Am I the only one who remembers the days when twitting meant putting someone in your killfile? (Yes, I know the twits at Twitter like to call it tweeting.)
We're seeing first hand, in many venues, why pure democracy and populism don't work; and why only a Republic can long last without degenerating into chaos, and then dictatorship. >-----Original Message----- >From: funsec-boun...@linuxbox.org [mailto:funsec-boun...@linuxbox.org] >On Behalf Of Paul Ferguson >Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 3:21 PM >To: funsec@linuxbox.org >Subject: [funsec] Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >Hash: SHA1 > >Via Foreign Policy's net.effect. > >[snip] > >Who knew that swine flu could also infect Twitter? Yet this is what >appears >to have happened in the last 24 hours, with thousands of Twitter users >turning to their favorite service to query each other about this nascent >and potentially lethal threat as well as to share news and latest >developments from Mexico, Texas, Kansas and New York (you can check most >recent Twitter updates on the subject by searching for "swine flu" and >"#swineflu"). And despite all the recent Twitter-enthusiasm about this >platform's unique power to alert millions of people in decentralized and >previously unavailable ways, there are quite a few reasons to be >concerned >about Twitter's role in facilitating an unnecessary global panic about >swine flu. > > >First of all, I should point out from the very outset that anyone trying >to >make sense of how Twitter's "global brain" has reacted to the prospect >of the swine flu pandemic is likely to get disappointed. The "swine >flu" meme has so far that misinformed and panicking people armed with a >platform to broadcast their fears are likely to produce only more fear, >misinformation and panic. > >[snip] > >More: > >http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/25/swine_flu_twitters_ p >owe >r_to_misinform > >- - ferg > > >p.s. Here's something a bit more useful -- a Goggle Maps mash-up that >tracks the swine flu cases: > >http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_maps/google_mapping_swine_f l >u_e >pidemic.html?kc=rss > > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >Version: PGP Desktop 9.5.3 (Build 5003) > >wj8DBQFJ9N5Uq1pz9mNUZTMRAlVLAJ9uv2gGYKFIbfK4W+kL9HqD31bB2gCeLsL3 >ggce7ydBRLIJguZccGksBKY= >=tPUO >-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > >-- >"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson > Engineering Architecture for the Internet > fergdawgster(at)gmail.com > ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/ > >_______________________________________________ >Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. >https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec >Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list. _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
