DHS and the Social Media Sites Monitored by the NOC
NOC is the National Operations Center
OK, as if I don’t have enough to concern myself with in just living life, Anonymous Tweeted today that we might be interested in watching the live antics of DHS as it pertained to monitoring of the Social Media Websites by the NOC. Check it out, pages 14-18.
(http://www.dhs.gov/....)
I will quote: “This is a representative list of sites that the NOC will start to monitor in order to provide situational awareness and establish a common operating picture under this Initiative. Initial sites listed may link to sites not listed. The NOC may also monitor those sites if they are within the scope of this Initiative.” WTH?
Posting this is probably insane, but it doesn’t matter, because as a researcher, I visit 27 of the sites listed, frequently. So, I am already toast and apparently, so are you.
OK. What exactly is “situation awareness”? Hmmmm: Let’s see:
Situation awareness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Situation awareness, is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed, such as time. It is also a field of study concerned with perception of the environment critical to decision-makers in complex, dynamic areas from aviation, air traffic control, power plant operations, military command and control, and emergency services such as fire fighting and policing; to more ordinary but nevertheless complex tasks such as driving an automobile or bicycle.
Situation awareness involves being aware of what is happening in the vicinity to understand how information, events, and one's own actions will impact goals and objectives, both immediately and in the near future. Lacking or inadequate situation awareness has been identified as one of the primary factors in accidents attributed to human error.[1] Thus, situation awareness is especially important in work domains where the information flow can be quite high and poor decisions may lead to serious consequences (e.g., piloting an airplane, functioning as a soldier, or treating critically ill or injured patients).
Having complete, accurate and up-to-the-minute SA is essential where technological and situational complexity on the human decision-maker are a concern. Situation awareness has been recognized as a critical, yet often elusive, foundation for successful decision-making across a broad range of complex and dynamic systems, including aviation and air traffic control,[2] emergency response and military command and control operations,[3] and offshore oil and nuclear power plant management.[4]
Really, reread it.
Here’s the thing, we’re just roaming around, trying to find the news and interact and somehow we are suspect. If you go to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, MySpace, Drudge Report, Huffington Post, Newsweek Blogs or WikiLeaks, you’re being watched, and that’s a tiny sampling. There are 118 sites listed. If you check on Hurricane Information Center, suspect. If you check Global Incident Map, suspect. If you check Popular Science Blogs, suspect. Now what?
Have any ideas? Please, share. Somebody please remind me that this is the USA. This cannot be happening.
LJ Lassiter
2/16/2012