This weeks class discussion posed the question, do communication techonologies enable the public sphere to take action? And if so, when and how? I thought Castells article was great in the way it divided its analysis by country. Castells focused on how mobile technology, texting in particular, was sucessful in some instances and not in others. For example, in Madrid, Spain, peer-to-peer texting is attributed as a major reason the people chose to elect the oppositional party. However, in Washington State, it seems that because authorities foresaw the potential for rallies via text messaging, all attempts were sucessfully supressed.
On CNN's website, I found an article titled, "Texts, Maps battle Haiti Cholera Outbreak" that bring this issue to light in Haiti. Haiti has recently battled with numerous cholera outbreaks and cannot seem to stop the spread fast enough. In the article, health workers are said to be using communication technologies such as texts and mapping technologies to aid the Haitian people. Local cellular messages are sending text out to the public warning them where the contaminated areas are and sending information on symptoms to look for. "Crowd mapping" groups are volunteering to map out the spread of disease in real time, so people can know where to avoid. A specific site, HeathMap.com, maps locations of clean water (since cholera spreads mostly by infected water and food).
I found the use of this technology to help spread critical information to a people in dire need to be extremely innovative and amazing. I hope these communication technologies will help stop this outbreak in Haiti soon, or at least help control it. I also hope more people will look at this example in Haiti and think about how these communication technologies would be able to help disease/disaster relief around the world.
The article can be found here-http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/29/haiti.cholera.tech/index.html?iref=allsearch
I found the same article and had similar reactions after reading Castell's piece. I think, however, there are two distinct differences between the text messages seen in Spain and in Haiti. First, the texts in Haiti are not peer-to-peer communication. Castell's put a lot of emphasis on the fact that the text campaign in Spain worked because you were receiving messages from someone you know. It was, in effect, the power of the group mentality. If your friends were going to a rally, you wanted to be there too. In Haiti, it is local NGOs and governments sending out text messages. Thus, I wonder how effective the message will really be.
ReplyDeleteEffectiveness is also called into account because text messaging, especially in refugee camps, reaches how many people? I can't imagine that the thousands of people at risk for Cholera all own cell phones. Also, a friend of mine from Haiti told me that cell phone service is extremely unreliable, and that is in the capital and main cities.
Although I do think text messages are a great medium to spread messages, and extremely relevant today (how many of us use hundreds of text messages on a regular basis), I don't know if they will actually achieve their intended goal in Haiti. Here's to hoping though.