Following the previous article Vol.58 – Reality of Social Media Among Victims of the Japan Disaster the author would like to introduce two examples of how social media, which had not been much used by people in the devastated area before the Japan disaster, is now becoming something inevitable for the victims.
1. Source of information to protect themselves from radiation
1) Case: How social media is used to get information in protecting themselves from radiation
A housewife living in Fukushima always has her smart phone with her that he had installed an inevitable application. With the application, she leverages geo-location functions to know at a glance where she is, amount of radiation and wind direction.
She checks such information whenever she goes out, to protect her two children and herself from radiation. She uses the application as much as five or six times a day.
2) How the application was developed
The application was developed by an engineer working in Fujitsu group, living in Yokohama. He developed it after work and at weekends and published online for free, and he has been improving it late at night based on feedback and requests from the users. Now it has been downloaded more than 33,000 times in total.
3) More applications are being developed
There is an organization established by volunteer engineers from Google, Microsoft, Rakuten and other IT companies called “Hack For Japan”, which has been applications to help victims of the disaster one after the other.
Hackers include those that work with the objectives of contributing to the society and the organization is such a great example. Over 600 such people joined the organization and have developed over 40 applications, including an application of a system that manages volunteer centres. Such applications are being used heavily as something inevitable in their lives by victims.
2. Platform / tool in making a living in the near future
1) Case: Online community for victims to work via the Internet / social media
In this concept which is to become a reality in the near future, 1,000 victims will be able to have a new job. Tasks include data input, writing and so forth. Forking 8 hours a day for 21 days a month makes income of moderate 100,000 yen.
2) How this idea came up
It was an Internet venture company in Tokyo that came up with this idea. The company plans to undertake assignments from larger companies and organizations, and ask victims in the online community to do the tasks.
The executive of the company sincerely hopes that it would provide an opportunity for victims to make a living when they cannot evacuate from the devastated area because they have children or someone they have to look after, etc.
3) The upcoming plans
The company plans to start the business from July and is making haste in its preparation such as acquiring PCs that they are to rent to victims.
3. The author’s final thoughts
It is quite true that with the Internet and social media it is possible to provide information, wisdom and benevolence from around the globe to the devastated area, on condition that the digital divide mentioned in the previous article is eliminated.
What are introduced in the previous and this article would highly contribute to elimination of the digital divide, opening a new channel/source of inevitable information for their lives for victims. It means new lifestyle for the victims to take root even after they come to be able to lead normal live like pre-disaster. And it means new market created or expanded for online business owners and marketers.
Resources:-
Internet and social media is becoming inevitable for the Japan disaster victims, thanks to hard work of volunteer engineers developing useful, inevitable applications for victims. Online community to create 1000 jobs for victims is also to open from July by a venture company in Tokyo. Such trends are likely to minimize or eliminate digital divide, to change lifestyle of the victims, meaning market creation/expansion for online business owners and marketers.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Vol.58 – Reality of Social Media Among Victims of the Japan Disaster
Information on the Japan disaster has been online and shared by social media worldwide ever since the disaster broke out on March 11 so everyone believed that social media played an important part in sharing information about the disaster.
However, the reality was that social media had not bee effective in the devastated area. This is because the information was shared mostly among people who had not suffered from the disaster, according to an article of Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported on June 19.
Why was it? How is it now?
1. Why was the social media ineffective among victims of the disaster?
Of course it was because the electricity and telecommunication systems went down by the tsunami; however, that is not all the reason.
The biggest reason is digital divide. It is those who leverage PC and smart phones to get and share online information that benefit from social media. People who do not leverage such IT devices will not. Such a digital divide became prominent by the disaster.
2. Is there any data to support such a digital divide?
Yes, there is. It is the survey result of how telecommunication is used announced by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) for 2010 announced in May.
According to the result, 83% of individuals in Tokyo use the Internet when it is only 71.8% in average for the 3 devastated prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
When it comes to how SNS is used, only 5.4% in average for the 3 devastated prefectures use SNS, which is only half of that of Tokyo.
3. Has the digital divide been diminishing since the disaster?
Yes, there is a sign that the situation is changing in the devastated area and that the digital divide has been diminishing.
Quite a few victims still living in the disaster started using Twitter to share information online with friends living in the same village; i.e. among people of real, offline community. Such communities, in some cases, have expanded to outside of the offline community such as professors in Tokyo specialized in bio energy, connected online.
They would share and discuss online about such topic as possibilities of generating energy from algae in the devastated area.
4. Who taught such victims to use Twitter?
It was a man who had started a venture business in the area of optics in Sendai. In his hometown in the devastated area of Tohoku, there has been a customs in which friends in neighbourhood get together to enjoy conversation over tea. That is to say people were “connected” in the real, offline world.
5. Why did the man teach Twitter to victims?
It was to maintain the current community/network of the victims.
Victims living in the same evacuation centres constituting the same community are connected offline. However, they would be disconnected when their life in evacuation finished; some people would move to temporary houses, some would return to their home, and some others would move to other parts in Japan. Thus their current “community” would be demolished.
The man wanted to maintain the network/community leveraging the Internet and therefore he returned to his hometown in the devastated area to proliferate the Internet and social media. He also called for others to join him and by the end of May, 10 people joined him from such places as Hokkaido University.
As long as connected, the Internet and social media can leash its power and potential.
In the next article, the author would like to introduce how the Internet and social media has started to become a critical part of the daily lives victims.
Resources:-
Surprisingly, the Internet and social media had not been ineffective among victims of the Japan disaster immediately after the breakout of the disaster. It was not only because electricity and mobile phone terminals went down but primarily digital divide. However, with an initiative by a man, many victims started using Twitter to share information online. This would also contribute to maintaining network/community that is likely to be abolished when living in evacuation centres finishes for victims.
However, the reality was that social media had not bee effective in the devastated area. This is because the information was shared mostly among people who had not suffered from the disaster, according to an article of Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported on June 19.
Why was it? How is it now?
1. Why was the social media ineffective among victims of the disaster?
Of course it was because the electricity and telecommunication systems went down by the tsunami; however, that is not all the reason.
The biggest reason is digital divide. It is those who leverage PC and smart phones to get and share online information that benefit from social media. People who do not leverage such IT devices will not. Such a digital divide became prominent by the disaster.
2. Is there any data to support such a digital divide?
Yes, there is. It is the survey result of how telecommunication is used announced by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) for 2010 announced in May.
According to the result, 83% of individuals in Tokyo use the Internet when it is only 71.8% in average for the 3 devastated prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
When it comes to how SNS is used, only 5.4% in average for the 3 devastated prefectures use SNS, which is only half of that of Tokyo.
3. Has the digital divide been diminishing since the disaster?
Yes, there is a sign that the situation is changing in the devastated area and that the digital divide has been diminishing.
Quite a few victims still living in the disaster started using Twitter to share information online with friends living in the same village; i.e. among people of real, offline community. Such communities, in some cases, have expanded to outside of the offline community such as professors in Tokyo specialized in bio energy, connected online.
They would share and discuss online about such topic as possibilities of generating energy from algae in the devastated area.
4. Who taught such victims to use Twitter?
It was a man who had started a venture business in the area of optics in Sendai. In his hometown in the devastated area of Tohoku, there has been a customs in which friends in neighbourhood get together to enjoy conversation over tea. That is to say people were “connected” in the real, offline world.
5. Why did the man teach Twitter to victims?
It was to maintain the current community/network of the victims.
Victims living in the same evacuation centres constituting the same community are connected offline. However, they would be disconnected when their life in evacuation finished; some people would move to temporary houses, some would return to their home, and some others would move to other parts in Japan. Thus their current “community” would be demolished.
The man wanted to maintain the network/community leveraging the Internet and therefore he returned to his hometown in the devastated area to proliferate the Internet and social media. He also called for others to join him and by the end of May, 10 people joined him from such places as Hokkaido University.
As long as connected, the Internet and social media can leash its power and potential.
In the next article, the author would like to introduce how the Internet and social media has started to become a critical part of the daily lives victims.
Resources:-
Surprisingly, the Internet and social media had not been ineffective among victims of the Japan disaster immediately after the breakout of the disaster. It was not only because electricity and mobile phone terminals went down but primarily digital divide. However, with an initiative by a man, many victims started using Twitter to share information online. This would also contribute to maintaining network/community that is likely to be abolished when living in evacuation centres finishes for victims.
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