f More use of mobile social net apps predicted: implications for emergencies at Stephenson blogs on homeland security 2.0 et al.

« et al.: desperate plea for help: please help me increase truthiness | Home | Winter storm warning: keep ice in your cell phone! »

More use of mobile social net apps predicted: implications for emergencies

By WDavidStephenson | January 28, 2008

According to Fierce Wireless (citing a Forrester report), mobile social network applications will become much more widespread in Europe this year. Given our perennial lag time in adopting anything cell-phone wise, this probably means such expanded use will probably happen in the US in several years.

If so, it will give a real boost to the kind of real-time, location-based ad hoc networks my networked homeland security strategy argues will be so critical in disasters or terrorist attacks.

It won’t surprise long-time readers that the same report says apps such as Twitter (and, in the US, Dodgeball.com, among others), are already more frequently used by those under 30. That confirms Stephenson’s Law #3:

In a crisis, turn communications over to the 15-25 year olds — they know how to route around obstacles (including adults!), and are most familiar with exploiting the full capabilities of emerging communication technologies.

Equally important, Maura Welch blogs today about a Wired article that points out virtual communities tend to reinforce physical networks, such as those at work or in their neighborhood. That’s particularly important for the power of the mobile social networks to contribute to networked homeland security, because when older people, with more stable social networks and roots in a neighborhood, adopt these mobile networking apps, they will be even more powerful in an emergency, because they’ll be able to mobile neighbors, not just virtual friends who may live thousands of miles apart. According to the story:

“Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, ‘argues that communications technology and face-to-face interactions are complements like salt and pepper, rather than substitutes like butter and margarine.’ So, ‘paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh.’ One study even shows that the most productive workers are those that use email to communicate not with people from all around the world…but with those they see all the time.”

Let’s try to speed up the adoption of these devices and apps in the US: they may just save our lives.

Tell a friend:

Technorati tags:

Sphere: Related Content

Topics: technology, empowering public, collaboration, e-gov transformation, networked security | |