Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American

[ChumpDumper]

examples?

Pretty much any breaking story on 24-hour news channels with live coverage at the scene.

You've really never seen a witness to a crime talk to the media?

[cheguevara]

thankfully it seems I am not alone:

http://mashable.com/2013/04/18/bosto...-social-media/

It has been three days since the devastating bombings at the Boston marathon. No suspects have been named or are in custody. The web has begun to consume itself, gnawing on its own tail in search of comfort and answers. Until authorities find the bas s who did this, it should be a harmless exercise. But it’s not.

As I write this, Reddit users are frantically trying to stamp out a fire they started. What seemed like a good idea at the time — crowdsourcing an investigation of video and photo forensic evidence — has spun out of control.

A recent post on the site gives you an idea of where things are:

“the two Males that the media have claimed the FBI are looking for are local guys and appear to be innocent. PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY MORE ON THEM, ESPECIALLY LINKS TO NEWS SITES THAT IDENTIFIES THEM.

Since shortly after the bombings occurred at the finish line of the Boston marathon Monday, Redditors have used the subreddit “FindBostonBombers” to examine countless images for clues. As a public event, there’s probably a far greater supply of amateur photos, videos, Instagrams and even Vines that can tell authorities something about the tragic event. In fact, that was one of my first questions that day. I worried about how people could get their media to the FBI. YouTube quickly set up a space for people to upload videos. This was a good and very smart move.

On Reddit, however, you can see the problem almost immediately. From another post in the subreddit:

Image overlay of white hat and blue jogging suit suspects standing at Ground Zero

What’s wrong with that post? The use of the word “suspect.” For some Redditors, everyone in these photos is a potential suspect, and they’re quickly targeting people and then launching social media investigations.

[cheguevara]

CNN

Reddit went into overdrive trying to catch these monsters before the FBI. Meanwhile, the media was playing a different game of "First."

As I mentioned earlier, there are, at the time of this writing, still no official suspects nor is anyone in custody. But for a few hours Wednesday, social media, primarily Twitter, was bursting with conflicting information about whether the FBI had anyone in custody.

CNN kicked it off by inaccurately reporting the FBI had collared a suspect.

Social media did the rest. No one wants to be the second source to share this information, so thousands on social media, mostly Twitter, began sharing the news. It took almost an hour and a half for CNN to reverse its earlier report. The FBI even put out a statement begging the media to "exercise caution."

Up until that moment, Twitter was a sea of confusion. Tweets stating suspects were in custody were followed by ones stating that information was untrue, only to be followed by others insisting it was.

[Drachen]

thankfully it seems I am not alone:

http://mashable.com/2013/04/18/bosto...-social-media/

It has been three days since the devastating bombings at the Boston marathon. No suspects have been named or are in custody. The web has begun to consume itself, gnawing on its own tail in search of comfort and answers. Until authorities find the bas s who did this, it should be a harmless exercise. But it’s not.

As I write this, Reddit users are frantically trying to stamp out a fire they started. What seemed like a good idea at the time — crowdsourcing an investigation of video and photo forensic evidence — has spun out of control.

A recent post on the site gives you an idea of where things are:

“the two Males that the media have claimed the FBI are looking for are local guys and appear to be innocent. PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY MORE ON THEM, ESPECIALLY LINKS TO NEWS SITES THAT IDENTIFIES THEM.

Since shortly after the bombings occurred at the finish line of the Boston marathon Monday, Redditors have used the subreddit “FindBostonBombers” to examine countless images for clues. As a public event, there’s probably a far greater supply of amateur photos, videos, Instagrams and even Vines that can tell authorities something about the tragic event. In fact, that was one of my first questions that day. I worried about how people could get their media to the FBI. YouTube quickly set up a space for people to upload videos. This was a good and very smart move.

On Reddit, however, you can see the problem almost immediately. From another post in the subreddit:

Image overlay of white hat and blue jogging suit suspects standing at Ground Zero

What’s wrong with that post? The use of the word “suspect.” For some Redditors, everyone in these photos is a potential suspect, and they’re quickly targeting people and then launching social media investigations.

Oh, I thought that you were mad at the way that the FBI was conducting the investigation not that you were mad that a bunch of people took it upon themselves to start looking. Maybe we have been arguing past each other this whole time.

[cheguevara]

Oh, I thought that you were mad at the way that the FBI was conducting the investigation not that you were mad that a bunch of people took it upon themselves to start looking. Maybe we have been arguing past each other this whole time.

yes and no. My point is the resources that are being used to crunch the data from social media(because the software to do automatically this does not exist yet) could possibly be used in a more efficient way.

[ElNono]

yes and no. My point is the resources that are being used to crunch the data from social media(because the software to do automatically this does not exist yet) could possibly be used in a more efficient way.

it's called crowdsourcing, and it's much more common than you seemingly think. It's also much older than the bombings, and has been used for all sort of stuff. From solving crimes to solving shredded-paper compe ions from DARPA.

look it up

[DarrinS]

yes and no. My point is the resources that are being used to crunch the data from social media(because the software to do automatically this does not exist yet) could possibly be used in a more efficient way.

Facial recognition software is very good -- so good that Google image search no longer uses it out of privacy concerns.

[DarrinS]

it's called crowdsourcing, and it's much more common than you seemingly think. It's also much older than the bombings, and has been used for all sort of stuff. From solving crimes to solving shredded-paper compe ions from DARPA.

look it up

Yep

[cheguevara]

again look up stovepiping. that issue has not been solved and the more data the more it affects automatic monitoring/investigations

, it's partially responsible for 911

[ElNono]

Stovepiping has nothing to do with automated processing or the amount of data. You can have one single unit of data (ie: a report) that contains false data, and because it was not vetted, wrong decisions are made with it.

Automated processing of vast amounts of data has actually become darn good (like Darrin said, face recognition, even on moving subjects, has become amazingly good), but everyone, including LE, knows it's not a flawless method, and after the automated process has combed through the mass, actual vetting by a human isn't out of the question.

But there's no indication here that the FBI isn't doing their due diligence. As a matter of fact, from what I've seen so far, the FBI suspects don't match neither the Reddit alleged suspects nor the Alex Jones alleged suspects.

[LnGrrrR]

Same. BTW how do you get through the military block at work to go on ST? I'm having trouble.

Not blocked on the AF networks yet. They allow most bulletin boards actually. And DoK, proxies ARE blocked... , that's one of the first things they should block at your work. If you can use website proxies, your IT guy sucks.

[cheguevara]

Stovepiping has nothing to do with automated processing or the amount of data. You can have one single unit of data (ie: a report) that contains false data, and because it was not vetted, wrong decisions are made with it.

Automated processing of vast amounts of data has actually become darn good (like Darrin said, face recognition, even on moving subjects, has become amazingly good), but everyone, including LE, knows it's not a flawless method, and after the automated process has combed through the mass, actual vetting by a human isn't out of the question.

But there's no indication here that the FBI isn't doing their due diligence. As a matter of fact, from what I've seen so far, the FBI suspects don't match neither the Reddit alleged suspects nor the Alex Jones alleged suspects.

um so because their suspects don't match reddit/whoever's they are doing the right job? Nobody knows for sure. And in the past there are examples of major errors (911) have these errors been completely solved? nope, there is no evidence of that. So is there a possibility these errors could happen again? yes.

and the issue with stovepiping has to do with compartmentalization of data specifically. each agency has their own silo and rarely share it with anyone else

[BobaFett1]

Something tells me everyone in the govt, including Deval Patrick, Obama, and DHS, had fore-knowledge of this attack...but because this event is so huge the chance was taken to go ahead and let it happen and they would try to find these guys, whoever they might be, before they could plant anything or the bombs went off. This would account for the "para-military" looking individuals, which the FBI won't even acknowledge, who were photographed in the area, as well as the dog sweeps and increased police presence.

[LnGrrrR]

it's called crowdsourcing, and it's much more common than you seemingly think. It's also much older than the bombings, and has been used for all sort of stuff. From solving crimes to solving shredded-paper compe ions from DARPA.

look it up

That shredded paper challenge was insane. I dloaded it just to take a look, opened the sixth challenge, and said, "Nope, not smart enough."

[ElNono]

um so because their suspects don't match reddit/whoever's they are doing the right job? Nobody knows for sure.

I said they're doing their due diligence. What I'm merely pointing out is that they apparently didn't think the 'social media' leads were credible enough to warrant looking for those guys.

The outcome of the investigation will determine if they did a good job or not.

And in the past there are examples of major errors (911) have these errors been completely solved? nope, there is no evidence of that. So is there a possibility these errors could happen again? yes.

There's always margins for error and there always will be. This isn't a novel argument. What technology allows is to tackle much bigger problems than what you could tackle in the past. But it's no silver-bullet. Even the best automated systems have error margins.

Technologically speaking, we're lightyears ahead of 2001, and there's plenty of evidence that the government has kept up on that aspect (increased use of cross-databases, surveillance, internet monitoring, etc).

All that said, it's very difficult to stop determined people from doing harm. I don't know that I would characterize that as a 'major error'. Mind reading still doesn't exist.

and the issue with stovepiping has to do with compartmentalization of data specifically. each agency has their own silo and rarely share it with anyone else

That's more of a case where the intelligence is classified (like in 911). This is a different case, where the public did have access to photos and videos.

[cheguevara]

I said they're doing their due diligence.

how do you know for sure? truth is nobody knows for sure.

The outcome of the investigation will determine if they did a good job or not.

yes and no. But let's assume we agree for now.

Technologically speaking, we're lightyears ahead of 2001, and there's plenty of evidence that the government has kept up on that aspect (increased use of cross-databases, surveillance, internet monitoring, etc).

yessir but the volume of data today is lightyears bigger than in 2001 and keeps growing exponentially

[ElNono]

how do you know for sure? truth is nobody knows for sure.

due diligence - noun

1: the care that a reasonable person exercises to avoid harm to other persons

They could've easily taken the 'social media' suspects and ran with it. The fact that they didn't, IMO, is an indicator that they're being careful in what they're doing and who they're seeking information about.

Which is the right thing to do. Conversely, what the NYPost did, printing a picture of a poor kid that had nothing to do with it is not doing your due-diligence.

yessir but the volume of data today is lightyears bigger than in 2001 and keeps growing exponentially

I don't know about that. You would have to make a compelling case that people took exponentially more photos or videos of the 2001 Boston Marathon than they did in, say, 2012.

What we do have is much faster communication and much more accessibility to all that data. But we also have much better ways to handle that data.

Technologically speaking, 'big data', as it's known now in the tech sector, wasn't much in the radar outside of companies like Google back in 2001.

Nowadays, it's a well known and researched subject and there's many more companies and technology developed to tackle it. From deep packet inspection to massive databases, it's an area that has actually developed at a big pace in the past decade.

There's obviously much more work to be done, but the current state of the art was simply unthinkable a decade ago.

[Winehole23]

Something tells me everyone in the govt, including Deval Patrick, Obama, and DHS, had fore-knowledge of this attack...

Infowars?

[Winehole23]

a hunch?

[baseline bum]

hopes dashed

[CosmicCowboy]

Breaking news bombers are from Chechnya.

An Associated Press alert has stated that the Boston bomb suspects are from Russia from the region near Chechnya and lived in US at least 1 year.

The Boston bomb suspect who is still being searched for has been identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported AP.

“The two suspects are believed to be from Chechnya or Turkey. The two men are not students, are legal permanent residents of the US,” reported CBS News.

NBC meanwhile reported that the two suspects are allegedly brothers.

[CosmicCowboy]

Other brother killed in shootout...1 police killed? MIT campus police?

[Wild Cobra]

[CosmicCowboy]

World view...Islam

[Wild Cobra]

World view...Islam

Go figure, huh...