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U.S. Africa Command hosted a talk yesterday on "Africa's Evolving Infosystems", based on the speaker's research paper of the same name (which should be available here soon, and is attached below). Steven Livingston, of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliott School of International Affairs, addressed some of the tensions that exist between legacy media establishments and the potentials of new media markets in Africa, the shortcomings of traditional Western media, and the nature of emerging capabilities across the continent. Of particular interest were discussions of new organizational forms that have emerged alongside technological advances and the challenges these present to established (and often over-centralized) institutions of governance. These are topics toward which our team has directed considerable attention (here, here, here), so it is encouraging to encounter similar observations.
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If more weight is placed on the use of mobile phones in a disaster, what kind of trade-offs might a survivor have to make to stay tied-in to such a capability? To be effective, individuals should be able to use the service, but, can they afford it? What decisions do survivors face, and how does mobile connectivity fit into these sorts of decisions?
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Crises like the recent earthquake in Haiti focus public and official attention toward the mechanisms of response efforts—and toward information management in particular. A major challenge in understanding the efficacy of crisis communications remains to ask the right questions about the nature of decentralized organizations, and even of information itself. Assumptions about how to communicate most effectively must be measured against the real constraints and possibilities of institutions responding to a crisis.
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Paul Donahue is an Assistant Multimedia Specialist for Creative Services in GEO’s Stuttgart, Germany office. This article is an account of his recent experiences following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The story and pictures present a glimpse of the conditions on the ground in Haiti.
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Twitter has proven to be a remarkably popular networking and communications service. Some of the key elements of online exchanges include the balance between participant-driven information flows and codified behaviors.
