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 News Release by Tiffany Brown, Public Affairs Section, Lansing: Recent news coverage prompted by a press release issued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has brought speculation and caused inaccurate information to be reported about data extraction devices (DEDs) owned by the Michigan State Police (MSP). The MSP only uses the DEDs if a search warrant is obtained or if the person possessing the mobile device gives consent. The department*s internal directive is that the DEDs only be used by MSP specialty teams on criminal cases, such as crimes against children. The DEDs are not being used to extract citizens' personal information during routine traffic stops. The implication by the ACLU that the MSP uses these devices "quietly to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches" is untrue, and this divisive tactic unjustly harms police and community relations.

The Apple iPad, one of apple's hottest sellers, is seeing frequent use by those in the government sector. With the seemingly endless amount of apps available for use with the iPad, many help government workers to become more efficient. The apps that are seeing the most use include twitter, quick office, evernote and flipboard. Twitter is helpful to disperse quick messages to others in the work place, and obviously has social networking benefits as well. Quick Office is seeing a lot of use as a microsoft office productivity tool. Evernote allows the user to take notes, record sound bytes, add pictures and video, and other helpful pieces of information into one "note" that is easily dispersed to others in one piece, together. Flipboard is presented almost as a "personal magazine", where feeds from social networking sites and other sites the user selects appear directly on the iPad's interface.

This is a survey using information from 238 non profit organizations in seattle. I found it easy to read and interpret. It's a great snapshot of IT use and needs by non profits in a US city.

This video was brought to us by The American Red Cross. This shows us that some nonprofits have before very advanced with the technology being used.

After seeing the tragedy that has hit Japan, I found this story to be useful as a great example of how tech can really affect people's lives. Google has provided a system where you can search the name of a person in Japan and find out about their status in the country after the earthquake. This tool is so important for government to use during a national disaster because it allows families, no matter where they are across the globe, to better find out what has happened to their loved ones after such a tragedy. Governments or non profits such as the American Red Cross can use this technology in all types of different relief effort circumstances when a number of people somewhere in the world have been the victim of such a disaster.

My final bookmark in my series on the use and future of technology in government funded public education. Talks about teaching using tech tools they already have like webcams, audio recorders, blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools in their quest to boost the literacy in their students.

The Michigan State Police have a handful of portable machines called "extraction devices" that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over, and the ACLU would like to know more about them. "The problem, as the ACLU sees it, is that accessing a citizen's private phone information when there's 'no probable cause could create a violation of the Constitution's 4th Amendment', which protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures."

MSP Statement in response to news stories on April 20, 2011 The implication by the ACLU that the MSP uses these devices "quietly to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches" is untrue, and this divisive tactic unjustly harms police and community relations.

This website gives some good statistics on facebook and how non profits can use and benefit from it.

Article giving 7 tips on how non profits can use mobile phones to their advantage and gain donations. A good follow-up on class discussion of bar code scanning...

Social media tools, such as twitter and facebook, played a significant part of the overthrowing of Mubarak. With two-thirds of Egypt's population under the age of 30, it's no surprise that internet-savvy, educated, young Egyptians used such tools to break barriers in a country that has been ruled under unjust dictatorship throughout their lives. These tools helped organize and gather the millions of protestors that have sparked revolution in Egypt. Social media and sharing information online has played an almost unimaginable role in this process and certainly poses a threat to governments around the world with dictatorships and a significant proportion of the population who is educated and able to use these tools.

Simple use by New York city of QR codes on building permits to provide links to additional information. 

Wow. Just think, I didn't even know what QR codes were a few weeks ago. I really see them blooming in the next few years (Ha!Bloomberg/ Blooming!). I scanned one from a Meijers grocery coupon and got a 10 second commercial sent back to me.

Very progressive! Excellent use for that specific labeling technology --- especially in a high density population area where a construction project could be a big hassle. This would make it easy for the public passerby to find out more about it, and perhaps a target completion date. Plus, you are certain the contractor has a legal permit from the city of New York for the work they are doing.

Data visualization using large data sets can be very useful, especially when dealing with public policy, environmental and health data sets.

Although this article talks about business and government, it nonetheless provides very useful information in regards to the use of technology in the government. If the public information that is being taken by the government and seemingly used very little can prove to have benefits to society when used in an efficient and accessible way. These benefits can affect an individual, a business, or a non-profit in numerous ways.

This is an example of one of the upcoming webinars that can help non-profits improve on using social media. For a low price, an entire non-profit staff could become educated on the best sites to choose, content to post, and time to be allotted. The woman who runs these webinars is a pioneer in using social media for non-profits.

"What are the top social media tools to use to spread an organizations message and how does an organization effectively use online communications tools. Let's get down to my top 10 list of things every nonprofit should know about social media and online communications."

Survey tools automatically collect and tally responses in "real time," which means you can watch the results come in as they're being submitted. Results are often organized and presented graphically using charts and tables. Most tools will even produce reports based on the survey results. You can share the results with members of your staff, and even with survey respondents. post date:  Feb. 1, 2011

This site is all about Yugma, signup and use for virtual net meetings... I am still unclear how this integrates with Skype for instance... It is multiple platform capable .... Linux,Mac,Windows and that might prove important.... I was disappointed by a 3 person use maximum however.... This service is a bit more revenue driven than some other cloud services which are easier to get for free

A non-profit out of California has created software for human rights workers that is designed to secretly store data about human rights violation abuses in the country where they are located. There is talk about it already being used in the Middle-East recently. The software includes a 'panic button' that a human rights worker could use that would instantly delete all the files on the computer about government violations. The data is then stored in the cloud and accessable only with a password and secret 'key.' This is a great example of nonprofits working together to fight enormous challenges, with human rights being one of the most dangerous and exhaustive areas of work in the non-profit sector.

A nonprofit organization in Pittsford has been given a grant from the Ronald McDonald House to buy 2 ipads. They are going to use these ipads to help kids who are developmentally challenged learn. They are going to focus on helping children whose motor and verbal skills make it hard for them to use other learning technologies. An ipad is portable and has numerous learning programs on it.

Anyone who doesn't have a car can use this trip planner on the Rapid's website to get anywhere in Grand Rapids. Non profits could fine this tool very useful to help clients get from one place to another if they don't have reliable transportation. Hopefully a mobile app is in the works!