Posts Tagged ‘Japan’

Japan’s NTT Docomo is partnering with Twitter to develop an alerting service that uses tweet location information.

NTT DoCoMo, Twitter to develop location-based alert

However, it will probably not be a targeted emergency situation alerting service as Reuters title may imply. They note that: Twitter will remove data that could identify users, before using the stored tweets for this service, the business daily said So, it is NOT likely that NTT Docomo will send an alert directly to Twitter users based on their individual location.

NTT Docomo itself does not provide much in the way of details about this service.

DOCOMO to Develop New Services by Working with Twitter (NTT Docomo press release)

One of the envisioned services will bring richer search results to DOCOMO customers. Real-time Tweets and other Twitter content will be added to the search results on the DOCOMO “i-mode” portal for feature phones and the “docomo market” portal for smartphones. DOCOMO expects to launch the service for feature phones this summer and for smartphones later this year or early next year.

Google aims to eliminate the language barrier faced by users who wish to share messages of support for earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged Japan with its launch of Messages for Japan, which serves the dual purpose of automatically translating posts into Japanese and helping to raise funds for the country’s recovery efforts.

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Rebecca Black has been trending on Twitter for over a week, her YouTube hit ‘Friday’ has gotten over 42 million views, and she’s currently clocking in at number 39 on the iTunes top singles chart, beating out the likes of Justin Bieber, Train and Enrique Iglesias. With all this popularity, Rebecca Black has got the world wondering how much money she’s made on the single, as well as how she’ll be spending the money. According to an interview on Leno, this fresh YouTube star will be doing the noble thing and donating the proceeds to Japan and to her school.
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Over the past week and a half we have witnessed scenes of destruction in Japan across the Web. Videos of the tsunami ravaging towns, devastating whole villages, and destroying homes have become commonplace at the top of YouTube’s charts, garnering millions of views. Today a harrowing story of survival is rising the viral charts. Although the video is traumatic, it is still an inspiring story of survival, showcasing some of the heroes of Japan’s recent disaster.
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The YouTube Person Finder channel aggregates video messages from earthquake victims to help victims and families find one another and establish each other’s safety.

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YouTube announced the launch of the YouTube Person Finder, a channel dedicated to video messages from victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. More from product marketing manager Tai Hasegawa via the YouTube Blog:

We’re in the process of adding more than 80 video messages shot at the shelters by TBS, a major TV station in Japan, and we’ll try to increase the number of videos by adding more content from other TV stations and news network in the coming days.

We’re also trying to include videos shot by the individuals impacted themselves, but we have to wait until the infrastructure situation there recovers.

You can search for videos via the search box within the module: Enter the names of a missing person in Kanji, Katakana, or Hiragana letters (sorry Japanese letters only); the name of the place they lived; or the name of the shelter locations. You can also browse videos by Japanese alphabet on the playlist embedded within the video navigator in middle of the channel.

Our hope is that this channel will help victims and their families to establish each other’s safety, and that the video messages will reach many viewers and motivate them to contribute to the recovery and restoration of the disaster-stricken areas.

Friday is here at last! It’s been a tough week for many of us, filled with heart wrenching news from Japan. But the good news is that the weekend is here and with it comes our weekly viral video roundup.

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Just one week after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan it is becoming more and more evident just how tough a toll this has paid (and is still paying) on the Japanese people, their land, their homes and their spirit. They are currently in need of all the help they can get and if you want to help, either by way of donation or by showing your support, then we want to help you do that. From donations to help and support, we’ve compiled a list of great ways you can help Japan through social media. Read on to find out more.
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The earthquake and tsunami that victimized Japan March 11 accounted for a whopping 66 percent of Tweeted news links for the week of March 7-11, despite occurring on the last day of the period, while the upcoming 2012 presidential campaign dominated the blogosphere, and the most-watched news and politics video on YouTube was a Spanish news report about a soccer player kicking an owl during a game, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s New Media Index.

The disaster was followed on the list of most-shared news links via Twitter by: the civil war in Libya, at 15 percent; a report in The Sun that Justin Bieber skateboarded through an airport terminal in Birmingham, at 13 percent; Google, at 10 percent; and a preview of the Apple iPad 2 from Mashable, at 7 percent.

The race for the 2012 presidential election accounted for 37 percent of news links shared by bloggers, followed by: the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist David Broder, at 17 percent; the executive order signed by President Barack Obama to create a formal system of indefinite detention for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, at 10 percent; a column in The Washington Post by George Will questioning the United States’ intervention in Libya, at 7 percent; and a Washington Post interview with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko regarding allegations that the recent election there was fraudulent, at 6 percent.

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The Prime Minister’s Office of Japan established @JPN_PMO, an English-language Twitter account to supplement disaster information from Japanese-language @Kantei_Saigai, which was established March 13, Mashable reported.

@JPN_PMO had accumulated more than 8,000 followers at the time of this post. Information Tweeted includes evacuations, press conferences, and news about the overall welfare of Japan, according to Mashable.