India maps, sites, begin to track swine flu August 14, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Collaboration, Visualization, pandemic.Tags: H1N1, India
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As India copes with the spread of swine flu, we are beginning to see a more forms of collaboration.
This site was put together not be people in healthcare, but by some Indian techies.
After one of them got sick, and fanatically searching for information about the virus and testing, they decided to ‘bridge the information gap’ and put together the site. It has contact information for hospitals and quarantine centers in several cities etc.
- Another map lets you check the number of documented cases.
- Google’s Flu Tracker now has more detailed views (as the one above).
Here at the Decision Theater, we have moved into a new phase of using visualization as a planning tool for emergency planning exercises. Software that enable training of healthcare workers, volunteers and those planning the logistics of dispensing medication or treatment in the event of an outbreak.
Visualization by itself is not enough, unless it is (a) connected to data and has the ability for people to input data to make it smarter; (b) it lets you adjust behaviors to make intelligent responses.
Economic Summit addresses on key issues June 12, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Collaboration, Education, Events, Urban Growth.Tags: GPEC, KAET, Phoenix
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The Greater Phoenix Economic Council, held an economic summit at the Decision Theater, in response to the global financial crisis as it related to Arizona.
The event brought together business and civic leaders, members of the state legislature and educators in an open and informal dialogue to collaborate and map out the economic future for Arizona. The on-site panel of 25 thought leaders addressed questions from an online audience from 25 states and two countries, and the media.
It was very different kind of summit. Not just a pool of talking heads, but an interactive event, where the leaders looked at What-if scenarios, using the seven screens in the Drum as a digital dashboard.
- We had planned to boost the event in a few different ways.
- Using a streaming video service that renders the data on the seven screens in high definition.
The combination of both face-to-face and online exchanges proved extremely valuable; the online ‘attendees’ – more than 700 attendees from 27 states and three countries – also interacted with the on-site participants, submitting questions, and taking polls online.
- TV: For an idea of the economic issues raised, check out the TV coverage on Horizon, form the local PBS affiliate, KAET, Phoenix. Link here.
- Podcast: Listen to podcast on the event. Link here.
- Poster: Link here.
Swine Flu, not off our radar June 5, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Collaboration, Emergency Preparedness, pandemic.Tags: Center for Biosecurity, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Swine flu conference, Trust for America's Health
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News about A/H1N1 may have dropped off the news, but unknown to many, there has been some good tracking studies going on.
This one, called Pandemic Flu: Lessons From the Frontlines report, was just published by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), the Center for Biosecurity, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
Worth reading the report’s 10 lessons Learned.
The numbers may not be scary, ( 17,500 confirmed cases in 62 countries, 100 deaths) but there are enough reasons to stay vigilant. Just this week, Arizona recorded the 5th death caused bu A/H1N1. Total confirmed cases in Arizona: 580.
To pick just one of the 10 recommendations. One of which is the need for a strategic stockpile plan and deployment strategy. “While actual delivery of vaccines may occur in both public and private settings, it is vital for the public sector to be in charge of the overall system of delivery,” it says. Mass immunization may require 100 – 150 million doses to be deployed within a month.
- The Decision is involved in an exercise to address how such a stockpile deployment strategy will be planned and managed. More details to be announced shortly.
- This month’s upcoming Swine Flu conference at ASU will be on lessons learned from previous epidemics and pandemics to help prepare for a second wave, to assess current models, and to look at long-term preparedness.
Science fiction meets wiki event May 26, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Alternative Futures, Arizona State University, Collaboration, Education.Tags: James Blasingame, Peter Goggin, PJ Haarsma, Rings of Orbis
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We are hosting an interesting event this Thursday.
Think of it as a literature-meets-wiki project. A multimedia unveiling of a new wiki, that students at Basha High School created to expand on their reading of PJ Haarsma’s science fiction series.
It is presented by Jim Blasingame ASU associate professor of English, who with fellow professor Peter Goggin, worked with Haarsma and local schools for the past two years to understand whether gaming had an influence on reading.
PJ Haarsma
During the unveiling, students will demonstrate their roles in the free online video game “The Rings of Orbis,” which Haarsma created as a supplement to his books. Director of the Kids Need to Read Foundation, Denise Gary.
WHEN: Thursday, May 28, 6-7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Decision Theater, 21 E. 6th St., Suite 126A, ASU’s Tempe campus
- Candlewick Press, the publishers of Haarsma’s series, plans to incorporate this student-driven wiki in its next series release.
- Denise Gary, Director of the Kids Need to Read Foundation will be attending.
- Goggin and Blasingame will be present further findings about the intersection of literature, video gaming and computer literacy at an international conference this August.
- The Rings of Orbis has its own MySpace page
- You can follow The Softwire on –where else?– Twitter!
There’s limited seating. If you are from the media please contact us at 480.965.4098.
Friday Focus: When media get it right, no one notices May 22, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Arizona State University, Collaboration, Education.add a comment
I speak to many groups from within and outside the university. Whenever the talk of the media is raised people get their guard up.
Why?
Because they’ve either had a bad experience, or subscribe to anecdotal evidence out there that the media can never get it right.
Au contraire
We bring the media in all the time –we have blogged about this several times– and the truth is, there is a lot of good journalism out there. It’s just that no one notices when they get it right. Even when they editorialize.
Case in point, last week’s opinion piece that debunks the myth that research universities are expendable and a waste of money. It’s a thumbs up for Arizona’s three public universities, saying we “are driving innovations that will improve our lives.
“The universities don’t have much connection to local communities. From UA’s popular series of lectures by top scientists to NAU’s mobile dental clinic staffed by students and faculty, the universities are reaching out to the rest of Arizona in virtually every area. ASU’s Decision Theater, with its 260-degree screen, is used by the community as well as researchers to visualize the future. Many have direct bearings on our lives, such as simulations of an influenza pandemic and water-management scenarios. The Greater Phoenix Economic Council used the Decision Theater last week to look at the state’s budget challenges.”
Apart from the ink they give us, it takes on other myths too, such as the claim that researchers work in isolation, or that research into obscure things –like algae, or toad tongues– have no bearing on our lives. Worth a read!
Quick update on our community connections. We are so embedded in the community that we often asked asked what our connection is with ASU –a question that used to be reversed not too long ago. Last week it was leaders from the greater Phoenix, the previous week it was the city of Scottsdale. Next week it will be a public school in Chandler, and on the same day, we host a public meeting by the city of Glendale. The list goes on.
Brainstorming energy and design issues May 20, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Arizona State University, Collaboration, Design, Economy, Education, Energy & Climate, Events, sustainability.Tags: PSI, Think Tank
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So we’re into the second day of the workshop on design-meets-engineering for improving built environments, and the group has moved into the brainstorming mode. I just snuck into the control room and got this picture.
What you see is the collaborative Think Tank exercise, where each participant gets to come up with ideas and solutions –this takes place anonymously as each one interacts with the group via a wireless laptop. The ideas are immediately displayed on one of the seven screens.
Today’s topics are “integrating areas of scholarship discipline with feasibility study” and “energy conservation in the context of the community.”
“Let’s build a new green machine!” May 19, 2009
Posted by Angelo in ASU: School of Sustainability, Collaboration, Education.Tags: PSI, Thomas Kiser
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“We’re not here for business as usual. I’m just trying to shake the tree,” said Tom Kiser, president and CEO of Professional Supply Inc. PSI.
He’s is here at Decision Theater today where he opened a 2-day workshop (“Design and Engineering for Energy Reduction in the Built Environment”) on curriculum design. Kiser, an ‘energy coach’ and international figure in design and innovation, is professor of practice at ASU.
In his opening address Kiser spoke of his renowned formula: EN3 ÷ EP1 = ?
Translated: for every 3 units of energy we need to buy, you buy only one. This is what Kiser calls “the new green machine.”
Kiser also talked about how a curriculum in Sustainability needs to have students enrolled not as individuals, but as teams. Why? Because that’s how they need to work in solving sustainability challenges, he says.
How do you turn a live event interactive? May 12, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Collaboration, Economy, Events.1 comment so far
Today’s GPEC economic summit, hosted by the Decision Theater proved to be truly interactive, in more ways than one.
This was happening on several levels. On the expected level, before during and after the event, reporters could be seen pulling aside a speaker or an audience member to get immediate feedback, as did audience members who engaged each other.
But while all this was happening, the camera that you see here was live streaming video made available to a web audience. We used BitGravity for this. The BitgGavity feed was embedded in a dedicated web page. At one time we tracked more than 600 people on that site. This extended audience got to interact with the speakers through an embedded chat program, and via a polling tool.
The questions arising in the chat room were immediately sent to the speaker. How? In an adjacent conference room –call it the social media hub– in between watching the live web stream, someone from the GPEC communications team would forward the questions to the Drum via Blackberry. All this, as we tweeted and blogged the event.
One more thing. Photos taken during the event were immediately uploaded to Flickr -you can see them on the right of this page- and TwitPic.
Greater Phoenix economic summit in progress May 12, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Collaboration, Economy, Media, sustainability.Tags: Barry Broome, Elliott Pollack, GPEC, Michael Bidwell
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An economic summit, convened by the Greater Phoenix Economic Commission is happening this morning at the Decision Theater.
Topics include job gains, wealth creation and personal income, growth, tax policy and looking at the competitiveness of Phoenix, with questions being posed online.
The speakers are:
- Michael Bidwell, chairman GPEC
- Tom Rex, Associate Director, Center for Competitiveness and prosperity Research at the W. P. Carey School of Business
- Elliott Pollack, CEO Elliott D. Pollack and Co
- Barry Broome, president/CEO of GPEC
Watch a live feed here from a dedicated site that includes a way to ask questions and vote on issues being raised.
Researchers race against clock to track data on H1N1 May 10, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Arizona State University, Collaboration, Emergency Preparedness, Events, Public Health, pandemic.Tags: Carlos Castillo-Chavez, HiN1, Marco Hererra, summit
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It’s the second working weekend here at the Decision Theater, and researchers from all over Arizona State University are gathered here chasing after data.
It’s different from most end-of-semester deadlines. This assignment –going after H1N1 influenza — is more critical as it has imposed new kinds of time lines on anyone remotely connected epidemiology, mathematics, transportation, and decision-making.
As I let them into the sweltering conference room –over the weekends the air conditioners are turned off– we look at an enormous formula written across a flow-to-ceiling white wall. Marco Hererra (from the mathematical computational modeling science center) began explaining one part of the model to me. It soon became clear that learning how to preempt or deal with this subtype of the influenza virus is not as simple as coming up with a master-list of dos and donts for cities and health officials, or plotting a supply chain model for delivering antivirals ahead of time.
“We’re trying to explain how the spread of disease occurs in a population, and we can look at two sets of populations, the ’susceptible’ and the’ infected’ at a simplistic level. You can complicate it a bit to see how the susceptible population become infected and how the infected become part of a ‘recovered’ population.”
He starts drawing lines connecting parts of this model, then deliberately complicates this by adding a new pool of ‘vaccinated’ and ‘treated’ to illustrate what we are up against. We can use data from the health sectors (Mexico City and adjoining states), and Google etc, he says to figure out the rates of how these 5 groups –susceptible, infected, recovered, treated, vaccinated — now relate to each other. More lines. More complexity as other parts of the model on the white board come into play. You get the picture.
Or maybe not!
If you’re eyes have glazed over, you may find comfort in the fact that the upcoming influenza summit here at ASU will bring a lot more clarity to a on-again-off-again influenza crisis that have ordinary citizens (and even the media) confused.
Upcoming Influenza Summit: This event in June has been initiated by Dr. Carlos Castillo-Chavez, Executive Director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute. It brings together international influenza experts to see how current data and models can help the world look at long-term preparedness, and to help policymakers make better decisions in this space.
More details will be announced shortly.
