Comments on: Twitter, Facebook called on for higher purpose

Google.org project aims to help communities worldwide use Web and communication tech like Twitter to warn people of disease outbreaks and natural disasters.

[punterjoe]

A noble goal, but could it be gamed?

Remember the havoc stormworm wreaked by getting anxious people to open emailed malware. Wherever someone finds a way to benefit the public, someone will scheme to pervert it into a tool for personal gain, or merely unrequited vandalism.
My intent isn't to be dour or alarmist, merely to say: never underestimate unintended consequences.

[edjez]

Yes - Caution and supporting healthy community patterns

I agree - tools are tools. However we've also seen how communities can use tools to their advantage in ways that expose, correct and contain undesired behavior on the long run. Tools are not the end - rather they can be a means to help people come together, in this case around common goals of doing good in health & humanitarian scenarios. And hopefully we can help reinforce patterns of behaviors that make communities thrive -such as assuming good faith, having a common intent of building, and focusing on the people's understanding rather than the shared assets. That's why you'll see so much about 'Collaboration' in InSTEDD's work.

[e2kk6n]

Similar Sites

This is really cool. I've also used a site called Help.com (http://www.help.com) that has a lot of the same features described here (no mobile integration though), but it's commercial.