Communication

CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND POLICY                                                                   Dec. 9, 2014          
By  Peter M. Sandman, PhD, and Jody Lanard, MD  

In contrast to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which started in late 2013 and will last well into 2015 or longer, the US "Ebola crisis" was encapsulated in a single month, October 2014. But there may well be US Ebola cases to come, brought here by travelers or returning volunteers. And other emerging infectious diseases will surely reach the United States in the months and years ahead.

So now is a propitious time to harvest some crisis communication lessons from the brief US Ebola "crisis."

We're putting "crisis" in quotation marks because there was never an Ebola public health crisis in the United States, nor was there a significant threat of one. But there was a crisis of confidence, a period of several weeks during which many Americans came to see the official response to domestic Ebola as insufficiently cautious, competent, and candid—and therefore felt compelled to implement or demand additional responses of their own devising....

By Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow | Next City | August 19, 2014

At one time, questionnaires about well-being were the province of mental health professionals. But in recent years, a growing number of city governments have been getting into the game. Last year, Santa Monica, California won a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors’ Challenge grant to create a “Local Well-Being Index,” based in part on a survey it plans to administer next month. Other cities, including Seattle and Nevada City, Calif., are at various stages of implementing the idea as well (with different levels of direct municipal involvement). All share a goal that some see as unsuitable for government and others consider its fundamental task: to make citizens happier.

http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/happiest-cities-well-being-survey-policy

fastcompany.com - by Chris Gayomali - May 19, 2014

. . .The big plan entailed the creation of the "NYC Tech Talent Pipeline," an initiative de Blasio said will be dedicated to creating "high-quality jobs" for New Yorkers up and down the tech ecosystem chain. He didn't provide many details, but the $10 million plan will be backed by JP Morgan Chase, among other banking giants.

Mayor de Blasio also hinted at his plans for widespread connectivity, saying that a "vibrant democracy" runs through "universal, high-speed broadband access." Of note was a plan to blanket 95 blocks of Harlem in free Wi-Fi, in addition to a plan to transform the city's unused subway pay phones into wireless stations.

gigaom.com - by Kevin C. Tofel - November 7, 2012

After 4 days without power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, something arrived today that will help keep my mobile devices fully charged and connected to the web. I backed a Fenix ReadySet on Kickstarter, which is a large battery that charges with an included solar panel.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

http://www.fenixintl.com/