Derrick Caldwell's List: 3.6 Digital Citizenship Assignment

• • I chose this webpage as a source because it is a news entry. I chose it because it has a current copyright and previous posts. This post has a very serious and informative tone as well.
• Weather Channel YouTube Livestream
    As of yesterday, The Weather Channel has made its hurricane coverage available streaming live on YouTube. This could prove a useful resource as the storm continues on its track toward the Jersey Shore and New England. YouTube is promoting the feed at the top of its homepage—and it appears to be quite popular, with more than 55,000 people watching at almost noon.
   
    Google's Crisis Map
    Google's interactive map may be one of the best tools around for those in the direct path of this storm. Updated in real-time, this crisis map overlays evacuation routes with a weather radar, current and projected forecasts, emergency shelter locations, as well as information about flood surges. All the information is layered on the map so you can turn it on and off as you see fit.
  
• Instagram
    As has been the case throughout breaking news events in 2012, Instagram is an excellent near-real-time way to see on-the-ground pictures of Sandy. Sites like Statigram are helpful in searching the social photo sharing network. Popular hashtags are #sandy, #frankenstorm, and #Instacane. "This Is Now," a real-time streaming platform, displays photos as they're taken from all five boroughs of New York City. For breaking news junkies, these photo-sharing sites could be the quickest way to get access to the tens of thousands of pictures being generated by those in the path of the storm.
   
    Twitter
    This is a no-brainer, but needs to be included. Sites like the Huffington Post have put together handy "Who to Follow" lists for the Hurricane. Government and local crisis and disaster organizations will be tweeting out helpful storm information and meteorologists and citizens on the ground will be updating with dispatches from hard-hit areas. 

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• • I chose this site as a resource because it is a credible news source with previous posts. The copyright is current and is a .com.
• Many digital news organizations needed to find alternative ways to communicate after the storm. The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Gawker all went down after Internet service provider Datagram’s New York basement flooded. According to techcrunch360, The Huffington Post’s “writers and editors relied on Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter to post stories and information during the storm.” BuzzFeed, too, used the same social platforms to relay news, and quickly switched to a cloud server in what Wired claimed “may be the quickest cloud conversion in history.” Through at least five days after the storm, Gawker redirected its site to its Tumblr feed, in what the site joked was a Halloween costume. All three sites showed dedication to getting news out by any means available, and were transparent about how they did so. BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief candidly spoke to Wired about the tech issues the site faced, and what it did to get back online.
• he greatest digital communication lesson learned from Hurricane Sandy is that during a crisis, one should pay attention and simply relay what’s known. Digital tools—which include cameras, corporate websites and social channels—are incredibly powerful and are relied upon for information, especially during emergencies. Con Ed wisely used Twitter to update on operational statuses, provide contact information, dispute false statements and answer questions. The MTA used Twitter to distribute service maps and updates on upcoming service. The Interactive Advertising Bureau turned to Gmail when its servers went down, and Edelman set up a private Facebook group for employees to communicate.

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• • I chose this webpage as a resource because the Huffington Post is a very credible new source. It has previous posts and a current copyright. It also features a members access are.

• Members of IMSOCIO at Franklin High School gathered Wednesday night to launch a crowdsourced map that locates open gas stations in the New York-New Jersey area. Stations are identified by green, red or yellow pins -- each representing an open, sold out or charging station.

    

  The map has now identified nearly 100 stations in the area, and has garnered attention from local news stations -- so much so that the site crashed for a few hours Thursday afternoon due to high traffic. Dayana Bustamante graduated from Franklin High this May and now attends Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, N.J. She remains active in IMSOCIO -- short for Scholars Organizing Culturally Innovative Opportunities -- and has been the most vocal online advocate of the group's latest mapping initiative.

• The "Need Gas" map was the brainchild of   members of IMSOCIO-—short for Scholars Organizing Culturally Innovative Opportunities—at Franklin High School in northwestern New Jersey. Started as a summer program for underprivileged students, particularly Latino/a, IMSOCIO has grown into a service learning project where students use technology to create a range of maps that serve the community, a practice called "community mapping."

   

  Within hours after their gas map debuted, the IMSOCIO team received an influx of emails and Tweets with updates from the public, using mobile devices. "If there's anything wrong, people can always update and say they only accept cash here or they ran out of gas here," Bustamante said. "You can't really fail."

   

  Halfway across the country, a class of engineering and technology students at Sheridan High School in Indiana were tacking on their own energy challenge. At their school's "The Zone" tailgate that Friday, it would be a familiar sight under the lights. But in future years, if these students have their way, the lights on the football field—and in the classrooms and hallways and everywhere else in the school—will draw power from alternative energy sources including solar and wind.