Crowdsourcing became the focus of several recent news stories while people contributed their own photos and videos as evidence to help in the Boston Marathon bombings investigation. ABC News reports on April 19 that both a runner and a spectator captured images of the suspects. NBC News also reports on April 19 that crowdsourcing played a part in the case.
Bob Leonard chronicled his experience for ABC News and explained that uploading photos for the FBI that he took at the Boston Marathon led to a phone call from Homeland Security. His images were eventually used in the news and became evidence. Wired points out that the FBI asked for help by requesting that people submit relevant photos and videos from the marathon.
After the capture of the second suspect, many media sources took the opportunity to reevaluate the use of crowdsourcing in the investigation. NBC News mentions that “the requests proved their worth” because authorities were able to find useful images among the data submitted by volunteers. However, the Security Ledger takes a different view of the investigation and points out that crowdsourcing led to speculation and confusion online. The Security Ledger mentions that technology could make crowdsourcing a better experience and notes that using tech from companies like CrowdOptic may help because it offers a way to focus on the data and analyze it at the same time. Its applications would give investigators access to a large amount of information while focusing on the most popular objects in the pictures being taken to find activity hot spots, track smartphone locations and analyze social media content.
Crowdsourcing has already revealed its ability to help investigations. Now, the right technology could help analyze the data faster and avoid some of the problems experienced in this case. Gathering eyewitness accounts and data is valuable, but analysis can sometimes create issues. As Wired points out, the data was crowdsourced and not the investigation.
via Technology articles at Technorati http://feeds09.technorati.com/~r/tr-technology/~3/fHDG2ykRQZ0/