To help search for [NAME/ENTITY] click here ...

In 1997, the folks at SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) announced the launch of the SETI@home project - an effort to engage the public, literally, in the search for technically advanced alien life. By simply downloading an attractive screen saver, individuals could donate the spare computational power of their idle computers, creating a distributed, virtual supercomputer, reducing the money and time spent by scientists, and increasing the chances of detecting an extraterrestrial radio transmission. To date, some 6 million individuals from almost every country on the planet have participated, creating in effect the largest coordinated computational effort in human history. SETI@home has spawned successful imitations on the search for cures for cancer (folding@home), modeling of climate change (climateprediction.net), and others (see "Searching for E.T. and the Cure for Cancer" Planetary Society May/June 2007).

In 2007, a similar effort is unfolding. On Monday, September 3, 2007, wealthy adventurer Steve Fossett was reported missing after failing to return to an airstrip at a southern Nevada ranch while piloting a light aircraft. He was looking for a dry lake bed where he could attempt to break the world land speed record. You might know Mr. Fossett from his other high profile stunts: first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in either a plane or a balloon, swimming across the English Channel, running marathons and climbing the highest peaks on six continents. As Nevada authorities and search and rescue teams mobilized, Fossett's billionaire friend, Richard Branson, asked another friend at Google if it was possible to use the imagery of Google Earth to search for the missing aviator. Many people were surprised to learn (interesting in itself) that Google Earth's planetary imagery is not 'real-time' and that many images may be 3 or more years out of date. Moreover, Google does not collect the imagery itself, but rather purchases it from a variety of other sources. However, at Branson's request, Google turned around and shelled out at least $100,000 to purchase up-to-the-minute imagery of the Nevada desert from two companies (GeoEye and DigitalGlobe) that maintain commercial satellites that acquire high resolution imagery of Earth on a daily basis. But it didn't stop there. Google passed the imagery to Amazon.com, whose online tool Mechanical Turk allows thousands of people to share the job of combing through the aerial and satellite imagery in search of Steve Fossett. When you arrive at Amazon.com's dedicated Steve Fossett search site, you are greeted with the message "To help search for Steve Fossett click here," and presented with sample images and instructions on how to engage in the search. According to Steve Cohen, coordinator of Amazon's search site, "thousands of people" have signed up to participate ("Internet Users Join Search for Steve Fossett" NPR 09/12/07; "With Web's Help, the World Joins Search for Fossett" Washington Post 09/14/07).

The editors at Directions Magazine, a geospatial industry news source, examined the Steve Fossett search as a "teachable moment" in a recent podcast - focusing on the education of the wider public on the variety of technologies employed in this endeavor (from aerial and satellite pictures to hyperspectral imagery). As they describe it, this effort represents a convergence of technologies - Internet and geospatial. This is indeed significant - there is no bigger or more important trend in geospatial technology than its co-evolution with the Internet. However, I would argue that there is more to these phenomena than simply technological evolution. We are increasingly seeing the potential of combining massively distributed resources (i.e., Internet and computers and open source software) with a widespread willingness of both expert and non-experts to volunteer their time and energy and resources for the greater good (however that might be defined). Before Steve Fossett, there was Hurricane Katrina. In the chaotic aftermath of the August 2005 hurricane events that devastated the Gulf Coast (don't forget Hurricanes Rita and Wilma), a general call went out for GIS experts to bring their laptops to the disaster zone to aid in search and rescue and recovery. So many answered the call that most had to be thanked and turned away. As it became evident that federal and state government efforts would fall short in aiding individuals, faculty and students at Louisiana State University's Geography department took the initiative. At the same time, non-experts stepped up and used existing free tools, such as Google Maps, to create online resources to help post timely information about specific locations affected by the storm - news by people in the area for people in the area (see http://www.scipionus.com/).

In December, Michael Goodchild - the GIS deity who resides at UC Santa Barbara - will convene a specialist meeting of hand picked experts to discuss what Goodchild calls "volunteered sources" - "a flood of new web services and other digital sources ... that can potentially provide rich, abundant, and timely flows of geographic and geo-referenced information." Goodchild suggests a number of important questions, including the motivation of individuals to provide georeferenced data publicly and the potential of combining advanced Internet technology with human brain power. It is likely that the experts will be most fascinated with the technological implications, but I think it is equally important to recognize the social significance of so many people's readiness to volunteer their time and resources, as well as the power of combining technology with collective will.

As of this posting, the search for Steve Fossett has led to the discovery of 8 previously undiscovered planes that have crashed in the area over the years, but not the principal target himself. We can only hope that the search for extraterrestrial life will have such collateral success.