ABOUT US
What is infOasis?
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What:
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infOasis is a site dedicated to promoting media literacy through the usage of toolkits, games, and other forms of entertainment in order to make learning about the internet and beyond, fun. Our site and information are free and accessible to anyone, with a varying audience, looking to teach the young and the young at heart!
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Who:
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We are a team of University of Maryland students and Alumni, dedicated to making traversing the internet safer!
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When:
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We were founded in Spring of 2024 as a concept to compete in the "Invent2Prevent" competition hosted by The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships within DHS. We placed first in our competition and have continued on since! This site officially was released on April 11th, 2024 and continues to receive updates regularly.
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Where:
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Our toolkits and games are accessible online (here!) and we have social media accounts on TikTok as well as Instagram (which you can find by scrolling to the bottom of this page!). Our team is located across the US, with a majority of operations being located out of the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.
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Why:
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As technology rapidly advances, the bubble of media we are all in grows more complex and harder to navigate. Media literacy skills are critical, and are often under-taught in school curriculums. Social media is a fun and efficient tool but can also be dangerous when used incorrectly. In a generation where teens use social media more than ever and spend an average of 8 hours and 39 minutes a day consuming media, understanding what they are seeing is important. With the development of tools such as Artificial Intelligence, false media is easier to create than ever. College students are often not thought of when considering media literacy as it is assumed they have a firm grasp on it after a highschool education. However, 55% of students reported not being even moderately confident in their ability to recognize false information online. Additionally, only 42% of Americans report knowing how to access quality media literacy training online, which is where infOasis comes into play. We aim to be a reliable, credible, and accessible toolkit with relevant information that teaches users how to learn media literacy in an interactive and fun way. After all, we are just trying to make "LOL" mean "learning online literacy" 😉
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"The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism—better known as START—is a university-based research and education center comprised of an international network of scholars committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world." START currently supports the program in an advisory role, helping to support the continuation and advancement of the infOasis program via the founders of infOasis and interns at The University of Maryland - College Park. START also assisted in the creation of the team through entry into the I2P competition and in providing an extensive education to all founding members through their Terrorism Studies minor program at UMD. We thank them for all they have done and continue to do!
Who are our partners?
How did infOasis Begin?
As mentioned above, infOasis was founded as an idea to compete in the Invent 2 Prevent (I2P) competition sponsored by CP3 (The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships), with a goal of finding creative and new ways to prevent targeted violence and terrorism. Starting as "a team of 8 college kids working in collaboration with Invent2Prevent to create this project", we put focus on finding an avenue that was both accessible to all and could provide a community service and ended up on the internet. After heavy research into the topic and having witnessed an outbreak of targeted violence stemming from online recruitment efforts and disinformation campaigns by malicious actors, the concept of infOasis was born. Through the use of fun and engaging materials, we have set our sights on creating content that can be fun for those of all ages to engage with, in our case starting with undergraduate college students and moving outward from there. We started with just 3 Toolkits and a small selection of games made in house (through the efforts of members with no programming knowledge), and managed to place first in our session of I2P's competition, which has helped us maintain momentum and continue on to this day with support from our partners and I2P's contribution. We strive to continue to developing as the internet, AI, and other forms of media develop so that we can keep on aiming for the goal we have always had. Our goal was, and still remains today, to create a more informed and aware public so that no one person can be taken advantage of by those who wish ill on others or prey on the unknowing.
If you have the time, please check out the competition and organizations that helped found our organization and support more creative inputs towards the goal of preventing targeted violence and terrorism from those who are most at risk of falling to it. Invent2Prevent describes itself below...
"Invent2Prevent, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships and managed by EdVenture Partners, the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, and Credence Management Solutions, LLC, empowers university and high school students to prevent targeted violence and terrorism through the development and deployment of innovative initiatives that produce measurable results.
As the nature of the threat of targeted violence and terrorism is dynamic and far-reaching, the opportunity to harness diverse perspectives from youth across the nation allows for a wide range of responses from students. Invent2Prevent provides them with a practical and hands-on chance to proactively do something about the issues impacting their schools and local communities. This is one of the greatest strength of the Invent2Prevent program."