Twitter, Facebook and Ten Red Balloons: Social Network Problem Solving and Homeland Security
The winner of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) Essay Contest in 2010, this essay looks at how homeland security could benefit from crowd-sourced applications accessed through social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Christopher M. Ford looks at the apparent efficacy of two such endeavors: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) competition to find ten 8-foot balloons moored across the continental U.S. and Wired Magazine challenge to “find” author Evan Ratliff. Based on these and other crowd-sourced applications, Ford suggests that the U.S. government could utilize the internet and social networking sites to potentially solve an array of discrete problems through the active participation of interested citizens.
Assessing the Potential of Societal Verification by Means of New Media
The explosive growth of online social networking sites has been one of the dominant stories of the Internet era. Since their introduction in 1997, social networking sites are now common, with global leader Facebook boasting more than 1 billion users. And the field is not restricted to tech-savvy citizens of the U.S. and Europe. Chines social media giant Renren reported 178 million total users in its filing for an initial public offering, with 58 million logging on monthly. Russia's Odnoklassniki boasts more that 40 million, including almost 14% of the population of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. And while closed societies such as North Korea block public access to the Internet, social media sites have proven popular enough that the regime hosts several on its internal intranet.
Community refinement of glaucoma referrals
AbstractAim To describe a Manchester-based glaucoma referral refinement scheme designed to reduce the number of false-positive referrals to the hospital eye service. To report on the first years results of this scheme and its financial costs to the NHS.Methods Patients with suspected glaucoma, instead of being referred to their GP and then on to the hospital eye service, were referred to a group of specially trained community optometrists working to an agreed set of referral criteria. Those patients who did not meet the referral criteria were returned to the referring optometrist, while those who met the referral criteria were referred directly to Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. The patient's GP was informed in all cases.Results The number of suspect glaucoma cases referred to the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital was reduced by 40%. This figure is close to the percentage of false-positive referrals measured at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital prior to the onset of this study. The information accompanying referral has been improved and the scheme produces a small financial cost saving to the NHS of approximately £17 per patient.Conclusion Community refinement of suspect glaucoma offers some important benefits over the current referral pathway.