Data & Stuff // Neil Houston

Spotted: May 24th – July 22nd:

• http://flowingdata.com/2010/04/12/data-underload-17-famous-movie-quotes-p-2/ – Movie Quotes as Infographics
• Social media, BMW and the way forward | litmanlive.co.uk – Social media, BMW and the way forward
• Web design birmingham | Web site design west midlands | Branding | Interior design | Design agency birmingham | 383 Project » Such Tweet Sorrow Infographic – Birmingham agency 383 have produced an infographic of the information from the Twitter version of Romeo & Juliet, #SuchTweetSorrow
• IRE – Social-network analysis – The next step in data analysis<br />
  IRE and NICAR members are beginning to explore the uses of social network analysis for visualizing and diagramming relationships between individuals and businesses and institutions. <br />
  <br />
  This is a new approach for journalists, but other professions have utilized this approach for decades for a wide range of research projects such as analyzing:
• iA » Cosmic 140—Final Beta – This time, it’s the 140 most influential people on twitter, sorted by #name #handle #category #influence #activity. Plus: When they started tweeting and what they first said. It took quite some time until we had it in the shape we envisioned.

I received a rather strange phonecall this lunchtime, it was warning me of an incident in Birmingham City Centre, and to avoid certain areas and roads.

It took me a second to realise that I had signed up to the Birmingham Community Alert, I gave them my postcode and mobile number (through a Text), and thought nothing of it.

Thankfully, the incident was a hoax, and all is well. The service then followed up with a Text, as seen to the left, to alert me that all was fine.

Overall I’m really impressed by the service (which is opt-in), and feel comforted by the fact that in the case of disaster/alerts I can be sent information.

The points I’d think might need work thought are:

• Use a recorded ‘real voice’ instead of a ‘text to voice’ system
• Allow the person to replay the message (i.e hit # to listen again)
• What happens when the phone networks jam? (An email would be nice as well)

So overall, job well done to Birmingham Resilience, Birmingham City Council, NHS, Police and Fire services.

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