Esri and Geofeedia Form Partnership to Support the Emergency Services Sector

Back on April 2, 2013, GIS giant Esri and location-based social media front runner Geofeedia announced plans to form a partnership that will deliver an advanced situational awareness platform to the Emergency Services Sector (ESS). As envisioned, the end state product will be a real-time system that leverages the respective strength of each partner. A paragraph from the news release provides a sense of what features will be included:

The real-time data integration, searching and streaming will work across multiple social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube, and Picasa. Geo-located tweets, photos, and videos can be viewed within the context of digital imagery, street networks, topography, and community base maps. The social data can be mashed up with other information such as public safety assets, city infrastructure, utility networks, hazardous materials, demographic data, and more. Additional dynamic data including weather, automated vehicle location, GPS, and traffic video camera feeds can be combined with social and map data. In addition, people can perform historical social media analysis to identify trends and patterns.

Expanded details about the project are slated for release at the Esri User Conference in July. Until then, information as known can be found using the links below:

Social Media Meets Emergency Response

(Connected World Magazine, May 1, 2013)

Esri and Geofeedia Expand Social Media with Location Analytics

(Esri News Release, April 2, 2013)

Social Media Solutions for Law Enforcement and Public Safety

(Geofeedia Law Enforcement Case Study, February 2013)

Comment: Convergence of real-time information flows for the benefit of the ESS gets closer with each passing day. Thus, roll-out of this product at San Diego should move us one step closer to that day. That's great news!

Lead graphic: Geofeedia