13. A method for detecting and communicating emerging and viral events identified in micro-blog activity comprising: receiving a plurality of micro-blog messages by accessing one or more micro-blog applications programming interfaces using a web application server; examining the plurality of received micro-blog messages by: clustering received micro-blog messages based on the contents of the messages and/or metadata associated with the messages; classifying the clusters of received micro-blog messages using a set of classification rules derived from a knowledge base; and identifying clusters of received micro-blog messages describing a single event; clustering the identified clusters of received micro-blog messages describing the single event to form a subset of micro-blog messages wherein each micro-blog message in the subset of micro-blog messages describes the single event; forming a prediction about an effect on society of the single event based on a set of rules; and alerting a user when the prediction exceeds a threshold.
13. A method for detecting and communicating emerging and viral events identified in micro-blog activity comprising: receiving a plurality of micro-blog messages by accessing one or more micro-blog applications programming interfaces using a web application server; examining the plurality of received micro-blog messages by: clustering received micro-blog messages based on the contents of the messages and/or metadata associated with the messages; classifying the clusters of received micro-blog messages using a set of classification rules derived from a knowledge base; and identifying clusters of received micro-blog messages describing a single event; clustering the identified clusters of received micro-blog messages describing the single event to form a subset of micro-blog messages wherein each micro-blog message in the subset of micro-blog messages describes the single event; forming a prediction about an effect on society of the single event based on a set of rules; and alerting a user when the prediction exceeds a threshold. 17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the predicting step includes comparing the volume of micro-blog messages in a cluster relating to the single event in a current time interval with the volume of micro-blog messages in a cluster relating to the single event or a similar event in at least one earlier time interval.