bonus- technology

For my final bonus blog discussion, I have chosen to write about what appears to me as an interesting topic. I chose to speak about how technology affects us as American in our every day life. The interesting part, to me, is that we tend not to even realize that technology affects us on a day to day basic. Well to begin, I remember as a young boy, I rarely used electronic technology. Pretty much the only ones that I used was obviously the television and occasionally my game boy when I was traveling to hockey games in the car. But other than that I was always outside, whether it was cold or warm. I was either playing with my friends or just shooting some hoops or practicing my slap shot. But either way, technology really did not consume my life. it was not uncommon for me not to use any type of electronic until right before I went to be when I would watch television with my parents. But as I got older, I got a cell phone, got a laptop and my own television in my room. Suddenly my life changed. I was constantly texting my friends and surfing the Internet. And shortly there after, I found myself staying inside more and more. Looking back on it, that was a bad decision. But like me, I believe many other Americans did the same thing and still do the same thing. After awhile, we have become comfortable with using technology and it became second nature for us to use it. Now, we use technology instead of doing some of the simplest things on our town. For example, most Americans will use a calculator for a simple equation that we could easily use mental math for if we would just be willing to use our brains. I’m not saying that I am not one of these people, because I am one of them. But I regret saying it, which makes me want to change the way I live my life. However, technology is amazing and we should be constantly improving it, but we cannot go on living our lives like robots. Before we know it, technology has incorporated itself into every aspect of our lives. No matter where we go, we can surf the web and check the score of the game. Not to say that this is a bad thing, because having mobile Internet is very important in things such as business and disaster relief. All I am saying is that in some way, we need to go back to our roots and do things the old fashion way every once in awhile. We have lost sight in the good things in life and we cant just shy away from things just because they are difficult. Hard work pays off. Personally, when I work hard on something and really use my brain, I feel much better about myself. I get a good sense of accomplishment. Technology can’t change that.

bonus-Iphone

For this bonus blog I have chosen to speak about the Iphone. I know some of you may be sick of hearing about this devise but the fact of the matter is that this phone has revolutionized the cell phone world. It was the first of its kind to do so many things. Not only that but it has made this that use to be time consuming and almost impossible to do on the run, possible. For example, it was very rare to be able to search the Internet so easily and quickly on the go, like you could on your own personal computer. The Iphone has made that possible with safari on the phone. Also the 3g aspect of the Iphone was very technological advanced. Now, not only could you just get WIFI, but you could also search and play on the Internet no matter where you are. It made business, recreation, emergency response, and research so much easier because you no longer had to be grounded to do work. I believe that that is the reason that the Iphone quickly because the elite phone in the cell phone world. Not only was the Internet aspect very important, but also the applications are what really made the Iphone great. Now not only could you just make phone calls and text messages on your phone, but you can do so much more such as play games, check your email, make a shopping list, and even listen to you Itunes. This was really important because it made multitasking every easy and readily available. You can essentially do anything on your Iphone that you could do on your computer, laptop, Game Boy, and ipod, all at once. It gave you the power of the world, in a simple hand held device. The Iphone has set the bar for all other phones that come out in the future. They are known to be the best and most reliable phone out there. Since the Iphone has come out, almost every other company has tried to duplicate it as much as they can. They have almost all come out with 3G, applications and touch screens. Iphone’s are also very useful in emergency response. This is because you pretty much have everything you need in the palm of your hand. You need to look on how to get to a certain address? No problem, just type it into your application. You need to read about a certain place? No problem, type it into Wikipedia. You need to read your emails or sent out email? No problem, go right ahead. The point in trying to convey is that, if there is anything you need to do that you can do at home desktop, you can do it wherever you are with the Iphone. The Iphone is consistently coming out with new applications and new features to add to the phone, any competitors are going to have a hard time keeping with Apple. I challenge and company to rival the Iphone’s technology. 

bonus- final project

For this bonus blog I have chosen to speak to you all about our final project for our Security and Risk Analysis Crisis Informatics class. For this project, our assignment was to invent a piece of software, hardware, or a device that would help in emergency response in one-way or another. After some though our group has chosen to make somewhat of a check in system. Basically the design is made up of software data that incorporates a mapping-overlay technology used for sharing information. We are going to use a type of software that allows multiple devises that will upload or update useful information into the software. It’s going to allow you to overlay many types of information, at the same time it will allow you to choose specific information you want to view. It’s an organized way to rapidly find the information you need. The idea is to minimize information overload for humanitarian organization, reduce duplicated information, and solve any communication issues between the organizations involved. The benefit of this is to make it easier for the humanitarian workers to find the information that they want and or need and to get it fresh from the source and faster then ever before. The types of information that will be readily available for the users are locations of colleagues, what they are doing, and how far away they are. The basic use of this would be for law enforcement officers. The way I describe it is if a police officer is at a call at a certain address for lets just say a domestic disturbance, and he is alone. If things start to get a little sticky, he will be able to look up where his nearest back up is, how long it will take them to get there, and what they are doing. This is a great tool to have because it brings awareness to the officers and gives them a sense of partnership with their fellow officers. Because at every given moment, everyone will be able to know exactly what everyone else is doing and there will be no questions. However, just because I used the police as an example, it is no by means limited to them. It could be used by the military, emergency management, humanitarians, non-government organizations, firemen, Emergency medical technicians, and others. So basically there is no limit to who can use this software. The reason that we decided to create this software, is because when we had guest speakers, we would always ask them what they wanted to improve disaster response, and a common answer between most of them was that they would like a check in system. This is because they had a hard time knowing who was at the scene and what they were doing. So with us creating this software, I believe that it would fix this problem and even go above and beyond the call of duty. I truly believe that this will be successful and will be able to be used by many different organizations. 

bonus- OEM

For this bonus blog entry I chose to speak about the Somerset County Office of Emergency Management. The reason that chose to make this as my bonus blog is because I interned with them this past summer and really learned a lot. This was a great place to have an internship at because they were not just an ordinary emergency management place. They had a lot more going on. On their campus, they had the county maintenance buildings, the fire fighter training academy, Hazardous Material, and emergency response. So needless to say, this was a great place for me to work because I got the priceless opportunity of being able to feel out each one of these fields and pick out which one I liked the most. This is actually the place were I decided that I would like to become a volunteer fire fighter. I got a chance to witness the training they did, and talk to a lot of the fire fighters to gather some information. Since then, I have applied to be a volunteer fireman at State College’s Alpha volunteer fire company.

            So now that the background information is out of the way, lets get into the office of emergency management and what they do. Here at the office of OEM, I worked hand in hand with the county deputy coordinator. Working with him, I got an opportunity to take part in doing the grant money for the New Jersey State police given to them by the Department of Homeland Security. This was a good experience because I was able to talk to some of the policemen and get some connections for later in life, which is really important. Another thing we did was make emergency evacuation plans for the local government buildings such as the prosecutor’s office. What we did was draw up a plan, and present it to the people who work in the buildings.

            Another thing that I learned about what the calls they got called out on. I was fortunate enough to go out on one that had to deal with a gas leak in a building. We arrived in the HAZMAT trucks and went in with a meter that would read if any toxic gas was in the building. It turned out that they building was safe and all the workers were able to reenter. But it was just really cool to be able to go out on a call. i was also fortunate enough to check out the equipment that they would use in a search and rescue scenario. They had an eight wheel vehicle that they used to go throw dirt and off road. They also had numerous trailers that was packed with supplies that I had to organize and take inventory of. Usually people don’t like taking inventory, but I enjoyed it because I was able to check out what was incorporated in the search and rescue opportunities. They had everything from vehicles to sharpies. All in all, I would recommend anyone to work at the office of emergency management in their town. It’s a great opportunity that is priceless. I learned a lot. 

bonus- Facebook v Twitter

This inspired blog post is about facebook and its uses. Today, many controversies have arisen about twitter in numerous aspects including emergency response and social media of course. My focus today is going to be the use of facebook in disaster response and the question of whether or not we as responders to crisis should in fact use facebook. In my opinion, I believe that we should use facebook. However, I do not believe that we should use it before we use twitter, Peoplefinder or even shelterfinder. This is because all of those sites I believe are more reliable than facebook is. Peoplefinder and Shelterfinder are more concentrated on one task and hand, were facebook covers more of a wider spectrum. For example, if you were looking for a family member, were would you look first. Facebook? No, you would go to a site that souly does that, which is Peoplefinder, and the likewise for Shelterfinder.  So, with that being said, I believe that facebook should just be another tool that responders use for extra information that is not necessarily needed in a time crunch because twitter would be a lot easier for that. Although facebook is a great tool that millions of people use, it cannot be confirmed. In other words, any random person can post anything they want whether it’s true or not. Sure, this is also true for twitter, but that is also a issue with twitter. Furthermore, twitter is so much easier to use for groups. All someone has to do is put a hash tag and it shows up. Where with facebook, one usually has to be invited into a group and common sentences or words don’t all show up in one place. For example, if I posted on my twitter, “my neighbor is trapped under debris on 54 north bridge street #Help.” Everyone who said help in their post would all come up on a certain page, and it would be easy for responders to classify them and get them the help they need.  And if someone posted that exact same sentence as their status on facebook, onlookers might see that and call for help, but it would not get directed to a certain page. So in other words, twitter is much for efficient for its use in emergency response. Another reason why twitter is so great in emergency response is because it is actually starting to be adopted by agencies all over the world. Sure it has some flaws, such as the fact that it often needs to be translated, and it takes a lot of man-power and man-hours to translate those tweets, but it is on its way up and will soon be proficient. I believe that facebook, although ahead on social media, but falls short of twitter in the emergency response field. Im not sure if there is something that facebook could change in order for it to be better in emergency response, but if there is I would be very interested in seeing what it is and how it works. Maybe one day in the future we will be able to see such things. 

Bonus- war on terror

Today I am going to do my bonus blog on the war on terror. For those of you who do not know exactly what that is, it is basically the war that we are currently involved in in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason that we are in this war is because of the attack on September 11, 2001. Furthermore, we are also in this war because we believed Saddam Husain had weapons of mass destruction that he could easily use against us, or another country. Although we did not find any of these weapons of mass destruction, we believe that he could have hid them somewhere off the boarder in lets just say Iran. The first step of this war was when we invaded Iraq with troops. We took a strong hold in Fallujah and Baghdad. These would prove to be huge gains in our war of taking over Iraq and putting a new governmental Democracy in place. It was important for us to instill Democracy in Iraq because for years, Saddam Husain has been dictating these people and not treating the people fairly and even humanly. To prove this, there are even rumors that in Saddam’s spare time, he would like to watch tapes of the torture that his men preformed on people who did not comply with his every wish. In the years to come, we would eventually capture Saddam and release him to the Iraqi people. Later, they would hang him to his death. After we took down Saddam and his army, we would release the power of the government to the Iraqi army. We would help them train and teach them how to fight and keep the peace. Recently, we have been consistently taking our troops out of Iraq, and leaving most of the power to the Iraqi army.

            Now our main focus is in Afghanistan. Here we are constantly fighting against the Taliban who are constantly ambushing American troops by ways of small weapons fire, and the increasing problem we are having with IED, or Improvised Explosive Devise. These are coming more and more of a problem because they are targeting our vehicles and our boots on the ground. There are usually two different types of Improvised Explosive Devices that they are using. The first one is a remote trigger. What they do is sit at a safe distance away and as soon as they see troops over that location, they pull the trigger and blows up the IED. The other one that they use is a pressure detonate. This works from the shallow based IED and when it feels pressure from lets say a body or a vehicle, it explodes. These two types of Improvised Explosive Devises are becoming the worst method of attack that is being used against the United States military. We are doing everything we can to hinder these attacks but they are nearly impossible to clear all of them out. It is just another example of how the Taliban is constantly coming up with new ideas and new technology of things to use against us. It keeps us on our toes, but we are making progress and eventually gong to win and finish this war. It will end.