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Google Earth continues to find an audience far beyond mapping enthusiasts and may well be on its way to become the browser of the future.
As more and more small groups and non-profit organizations turn to the popular visual mapping tool as a way to raise awareness of their causes, Google has decided to formalize their efforts into a new Google Earth Outreach program.
Google recently announced the launch of Google Earth Outreach through which the company hopes to promote the layers created by non-profit and public benefit groups.
One of the featured layers in the new Google Earth Outreach program is the Darfur project, a joint effort with the [U.S. Holocaust Museum][2] to add layers to Google Earth which combine high resolution images of Darfur with images, stories and more collected by aide groups working in Sudan.
The project, which was designed to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur by tying eyewitness accounts, photographs and videos together with precision mapping tools, was eventually picked up and supported by both the Holocaust Museum and Google.
But it didn't start with a dramatic launch, rather it began as the pet project of a few enthusiastic users who recognized the potential usefulness of Google Earth as a humanitarian tool.
And it is precisely the efforts of such developers that the new Outreach Project seeks to highlight.
In the case of the Darfur project, the initial concept was the brainchild of Michael Graham, now head of the Museum's Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative.
"When Google Earth came out in June 2005 we had an 'aha!' moment at the Museum," Graham recalls. "We seized upon the concept of Google Earth as a way to bring together multiple layers of information."
But despite the initial enthusiasm at the Holocaust Museum, in the beginning, the bulk of the work involved on the Darfur project was carried out by a small group of volunteers, helmed by Graham.
"An independent volunteer group was formed in December of 2005," says Graham.
The group, known as [BrightEarth][1], set out to collect disparate data from sources like the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, as well as photographers and journalists working in the region, and turn it into interactive Google Earth layers.
While most of the data in the Darfur project was previously available, it was spread out in a variety of formats stored around the web. One the BrightEarth's early goals was to bring it together in one place -- Google Earth.
"One of the problems is that there's a tremendous amount of data out there, but most of it doesn't interact very well," says Declan Butler, a senior writer at Nature and one of the early volunteers in the BrightEarth Project. "In that sense Google Earth becomes a vector and brings it all together."
"Google Earth allows you take data from lots of different sources and mix them together easily, anybody can make these files," adds Butler.
"Google Earth is really like a browser and adding layers is like making a webpage."
Another of BrightEarth's goals was to create a proof of concept, not just for the Holocaust Museum, which became actively involved shortly after seeing the initial GE layers, but also for humanitarian groups -- many of whom have yet to tap into Google Earth's potential.
And while it isn't the sole source of inspiration for the new Outreach program, the culmination of projects like the Darfur initiative certainly demonstrated the non-profit community's interest in Google Earth.
"Why should organizations like the UN or aid organizations have to spend days creating and disseminating individual maps whenever they want to contribute to the 'situational picture'?" Asks Graham.
One of BrightEarth's goals was to show humanitarian organizations how Google Earth can help collect and make data viewable and searchable from a single folder within Google Earth -- making access as simple as possible.
While much of the data and imagery in the Darfur Project is a couple of years old, even aide groups responding to crisis events like the earthquake in Pakistan or hurricane Katrina are eyeing Google Earth as a potential tool.
"Satellite imagery and other remote sensing material has been used in relief efforts for a while now," says Paul Currion founder of [Sahana][3], a tool to help manage large-scale relief efforts. "However we haven't yet realized the full potential that this technology has, particularly in terms of deeper analysis of the situation on the ground."
[1]: http://www.brightearthproject.org/ "BrightEarth Project"
[2]: http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/ "Holocaust Museum, Darfur Project"
[3]: http://www.sahana.lk/ "Sahana: Open Source Disaster Management system"
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