10tative

    The Google tools have great advantages in both private and public domain. It may work accordingly to an individual's private interest (business blogging etc.). It may also increase public welfare by granting useful information free to the public. Although it seems that blogging is of great advantage, it has some flaws too. 

    We are now in the age of information, where different techniques of disseminating knowledge and ideas are made easier. It is very handy for small time businessmen who have infant companies. One must ensure that their business is on map, meaning that their business is made aware to the public. Take for example CNA Philippines, CNA is originally the accessories shop in Korea. Since CNA is just an infant company, it's bloggers blog about their latest fashion and trends. One timely use of Google tools is providing public goods which is disseminating news. Recently the Philippines have been struck by a super typhoon. Google maps allow us to check and monitor places that were struck by the typhoon. In fact Ms. Aileen Apolo de-Jesus demonstrated the Google crisis response overview. The use of Google Maps/Earth in representing geographic data is fascinating. In fact this Google tool was used by the government in monitoring the devastated areas and with that data they were able to distribute the relief goods more efficiently.  Another very useful tool is the person finder. It is very much more efficient than looking for someone in hospital records. It saves time and effort. We are very lucky that we have the Google response team. They fix the information/data they gather and arrange them in a custom Crisis Map. Crisis Maps contain relevant information such as geographic data, death toll, height of flood and etc. I learned that the Philippine map in Google Maps is just maintained by volunteers. I think that it is very wise to be a volunteer and at the same time a business owner because you can easily put your business on map. I agree that blogging and Google tools are of great advantage, but I can still see some shortcomings however they are entirely in the hands of the user. I think that everyone should be very careful in blogging about other people or other races. I mean this could start a cyber war, which may have just resulted from a simple joke. Another shortcoming is that users who just want to troll and who place wrong information on different sites in the Google Maps.

      Nonetheless, Google tools is very useful in a vast scope of fields. We can benefit a lot from it if we are familiar with the useful tools whether it is for private or of public interest. I think that Filipinos everywhere in the country should be literate or at least be familiar with using such tools. If we are familiar enough with it's functions, we will be able to check the upcoming typhoons any other disasters.