Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Making it easier to participate in our efforts!

We are pleased to announce that many attended our first sinsai.info symposium.

In order to make it easier to join our efforts, an official mailing list is now available. If you are interested in volunteering to help us, please subscribe to our mailing list.

sinsai-info-users Mailing List:
https://groups.google.com/group/sinsai-info-users



*Currently, our e-mail is only available in Japanese, so we also made a english facebook page. The like button is embedded at the bottom right corner of this blog!


Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Many Thanks: We held a sinsai.info symposium on May 14th (Sat).

We successfully finished the first sinsai.info symposium.
Thank you for your participation and cooperation.

This symposium marks a new phase for sinsai.info.
We appreciate your continued support and cooperation.

We will make the symposium documents and participation report available in a few days.

We also created a Mailing List, which was announced at the sinsai.info symposium.
Please participate from the following URL.

sinsai-info-users Mailing List:
https://groups.google.com/group/sinsai-info-users
*Currently, our e-mail is only available in Japanese.

We also have a community group on mixi. If you have an mixi account, please participate.

sinsai.info mixi Branch Office:
http://mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=5602946
*sinsai.info mixi Branch Office (Community) is only available in Japanese.

Saturday, 14 May 2011

New User Interface now available

To commemorate the sinsai.info symposium today,
we are releasing a new user interface (main screen).
(Honestly, the release was actually delayed due to bug fixes. Oops!)

You can still use our previous version, if you'd like.
Please update your bookmark to http://www.sinsai.info.

sinsai.info gadget ver. 1.0.0:


Our new user interface is implemented as an OpenSocial gadget; it can be embedded on
  • your site via Google Friends Connect,
  • your mixi, iGoogle, or goo home page.
Developers may rewrite the gadget's source code, create mashups, or a new social application.
Also we are looking for talented engineers who can help us improve this user interface!

Read more about our APIs Developers may rewrite the gadget's source code, create mashups, or a new social application.

Also we are looking for talented engineers who can help us improve this user interface!

Read more about our APIs here.
*This document is only in Japanese.

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

We will be holding a sinsai.info symposium on May14th (Sat). Everyone is welcome to attend.

Next week it will be two months since sinsai.info was launched.

There are more than 10,000 reports at sinsai.info. As with other websites like ours, the demands and expectations of our visitors change as the situation develops.

Initially, the priority was providing urgent information regarding life-threatening conditions. More recently, however, we have received feedback indicating that the current demand is for information about available services and the status of the recovery efforts, which may have been overlooked by the larger media outlets.

The content of our reports keeps changing. We pick up hashtags from twitter, but it is getting more difficult to find useful information as the hashtags are getting polluted with spam messages or unrelated topics.

The sources of our reports have changed as well. Early on, the bulk of the information we collected was related to safety inquiries or help requests via Twitter. Now we are getting more input directly from our web form or from third-party organizations such as "Tasukeai Japan" via its API.

We are also working on improving the user interface and promoting usage of the API.

So, we are holding a sinsai.info symposium to share our activities and discuss future goals and priorities. We would like to focus on the mid- to long-term goals and activities for our Moderator Team (also called the "Data Team").

Everyone is welcome to join our symposium whether you are a member of sinsai.info or not. If you are interested in our work or have any desire to assist us, please feel free to join us at the symposium.

The symposium will be held both in Tokyo and Osaka on May 14th (Sat). Please register via following registration site (ATND).

Flyer: http://goo.gl/LYpxR

Summary
sinsai.info symposium

Date: May 14th (Sat) 14:00 ~ 17:30 no admission fee
Location: Tokyo, Osaka
  • Tokyo: Big conference room, Komaba Campus, Tokyo University, 3-8-1 Komaba Meguro ku, Tokyo
  • Osaka: Room 202 Osaka Municipal City Citizen Community Center Naniwa, 1-3-10 Naniwa west, Naniwa ku, Osaka city
Content: Sharing activities among sinsai.info individual team and other third party organizations- Sharing the activity information
- Deciding priorities
- Networking with other volunteers
- For future
etc

Registration:
Tokyo:http://atnd.org/events/15404
Osaka:http://atnd.org/events/15406
Online: http://atnd.org/events/15587

* The registration is via third-party website called "ATND"

Please come and join us.
Looking forward to seeing you.

Thursday, 28 April 2011

Nikkei.com introduces sinsai.info

The Nikkei reported on sinsai.info and posted an article on their website.

Nikkei: Internet role in "infrastructure" -- a blind spot?
「ライフライン」としてネットに死角はないか:日本経済新聞

The March 11 Japan Earthquake has proven the importance of the Internet as a part of the social infrastructure. While landline and mobile telecommunications were disrupted, the Internet remained as a vital tool to communicate rescue and support requests from the quake-stricken area. Is there a blind spot regarding the Internet as a "lifeline?" We asked Mr. Haruyuki Seki, the organizer of sinsai.info, which gathers and sorts quake (disaster) information, as well as Mr. Koichi Suzuki, CEO of the Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ).


Thank you very much. By the way, the article says, "There are many system engineers in disaster stricken areas. We have secured a location at Sendai Station where volunteer engineers can work". However, this "location" seems to refer to the "Info Input Station" set up by Tasukeai Japan.

Volunteer Information Station in Sendai, Miyagi: volunteer recruitment information (within Sendai City) collected at Sendai Station is made public via an API. sinsai.info automatically captures the data and makes it available to our viewers. sinsai.info did not set up the information facility in Sendai.

We would love to have data input directly from the disaster area. Please let us know if you are interested in working with us.
Contact Us

Monday, 25 April 2011

Demo of post-earthquake recovery gadget prototype



With sinsai.info APIs, our new gadget prototype can be embedded in your blog, iGoogle, mixi as well as OpenSocial SNS. Please watch this demo video and try it yourself.

XML URL is below.
http://nati.sinsai.info/gadget/sinsai.xml

Also available in Flash!

http://hkk.sinsai.info/widget/sinsai_widget.html





Sunday, 24 April 2011

Presentation at the regular meeting of Japan Android Group Yokohama Chapter









"aganard", sinsai.info's Legal team leader, gave a presentation at a regular meeting of Japan Android Group Yokohama Chapter. Appears from about 1:06:00.