Street Swags and Networks in Disaster Events

Street swags is an initiative and a design done in 2005 by Jean Madden in order to provide the homeless people with a “survival kit” that will allow them to sleep and live a little better.

The production of swags is done through a well-organized network that operates in different levels. Private and public institutions donate and sponsor the product, prison inmates sew the swags, school students package them up with blankets and hygiene packs and a variety of organizations and groups distribute them. These networks were very useful in the Victorian bushfire disaster in 2002, where hundreds of victims were provided with street swags. This showed the ability that the community had to

A series of linked actions where different levels of participation in a local and national scale takes plays, show us how networks function in a disaster event, generating a quick benefit for those in need and taking a variety of forms (Siembeda, 2005). In the case of the Victorian bushfire, national organizations such as the Salvation Army were linked to more local organizations that produce the desired product for helping the fire victims.

REFERENCES

Siembieda, William J. (2005) ‘Recovery from Disasters: Challenges for Low-income Communities in the Americas’ in Albrechts, Louis & Mandelbaum, Seymour, J. (ed) The Network Society: a new context for planning. New York:Routledge, pp.197-210

www.streetswags.org

http://www.homelessforums.org/showthread.php?t=3792

Coordination in the Network Society

Ozharvest is a charity that operates in Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong, Queanbeyan and Newcastle, collecting unwanted food and redistributing it to different organizations and people in need. They are trying to expand this program to all major Australian cities.

The dynamic goes like this: Restaurants and catering industries interested in donating their excess food, contact Ozharvest through their website or by telephone (money donation can also be made), delivery is done through coordinating vans and volunteers and the benefited groups include more than 200 charity groups,  both well known or low profile organizations.

With this example, we can observe how networks can be understood as a form of coordination of social interactions where the most important part is a ‘trustworthy cooperation between autonomous, but interdependent actors, who work together for a limited period of time, taking into consideration the interests of their partner, and being aware that this form of coordination is the best way to attain their own particular objectives’ (Frey, 2005: p.188).

REFERENCES

Frey, Klaus. (2005) ‘ICT-enforced Community Networks for Sustainable Development and Social Inclusion’ in Albrechts, Louis & Mandelbaum, Seymour, J. (ed) The Network Society: a new context for planning. New York:Routledge, pp.197-210

Notes about e-learning

E-learning has enriched the possibilities of acquiring education in all levels. On one hand, it has open new accessible channels for knowledge regardless of your physical location and without constrains of a specific schedule, giving the students and teachers a virtual mobility.  It offers flexibility for people who have to work and have little time to attend, it gives others a chance to study in universities outside their cities or countries, and it can generate a sharing of information with people from all over the world when the course is taken by a multicultural group.

However, it presents some technical and economical difficulties in terms of “digital literacy” or a low-income background. It does not provide the personal, face-to-face interaction, which can sometimes lead to a lack of motivation and a feeling of isolation. The quality measures are also an important matter since the online programs can sometimes evade a formal regulation. 

I think that tools for e-learning in a full time or part time face-to-face course, are very positive, just like our platform in Moodle is. However, a full e-learning course without a physical class attendance must be very carefully designed. We should not see e-learning just as a field of opportunities, we should also think about it as a field challenges.

REFERENCES

Van der Wende, Marijk. (2002) ‘The possibilities and limits of virtual mobility in international cooperation’ in Wacther, Bernd (ed) The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bonn:Lemmens

Li, C., & Irby, B.. (2008). AN OVERVIEW OF ONLINE EDUCATION: ATTRACTIVENESS, BENEFITS, CHALLENGES, CONCERNS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. College Student Journal,A  42(2), 449-458.  Retrieved October 3, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1484437621).

Google yourself

Few months ago, a good friend of mine was looking for a new job.  We were disscusing her possibilities when suddenly she got a phone call for a job interview in a very important transnational company.

After according the date of the interview and hanging up the phone, the next thing she said was “Can you lend me your computer? I have to google myself right now! These companies always google you, and I don’t want to loose this job because of a stupid photo or a bad comment about me.”

Later on I google myself just for curiosity.  A lot of other girls with my name appeared in the search, but the reality was that, I actually did find some information about me that I have never seen before.

This shows the negative and positive effects that search engines like Google can cause to your online reputation. On one hand, if your career depends on your exposure, Google can be a great tool (Li, 2010).  On the other hand, if your career depends on having a low-profile, Google can endanger your privacy and therefore, your actual or future job.

We are so immersed in the apparent freedom that internet provides us, that we sometimes forget that internet has also created new surveillance methods in our workplace (Castells, 2001). In the network society, having a record of our online reputation must become a cyclic activity because all the information that can be found online can stay there forever.

As Castells points out, ‘If you do not care about the networks, the networks will care about you, anyway’ (Castells, 2001:282).

REFERENCES

Castells, Manuel. (2001) ‘The Politics of the Internet II: Privacy and Liberty in Cyberspace’ in The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.168-187

Li, Chiseng. (2010, September). How to Un-Google Yourself. Privacy Journal, 36(11), 1,4-6.  Retrieved October 4, 2010, from ProQuest Computing. (Document ID: 2150833531).