Shelly+West+Final+Project

__The Positive Uses of Facebook!__ By: Shelly West  Let me first begin by saying, I am in no way, an expert on Facebook. I am not claiming to know how it works, why it is, nor is this a tutorial. I do not express any kind of opinion for, or against Facebook. What I am going to cover on this page are in my opinion, some of the more positive things that I have seen Facebook used for.  Facebook, the social Titan that it is, has the ability to touch well over a half a billion lives each day. With over half of those users admitting to checking their facebook page every chance they get. No other information medium gets checked as frequently as facebook and other services like it. You don’t watch the news every half hour, nor does this morning’s newspaper update every time you read it. There is incredible potential to reach a vast audience very quickly with your information. Now, one must ask themselves, can we use it for something other than chatting with our friends and updates on people’s day to day going on’s. Can it be used to make a positive impact and help people. The possibilities are endless, in my opinion. The following information has been compiled from many, many hours of researching the internet. They are stories from all over the country that I feel help highlight my point. They are just a few of an overwhelming number of stories like them, I wish I had the time and the space to add them all, but I don’t. =Social-Networking Tools Help Find Missing Children. = By [|__Mary Quinn O'Connor__] Published March 30, 2011 FoxNews.com  “The FBI works with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and AMBER Alerts are added to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, details of which can now be blasted out through social media sites. ”Forget milk cartons. Alert systems to help locate missing children have now gone high-tech. New systems like SecuraChild use social-media networks, including Facebook and Twitter, to send out blast emails and text messages whenever a child is reported missing through the site. There are other options too, such as the [|__National Center for Missing and Exploited Children__] , which lets people add an amber alert “ticker” to their website or app on your phone. And social networking's aid has proven a dramatic success. According to NCMEC, social media has helped to resolve and recover 98.5 percent of AMBER alerts since 2005. Of 1,451 AMBER notifications from 2005 to 2009, 1,430 children have been found. “There is no doubt that social media played a role in that,” Bob Lowery, executive director of the Missing Children’s Division at NCMEC, told FoxNews.com. “Facebook has over a half a billion users. We don’t want to miss out on these opportunities,” he said. And because of social networking sites like Facebook, NCMEC has the highest found and return rate they have ever seen. The recovery rate of missing children found and returned is 96.5 percent today, compared to 60 percent in the 1980's. “We are finding lost kids now faster than we ever have and social media no doubt is helping us communicate with the public. We are able to engage the public with disseminating images of the missing child and that increases the probability that we will find that child,” Lowery said. Read more: [|__http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/03/30/social-networking-tools-help-missing-children/#ixzz24NwIrKEb__]
 * Kidnapped girl Jaylin Boudria is now back home with her family after her AMBER Alert was blasted out on social media sites. (Mass. State Police)

 This is just one example of a growing number of missing persons cases that are turning to facebook’s users for help getting the word out. Brilliant in my opinion. No longer are the families and friends bound by what law enforcement can do to help, or forced to sit at home and wait for news. Now they can take a more proactive approach to finding their loved ones. I cannot even imagine the pain and agony these families must be suffering. What I do know, is that if it was me, I would want to be as hands on in the investigation process as possible. Facebook offers them the ability to post current pictures, the latest updates from law enforcement, organize search efforts, establish support networks, and the ability to share this information with an almost unimaginable number of people, all over the world. While still allowing law enforcement the space to focus their resources where they need to be.  Another great example of this, is the case of a 22 year old, Stanford University student named, Jacob Boehm, who went missing during a class trip to Malaysia. Shortly after his disappearance, a facebook page was created by a fellow classmate. Within hours after being posted the page went viral. Information began pouring in both from the United States, and Malaysia. Search parties were organized based on some of those tips and the young man was found less than 21 hours after the first post on facebook went up. He had been missing for <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">over a week. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Click here to see full article.__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> These are not isolated events. This is becoming the standard in today’s law enforcement. Everyone from local law enforcement, to state and federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, are coming around to see the potential of using social media such as facebook to their benefit. “The International Association of Chiefs of Police recently found in a survey of 800 law enforcement agencies that nearly nine out of 10 use some form of social media and more than half reported that social media have helped solve crimes.” According to an August 2012 article in the Las Vegas Sun. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/aug/11/us-social-media-for-police/__] = = = <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Facebook Helping the FBI Investigate a Potential Serial Killer. =

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I was on my personal facebook page recently and one of my friends had shared a link, to a site who was seeking the public’s help, retracing the steps of a potential serial killer. This facebook page was posted in corroboration with the FBI and is intended to assist them in their on going investigation of this individual. I think it is incredible how quickly information is pouring in concerning his whereabouts over the past decade or so. Every day there are new locations on the sites map, most of them corresponding to open or unsolved cases on or around the dates he was confirmed by facebook followers and law enforcement to have been in those areas. Check out the link below, maybe he has been in your area? Maybe you can help bring a potential serial killer to justice? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.facebook.com/pages/Have-You-Ever-met-Israel-Keyes-Possible-Serial-Killer/399521663428225__] = = = <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deployed Soldiers Using Facebook to Stay in Touch With Family and Friends. =

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Some people are shocked when they see a Facebook status update or message coming from a deployed soldier. At the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__U.S. Army__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, we see it as another positive move that allows our soldiers to feel connected to friends and family at home, even when they're half a world away. Allowing our audience — including our soldiers — to connect and communicate through social networking is still considered risky business by some, and we do face unique challenges. The risks to operations security felt by some, or the fears that our soldiers will post "unbecoming" information, are outweighed by increased communication and sharing.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “In this era of persistent conflict and frequent deployments, service members are under constant stress due to the demands of the military lifestyle on both their psychological and physical well being. Facebook has made it easier to stay in touch with loved ones back home. Two months after we launched the official <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__U.S. Army Page__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> on Facebook, it has become a meeting ground for soldiers, their spouses and families to share insights, support and encouragement.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Facebook captures the power of relationships in a way we've only begun to explore. Whether you're a general officer or a soldier deployed to Iraq who gets a glimpse of home through a Wall post or a photo, it's a powerful medium for our community of more than 1.1 million soldiers and their spouses, family members and children.” Author: Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Arata US Army <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.facebook.com/blog/blog.php?post=96673832130&comments__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Thank you Facebook for making life a little easier for those fighting for our freedoms.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Facebook can be used for some pretty amazing things. I believe we are only just beginning to see Facebook and it’s users, realize it’s true potential. I am excited to be along for the ride. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Works Cited <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Connecting and Sharing the Army Way. Facebook, 30 June 2009. Web. 27 Aug. 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/blog/blog.php?post=96673832130&comments>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Have You Ever met Israel Keyes Possible Serial Killer. Facebook, n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Have-You-Ever-met-Israel-Keyes-Possible-Serial-Killer/399521663428225>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jacob Boehm Found Through Social Media in Malaysia. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/asia/22iht-search22.html?_r=1>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Police Embrace Emerging Social Media Tool. Las Vegas Sun, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. <http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/aug/11/us-social-media-for-police/>. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Social-Networking Tools Help Find Missing Children. Fox News, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/03/30/social-networking-tools-help-missing-children/>.