to produce 3 CDC funded panflu exercises this summer involving 6 counties in Indiana.  Since I will be graduating in May with my MPH, I really need to find a job.  So naturally, I searched tabletop exercises in google and found RAND corp.  The more and more I dig into their website, the more impressed I am with their organization!

RAND Mission: The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.

They are a global nonprofit organization that has multiple research arms including homeland security, health, and national security among others.  I am really intrigued with their health branch producing such TTXs as “Designing and Conducting Tabletop Exercises to Assess Public Health Preparedness for Manmade and Naturally Occurring Biological Threats” and “Public Health Preparedness in California: Tabletop Exercises.” 

They also have a program in which you can work full-time while attaining your PhD!  I am always debating whether I want to receive my PhD or work.  This may be the best of both worlds. 

Follow them on twitter: RANDCorporation

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Content Nation: More take aways Tuesday, Sep 29 2009

The first take away I have is the role and importance of self publishing events noted in ch 7 & 8.  Ch 7  explained the impact of Now Public, a self publishing news site, during hurricane Katrina.  At a time where local news stations were hindered by the storm, the community was rapidly covering the events without the this media.  Secondly ICQ, an instant message site, was being used to share needs and information during the 2004 Tsunami.  Had more officials monitored the site, warning signs could have triggered a more rapid response to this event.  Chapter 8 further explains the importance of these self publishings: “Transform & co-exist with nature using highly scalable publishing that builds influence leadership, and consensus among peers who can act collaboratively in a diverse society transformed by technology.”

Chapter 11 was a very motivating and influential piece noting the importance of this new means of communicating.  However, I rather disliked ch 10.  It was too long, hard to follow, and too negative about the future in some parts.  I should have read ch 10 before ch 11, and therefore I wouldn’t have such an ugly outlook on “our future” involving ill events.  Who really knows what we will be doing in 20,000 years?  I am not really sure what will be happening in the next 10 years… just hoping for the best!

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Social Media Research Pre-Proposal Monday, Sep 28 2009

Interest Area

My interest area is within the fields of public health and social media technologies.

Focus Area

My interest area is utilizing what is said on social media sites to better understand the public’s view of the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccine.

Problem

There are many people who are questioning the effectiveness of both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccines.

Research Question

What are the perceived benefits and barriers the public has in regards to the seasonal and H1N1 flu shots?

Plan of Action

The major limitation to my research is finding an affordable conversation tracking website.  Sysomos and Radian6 are both wonderful products, however they are $1,000/mo. and $600/mo. respectively.  There is a chance that Radian6 will be offering the program to students in the near future.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed.  I am also actively seeking out grants to cover the cost.

My literature review will consist of multiple Health Belief Model (HBM) studies in regards to vaccinations as well as social media tracking of illness research.

If I gain access to one of these programs, I will need to further focus my research question based on the capabilities of the program.  For instance, I might be able to compare different cities and states based on their view of the flu shots.  I can see how much positive and negative feedback there is out on social media sites, and try to find out the cause for these beliefs.  I may be able to compare the thoughts and feeling of the public between the first and second wave.

I believe there is a lot of potential with this project because I personally receive many questions concerning the flu shots.  Many people are not sure what to believe, and I would like to see what the general consensus is regarding this issue.  If we know why people are [or are not] wanting to get a flu shot for themselves or their children, we can better improve public health messages to increase the perceived benefits and decrease the percieved barriers.

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10 Tips for Making a Successful Thesis Wednesday, Sep 23 2009

1 – Make your thesis a product that will help you get a job.

2 – Data does not always have to be collected.  There are data sets already available to be analyzed.

3 – Do your thesis on something that you have great passion for.

4 – Constantly think of how you can publish pieces of your thesis along the way.

5 – Put great consideration into who you want in your committee. (Based on relationships and expertise)

6 – Keep an eye out for grant opportunities that will help you with your research goals.

7 – Keep in mind, multiple students can work on the same data set for their thesis.

8 – Do not be afraid to ask for guidance from experts in your field specialty.

9 – Look for thesis projects that could expand into new future opportunities (more funding, PhD work, etc)

10 – Review past thesis projects from peers to see the quality of work that has been done.

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Take Aways: Content Nation Wednesday, Sep 23 2009

3 Main Ideas:

1 – The ability for anyone to publish information is powerful

2 – “Social media creates value through marketable relationships as much as through marketable content”

3 – The impact of social media is affecting marketplaces, companies, mass-media, and the way we “the publishers” live in our society

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Tweeple to follow! Monday, Sep 21 2009

I have found a couple interesting public health individuals on twitter & blogs.  The first is the creator of Pulse + Signal blog (mindofandre on twitter).  He discusses how technology can be used for public health.  I enjoy this blog because he understands the importance of utilizing social media outlets for public health campaigns.

Here is his blog:  http://pulseandsignal.com/

The second public health resource I found is the creator of ugraph (micahelliott on twitter).  Ugraph is a tool in which people can follow what is being said about certain health topics in their area.  A program like this would greatly help out my thesis!  Apparently the launch date is nearing.  I can’t wait! 

On the ugraph blog, there are recommended tweeple to follow.  What a great way to find my own “village”!http://blog.ugraph.com/2008/12/health-tweeple-worth-following/

Lastly, I am following both AmberCadabra & vargasl on twitter.  They are both working for Radian 6 which is a great marketing research tool.  I am hoping to use their product (normally costing $600) for my H1N1 social media research.  Just looking for a grant to support my cause or hopefully a student discount!  The free media trackers are just lacking in one capability or another.  It really looks like they have a great product and would be eager to try it!

Here is their product:  http://www.radian6.com/cms/home

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