INSTEDD, the new project that the Google Foundation has started up, is looking at just that. They’ve floated the idea of an integrated online collaboration platform leveraging Google’s existing resources, including Google Earth. No concrete announcements yet, but they will surely come up with some interesting proposals.

You might also want to check out Declan Butler’s work with avian flu maps – it’s not quite what you’re looking for, but it gives an idea of what can be done quite simply.

We should also bring in the BrightEarthProject (which bizarrely I am also involved in) who are looking at similar functions. If we can put something together, I can present it to the ECB agencies and see if it flies. Like R Kelly.

Tom – in this case I think InterAction are trying to present their membership for the benefit of a general audience. I think this is worth exploring in the context of ECB (http://www.ecbproject.org) disaster preparedness; potential uses would be looking at resources available for deployment in a response, or mapping whether agencies have contingency plans and so forth. Both of these would be to help us visualise gaps and weaknesses – the usual co-ordination nonsense.

And it turns our somebody already made up the word flupocalypse.