got geoint?

Imagine if any Pakistani could send an anonymous text message to the authorities suggesting the location of Osama Bin Laden. Each location could be plotted on a map. The dots would be scattered widely, perhaps, with promising leads indistinguishable from rubbish. But on a given day, a surge of dots might point to the same village, in what could not be coincidence. Troops could be ordered in. This kind of everyone-as-informant mapping is shaking up the world, bringing the Wikipedia revolution to the work of humanitarians and soldiers who parachute into places with little good information. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Perhaps we are headed to a future where the best sources of Intel will be actual citizens? We highly recommend you check out this NY Times article about Ushahidi, which is shaking up the GEOINT world with its unique Intel sharing application. And, our faithful got geoint? readers may remember the podcast we did last October with Patrick Meier, Co-Founder, The International Network of Crisis Mappers (INCM). Meier also directs Ushahidi’s crisis-mapping operation.

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