A few weeks ago YouTube posted unbelievable statistics on their blog regarding the massive amount of video uploads that occur on a daily basis. But how are people consuming this massive amount of video content? Apparently, an ever increasing amount of video is begin watched using mobile devices. According to MeFeedia and Nielsen mobile video usage exploded in 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Nielsen research users using mobile devices to watch video has climbed upwards of 43% compared to the same time last year.
MeFeedia’s research on mobile video consumption targeted the type of device being used to consume mobile video. Not surprisingly the iPhone leads the pack in mobile viewing, Android comes in second and iPad third. The iPhone and iPad account for roughly 52% of devices viewing mobile video. An interesting piece of information from MeFeedia’s research was mobile video engagement was 40% greater than PC/desktop video engagement.
What does all this mean? We are fast becoming a technologically mobile society, which will impact the way people obtain and consume information forever. These statistics are only the beginning and I would gather that in a few short years as mobile device technology increases the video consumption on mobile devices will continue to grow exponentially. Do you watch videos on your mobile device? If so how much, how often?
The Army budget morphs that of individual law enforcement agencies, but thinking outside the box seems to be consistent on the battle field. The US Army is going to equip their field soldiers on the front lines with iPhones and or Android mobile device as soon as the Spring of 2011. I originally saw an article on www.digitaltrends.com and tracked the original information to the www.armytimes.com website. As a mobile device evangelist, enthusiast, I find the Army’s action to be an obvious technology progression of both physical mobile devices and web 2.0 technologies. Below are 5 reasons why the Army is issuing mobile devices to troops.
1) Portability- Mobile devices are small enough to slip into a pants pocket, jacket pocket, ruck sack, duffle bag, etc.
2) Powerful- Smartphone’s have become mini laptops in the last year or so and upcoming generations of these devices will boast duo core processors, increased graphics, more HD video capture models and overall more power.
3) Real Time Intelligence- At war, smart phones would let soldiers view real-time intelligence and video from unmanned systems overhead. Drones would be able to provide intelligence to field personnel via smartphone. While this certainly already occurs with laptops, laptops are unreasonable to carry individually.
4) Real Time Maps- Track friends and enemies on dynamic maps, this could certainly be life saving.
5) Real Time Information- Soldiers will have the opportunity to use network searches, email, MMS, and get information real time while in critical situations, through individual mobile devices.
My first thought was, how are the soldiers going to access a network? Not to worry, the Army has already been working on this with basically a portable or mobile cell tower that would provide soldiers a mobile network in battlefield situations. There really is no argument why this is not a brilliant move by the Army to equip their troops with more information. Does law enforcement see the same benefit as the Army does from mobile devices? I think issuing police officers iPhone and or Android smartphone’s is also a no brainer, what do you think?
Facebook continues to morph into the most massive social networking site known to man. As of a few days ago according to Facebook Statistics there are now over 500 million user accounts on this social networking monster. The amount of people on this site and the time people are participating (700 billion minutes monthly) on this site are phenomenal. Law enforcement as well as other business models have a huge opportunity to communicate with shareholders and constituents in this flourishing communication platform. A recent article by Muhammad Saleem on Mashable shows the number of Facebook users in the US and major US cities.
US Law enforcement agencies in particular have a huge opportunity to engage with their constituents. As you can see below New York has almost 4 million Facebook users Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston have approximately half their populations using Facebook and Philadelphia has approximately 100% of their population using Facebook.
Based on my experience in police work I personally see a huge value add in engagement with Facebook users by law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies have the opportunity to communicate their mission, crime prevention information, crimes in progress, wanted person information and the like for free on Facebook. The startling numbers of users on Facebook in Philadelphia alone would cause me as a detective to use Facebook as a location to potentially cultivate leads on criminal cases. The Facebook numbers are growing, at the time Muhammad Saleem developed the above graphics for Mashasble the Facebook population was just over 400 million. The numbers above are surely higher now and show no sign of slowing down.
Law enforcement agencies need to do more than set up a Facebook fan page, they need to engage and grow a community using their Facebook fan page. Law enforcement has a huge opportunity to engage people where they spend time and right now in the US it appears almost half the population is spending large amounts of time on Facebook. MV
While reading some of my latest Google Alert’s I cam across a blog post by David Etue of FederalComputerWeek.com. The article titled “Mitigation, not prohibition, is best response to social media’s security risks” provides an excellent argument why organizations such as law enforcement agencies need to get into the conversation. Etue does a great job of identifying both the pitfalls and benefits to using social media. Yes, there are pitfalls to using social media, specifically if a social media plan is implemented “willy-nilly” without planning or expert advice. But there are also many benefits to using social media such as communicating with large groups of people, such as constituents.
Currently law enforcement is in the “wait and see” mode to see if social media/new media and social networking actually continue their exponential growth. By the time law enforcement gets on the bandwagon in may be too late! But it is not too late now to get involved and use social media/new media and social networking as another communications tool. Some specific law enforcement benefits from using social media are:
• Better control of your message and brand
• Community outreach
• Community policing
• Criminal investigations
• Crime prevention
• And more
David Etue has given four basics that should be included when an agency or organization wants to enter the social media realm.
1) Codes of conduct
2) Training
3) Official profiles
4) Controls
These basic steps are not complicated and are rather easy to implement when forming a social media plan. Actually, this article is a great first step to embrace with mitigation than to try to ban social media. Because banning social media will not work. Mike Vallez
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