This Website Lets Volunteers Help Locate a Missing Airline
Rahul Kalvapalle — March 12, 2014 — World
References: tomnod & webpronews
Tomnod is a website that has been set up to leverage the amazing power of crowdsourcing in the search for missing airline Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared on March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Tomnod, which means 'big eye' in Mongolian, is owned by Colorado satellite company Digital Globe. Digital Globe trained five satellites towards the plane's last known location. These satellites transmit data and photographs to the Tomnod website, where crowdsourcing volunteers can comb through the huge database of information in search of clues.
Volunteers can then tag locations and objects of interest such as possible airplane wreckage, with satellite images being regularly updated.
It's not the first time Tomnod has engaged in this sort of commendable crowdsourcing. The website set up a similar campaign in the wake of the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, with volunteers tagging 60,000 objects of interest to help rescue teams on the ground find their bearing.
Tomnod, which means 'big eye' in Mongolian, is owned by Colorado satellite company Digital Globe. Digital Globe trained five satellites towards the plane's last known location. These satellites transmit data and photographs to the Tomnod website, where crowdsourcing volunteers can comb through the huge database of information in search of clues.
Volunteers can then tag locations and objects of interest such as possible airplane wreckage, with satellite images being regularly updated.
It's not the first time Tomnod has engaged in this sort of commendable crowdsourcing. The website set up a similar campaign in the wake of the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, with volunteers tagging 60,000 objects of interest to help rescue teams on the ground find their bearing.
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