The birth of disaster map wikis

Wired news reports on the first disaster map wiki. The site is at Scipionus.com. A wiki is a webpage that anyone with permission can edit in a very simple user interface. The most famous wiki site is wikipedia. The disaster wiki combines the collaborative ideas of wikis with an api (application programming interface) of Google Maps. (FYI: unfortunately, the google maps api doesn’t work in all browsers. So use IE to view it.)

The result is a simple and heart wrenching website where people can communicate using a map interface. Here are some examples:

There are two ventilator dependent brothers at 907 Galliard Dr., Mobile, AL

Water above rooflines on Chapalie [NO]

lost my sister

The NYTimes has just posted an article (mostly) on the growing use of remote-sensed images by the general public to get information about disasters.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 5th, 2005 at 12:01 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “The birth of disaster map wikis”

  1. liam says:
    9/10/2005 at 2:44 am

    I should note, for Firefoxes sake, that indeed google maps and its associated javascript works beautifully in Firefox. It’s also interesting that google maps introduced a Katrina button for the area, to allow one to compare satellite photos from before and after Katrina struck.

  2. sieber says:
    9/10/2005 at 11:17 am

    Oh, oh. Maybe it’s me.