DangerData.com Danger Data Blog
As a local I blogged the Kim Family search here in Southern Oregon, and it became clear that it might be helpful for search efforts to have more *simple* ways to distribute and share data, leads, and perhaps even harness the power of the collective intelligence of the huge online community.
Thanks to the Kim’s family friends, especially Scott, a website called JamesandKati.com served as a comment area and sort of “watering hole” for the enormous number of people checking in to follow that story. Even this blog, “Joe Duck”, became a heavily trafficked news and opinion resource for many as mainstream media struggled to cover the story accurately.
After the heroic rescue of Kati and the children and the tragic death of James Kim many of the officials and volunteers involved in the search began to post at the blog which quickly became it’s own community.
Input from several experts in computer databases and mapping led to the idea that a blog and database might be created to help with Search and Rescue and Missing persons. The idea was to use online tools to enhance and help with the search efforts and more quickly spread the word on cases. Glenn has been very actively working on the database component – more on that later – and eventually we’ll try to integrate the blog and the database.
The DangerData.com blog is a very experimental effort to help find people. It won’t be a substitute for any existing offline or online efforts, rather an attempted enhancement. Comments are welcome.