Global Risks Data: WEF 2007 Report & Maps

In case you missed it, on January 10, the World Economic Forum released its Global Risks Report 2007 which ’suggests that many of the 23 core global risks explored in the report have worsened over the last 12 months, despite growing awareness of their potential impacts.’ The WEF Global Risk Network pages contain numerous useful links to risk data sources and an excellent collection of interactive risk maps provided by Maplecroft (their site provides the same maps, data sets for purchase and also the welcome option to download mapping data in KML (for your very own Google Earth) and World Wind format.

Baghdad Violence Map

The BBC has published a well executed interactive map of deadly incidents throughout the city since 2003. The data is derived from various sources, including the International Medical Corps and the Iraq Body Count. Notably, only incidents with ten or more casualties are actually displayed on the satellite image of the city.

Weather & Maps: Emerging Mashups

Weather.com recently launched a new interactive weather map which brings together near-real time cloud cover (satellite) and radar (precipitation) layers on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth maps and satellite images. This is an interesting, quick option for tracking severe weather at the local level. Of course, for those of you (like us) who don’t remember life before Google Earth (GE), gearthblog.com has put together an interesting KMZ file collecting several, live weather sources including a hurricane tracker (works for storms worldwide), global cloud coverage, and Weather Bonk (which includes webcam coverage of affected areas.)
The NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory and the University of Oklahoma have brought together an excellent collection of KMZ files under the lengthy heading of Warning Decision Support System — Integrated Information – these include CONUS Radar Reflectivity, Real Time NWS Warnings, Storm Reports, etc.

A word of caution: most KMZ/KML files we experimented with in the weather category, particularly dynamic layers, should not be considered ‘enterprise ready’ – meaning that they are often the result of voluntary efforts by GE enthusiasts and may be unreliable over time. The integration of live data with GIS or mapping software such as GE has great processing value (i.e. by allowing operators to quickly identify assets potentially affected by a severe weather event) but the collection phase should still take into account the reliability of sources and consider multiple sources.

Team Bookmarking (a.k.a. ‘Social Bookmarking for the Office’) Overview

The popularity of Social bookmarking sites and applications exploded recently when they became associated with tagging and social news, and when the blogosphere began to explode. (Tags are in fact one of the most useful outcomes of social bookmarking which allow every minute millions of users to add context and meaning to the most diverse content, making the Net a more useful and intelligible place.) There are dozens of social bookmarking services out there, and plenty of comparative reviews already, but only a few seem to fit a corporate work/research team environment and the needs of OSInt operators. Here are the ones we found of interest and worthy of consideration . . .

Praises or Blame: What’s the Word on Your Company?

You don’t have to belong to the Multinational Monitor’s list of the Top Ten Worst Corporations, or have your very own ’spoof’ site (WhirledBank, Microsuck, McSpotlight, Monsantosucks, Compaqsucks, etc.) to be concerned with negative coverage of your organization on the Web. However, sorting through the thousands of results that a name search will produce on the average multinational corporation is hardly an effective way to spot the ‘disgruntled’ view. One search method involves creating your own list . . .

ID Theft: SSN on the Loose?

Several operators we know of are also responsible for Protective Intelligence support activities. This often entails routine searches for publicly-available data on key executives and their families. StolenIDSearch is free Web search engine which will check if Social Security numbers is on the loose.  According to TrustedID – the company behind the service – “The information that powers StolenID Search is found online, by looking in places where fraudsters typically trade or store this kind of information. All information behind StolenID search is publicly available, but not in places where search engines such as Yahoo and Google would look. TrustedID abides by all state and federal laws in the collection and provision of this compromised information.” The service is naturally aimed at selling the TrustedID products but this should not detract from the potential value of the search.

Global Disease Alert: A Google Earth Mashup

HEALTHmap is an interesting GE mashup the “brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health.” We already added it to our bookmarks.

Daylife Beta: A News Site Worth Keeping An Eye On

In the restless space of news aggregators this new player has managed to capture my attention for its elegant layout and image-intensive character. Daylife is still sporting its Beta tag but appears already quite strong in terms of accuracy and organization. Against current expectations, the site offers no RSS feeds. There is little customization and personalization of news to speak of, even for registered users. Nonetheless, the more narrow focus on specific categories (i.e. Top Stories, Players, Science, etc.) may prove to result in higher precision. Please let us know if it proves useful for you.