What is Community Informatics in Japan? A look at 12 cases

In this paper, we are concerned with the applicability of the concept of Community Informatics (CI) rooted in North American studies to a different context, Japan. Despite the fact that CI is a relatively new filed of study, and Japan???s intensive use of mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) are a common area to find in articles, Japanese CI practices are little known. Among major academic journals that CI scholars appear, there have none of CI articles by Japanese scholars published so far. These draw our attention. We review cases in Japan that apply and adapt information and communications technology (ICT) to local community settings. Applying Williams and Durrance???s framework encompassing community informatics practices, twelve community projects and groups were identified in the study (2007). The projects are categorized into four types based on different conceptions of ICT use in fulfilling community needs and objectives (Williams and Durrance, 2007). These are community groups, organizations, and projects that rely on (1) actual places, i.e., public computing places and cyber cafes, (2) virtual spaces, i.e. , community networks and online resources, (3) some combination of those two, and (4) organic, that is, borne out of community efforts not particularly concerned with technology but which now involve ICT. We chose an opportunistic sampling technique in order to find cases that fit in those four types of CI models. For the very first step, we draw on a small number of articles by Japanese scholars on the utilization of social network service developed by municipal offices using open source software for community development (Toyama, 2007; Shoji, 2007)

Finding a Maximum 2-Matching Excluding Prescribed Cycles in Bipartite Graphs

We introduce a new framework of restricted 2-matchings close to Hamilton cycles. For an undirected graph (V,E) and a family U of vertex subsets, a 2-matching F is called U-feasible if, for each setU in U, F contains at most |setU|-1 edges in the subgraph induced by U. Our framework includes C_{= 5. For instance, in bipartite graphs in which every cycle of length six has at least two chords, our algorithm solves the maximum C_{<=6}-free 2-matching problem in O(n^2 m) time, where n and m are the numbers of vertices and edges, respectively

The Effectiveness of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Children and Adolescents Who Suffer From Complex Trauma and Exhibit Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder/Symptoms: A Systematic Review

The purpose of this study was to examine current literature on Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in order to identify the effectiveness of this treatment on children and adolescents who suffer from complex trauma and exhibit Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS). An inclusion criterion was created to capture studies that used TF-CBT or similar CBT techniques with this population. A systematic review research design was utilized resulting in 11 studies meeting criteria and these articles were then analyzed. The findings of the included studies were extracted and then divided into five distinct categories based on the PTSD/PTSS instrument used. The results measured statistically significant reductions in PTSD/ PTSS following the use of TF-CBT and other CBT methods when compared to wait-list control groups. Additionally, TF-CBT or/and other CBT methods were found to be as effective or more effective at reducing PTSD or PTSS when compared to other treatment methods including; supportive group for parents, standard community care, child-centered therapy, non-directive supportive therapy, and EMDR. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that TF-CBT or comparable CBT methods are effective and can be utilized with children and adolescents suffering from PTSD/PTSS who have experienced complex trauma

“Tutteli to Japan”: A case study of spontaneous collaboration in disaster response

“Tutteli to Japan” (TTJ) is a case study of ordinary people, a group of Japanese women living in Finland, trying to figure out how to help disaster-affected citizens from a distance in coordination with likeminded strangers on-the-ground to accomplish aid supply delivery. Unlike commonly seen in citizen response to disasters, this case did not start as an extension of pre-existing social group activities or an informal group of volunteers under the name of TTJ. Rather, the effort emerged from individual responses on the Internet to the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami disasters in Japan, expressing their compassions and aspirations to do something for the disaster victims; some were on Twitter, some were on their blogs. As the devastation escalated, so did the people’s eagerness to do something about the inadequate distribution of resources, with a focus on the breastfeeding mothers in Japan who only had access to powder-based baby formula. Having this challenge left untouched by government or aid agencies, these concerned individuals, as novice learners of international aid work without a chain of command, continued seeking and sharing information in order to deliver the liquid baby formula regardless of informational, operational, and situational uncertainties surrounding them. Within the next forty days, these volunteer individuals were able to ship six times, a total of 12,000 cartons of formula, directly delivered and distributed to the hands of breastfeeding mothers in twelve different locations in the disaster-affected communities in Japan. In this dissertation, I study the entangled, mutually collaborative nature of finding a way to help processes within and between like-minded individuals and the broader context of people and information with emphasis on information needs and learning. Drawing on a dataset that encompasses a range of real-time social media data as well as interviews and documentation, this single-case study traces how ordinary citizens interacting online develop the idea for delivery of baby formula as emergency supplies and how these like-minded strangers collaboratively mobilized resources for the TTJ logistics and processes of packaging, dispatching and delivering large volumes of relief supply including: the fundraising volunteers in Finland, the drivers and distributors in Japan. This study aims to describe how such ordinary people’s information interactions shape spontaneous collaboration in disaster response. My findings suggest that independent public participation and collaborative efforts for disaster response perform as sources of tensions and various kinds of vagueness, but these are the functions that spontaneous volunteers can offer resourcefully. With learning by doing approaches, these compassionate individuals, both online and on-the-ground, muddled through unknown needs of unfamiliar activities in identifying, managing and processing different kinds of tasks, particularly by asking for information and acting on information received including uses of vague language and uncertain sources of information. This iteration of dual processes – searching for information to help and self-organizing under leaderless management – illuminates underlying processes of spontaneous collaboration. I argue that the TTJ illustrates the power of intention, which is the power of creativity among ordinary people acting on information processed through humane-driven technology use. These iterative information interactions can be best understood through a new concept articulated in this dissertation, shared uncertainty. This concept encompasses our understanding of independent public participation and collaboration and offers an interdisciplinary bridge between research in information behavior, computer-supported cooperative work, crisis informatics and disaster studies

Searching for Information to Help at a Distance in Disaster Response: a Case Study of "Tutteli to Japan"

“Tutteli to Japan” (TTJ) refers to Japanese mothers living in Finland who volunteered in organizing a private relief effort to deliver bulks of baby formula from Finland to Japan during the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami disasters. Unlike commonly seen in citizen response to disasters, TTJ did not start as an extension of pre-existing social group of mothers or an informal community group of professionals under the name of TTJ. Rather, it emerged from individual responses on the Internet expressing their compassions and aspirations to do something for the disaster victims; some were on Twitter, some were on their blogs. As the devastation escalated, so did the people’s eagerness to do something about the inadequate distribution of resources, and they began to address the breastfeeding mothers in Japan who only had access to powder-based baby formula. Knowing the issue left untouched by government or aid agencies, these concerned individuals, as novice learners of international aid work without a chain of command, continued seeking and sharing information in order to deliver the liquid baby formula regardless of informational, operational, and situational uncertainties surrounding them. Ultimately, these volunteers succeeded to ship six times, a total of 12,000 cartons of formula, directly delivered and distributed in twelve different locations in Japan within forty days. Drawing on a dataset containing unstructured social media data, interviews and documentation, this single-case study traces how ordinary citizens interacting online develop the idea for delivery of baby formula and how likeminded strangers come together online and mobilize resources for humanitarian logistics and distributions in both Finland and Japan. This study aims to describe how such ordinary people’s information interactions shape spontaneous collaboration in disaster response. My findings suggest that independent public participation and collaborative efforts for disaster response perform as sources of tensions and various kinds of vagueness, but these are the functions that spontaneous volunteers can offer resourcefully. I argue that the TTJ illustrates the power of ordinary people embracing uncertainty and acting on information processed through humane-driven technology use, vague language and uncertain sources of information. This condition of shared uncertainty, a new concept presented in this dissertation encompasses our understanding of independent public participation and collaboration and offers an interdisciplinary bridge between research in information behavior, computer-supported cooperative work, crisis informatics and disaster studies