Via the ProgrammableWeb: Seattle911.com. It’s another mashup with Google Maps, but who knew anybody could get 911 data in real time? Sure, it’s only for Seattle, and only their fire/EMS servers (no police), but technology wise, it’s cool. Kudos to Seattle, I guess.
What’s my reticence? I don’t know if I should have this data…and [...]

Posted November 3, 2005 by Casey
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: 911, 911 calls, 911 log, ambulance chaser, emergency, emergency calls, ems, fire department, firefighters, google, google maps, real-time, realtime, seattle, seattle911. Be the first one.

DefenseTech’s Noah Shachtman writes:
Organizing thousands and thousands of people, in hellish conditions and in a hurry, is tough work. Let’s take that as a given. But still: We’re now a work week into a natural disaster that had been forecast for years, and New Orleans “is being run by thugs,” the city’s emergency [...]

Posted September 2, 2005 by Casey
Categories: Politics & Controversy. Tags: bush, defensetech, dhs, disaster, donations, emergency, fema, flood, george bush, george w bush, gulf coast, homeland security, hurricane, hurricane katrina, katrina, louisiana, new orleans, pat robertson, shame, w, wtf. 3 Comments.

Gary Wolf wrote in the June issue of Wired about how smart mobs in New York’s World Trade Center outbrained the “authorities” and enjoyed higher survival rates because of it. Wolf is talking about the NIST report on Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications (warning: PDFs). There’s also this executive summary and this looks like [...]

Posted June 2, 2005 by Casey
Categories: Politics & Controversy, Technology. Tags: authorities, authority, blackberries, civil engineers, communications, defense, disaster, disobey, egress, elevators, emergency, evacuees, question, question authority, report, review, security, smartmob. 3 Comments.