

Why Crowdsourcing Might Be Better Than the Secret Service - CollegeMogul
http://collegemogul.com/1/21/08/Why-Crowdsourcing-Might-be-Better-than-the-Secret-Service

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andr
So a person would accidentally take a photo of a sniper, upload it on the
internet for PhotoSynth to build a panorama out of, the Secret Service will
then look at the panorama, spot the sniper, and take care of it. All of that
will happen in several seconds.

Seriously?

There definitely is a case for using technology for protecting VIPs, but it
would be smarter for the Secret Service to just get several high-res infrared
cameras and hook them to computers analyzing the images for irregularities
(ie. "there's a person on the window of that supposedly empty building").

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known
I think the author is advocating Wisdom of Crowds.

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andr
In what way? I can't think of a technology better tapping into the wisdom of
the crowds than 911.

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known
In Islamic world "network of men" is much stronger and effective than "network
of machines".

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Zev
This might be worth looking into _after_ something happened to see exactly
what happened. But for _prior_ detection, it's next to worthless.

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jonursenbach
Go read 'Halting State' and find out about intelligence agencies in the EU
sponsoring a game called SPOOKS that essentially turns citizens into spies.

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mark_h
Good pick up; it was the first thing I thought of when I read the title too :)

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lacker
The Secret Service doesn't want to "track a sniper hidden within a sea of
people". If they know there's a sniper, they will take them out rather than
follow them cleverly around the crowd using some newfangled image zipping
technology.

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cschneid
A stretch at best. When the secret service is doing their job right, the
sniper gets stopped before he even gets to the event.

And what's a guy going to do at an event like yesterday's, pull out a sniper
rifle and shoot from his seat? People aren't going to notice that?

If he's in a surrounding building, then where are these crowdsourced photos
coming from?

Maybe more than a stretch....

Although that PhotoSynth tech is pretty damn cool.

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kleevr
further study: Vantage Point, (2008) <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/>

