
Ask HN: Destroy ISIS. Crowdsourcing a Map of ISIS Strongholds - jakobov
Any opinions of whether it would be useful to create an Arabic and English site that allows normal people who are living in ISIS territory to submit intelligence about ISIS.<p>For example: Mark ISIS locations on a map. This could be used by western air forces to carry out strikes.
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theworstshill
Western air forces have been conducting airstrikes on ISIS for 5 years now,
and didn't do jack. A map where informers can paint ISIS locations will only
get them killed, every major player in the middle east has intelligence from
satellites where they can see where troop movements originate from, and where
they're going. The problem is the will to really fight them in a total war,
going straight for the money - bombing the oil wells instead of makeshift
refineries that take a day to set up. Its the same problem where US isn't
willing to destroy opium poppy fields for fear of angrying the locals (and
since I got my tinfoil hat on - there were probably other geopolitical
considerations there as well). Lack of data isn't the issue, Putin will clean
out ISIS from Syria within half a year.

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omginternets
An interesting approach to this would be to scrape social media for ISIS
content and extract EXIF data from images.

I remember reading sometime last year that USSOCOM was using a similar
strategy to direct fire missions.

I think, however, that a more realistic strategy would be a mass trolling
campaign where everybody poses as disenfranchised women seeking to marry
jihadists. The goal is to get them to spend money on plane tickets, bribes,
and accommodations without actually producing results.

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JeffreyKaine
Security and anonymity will be paramount here. The last thing you want is for
ISIS to get a hold of submitters identities.

I think it's quite possibly a great idea though. Optimize for mobile web and
keep the bandwidth requirements down. Even if the service provides just one or
two tips that make a difference in the fight it would be worth while.

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Phillips126
Interesting thought, but would require a lot of validation to ensure that the
location submitted was in fact an ISIS base and not the submitters ex-wife's
house. I would imagine that a large amount of people would quickly abuse the
tool, forcing the government/intelligence agency to discontinue use.

