Southern California Fire Maps and Google Mash Ups

[intelliot]

"I get by with a little help from my friends," as the song goes. The help of friends makes online experiences even more powerful. Some of them you know, many of them you don't.

Between open source software, Wikipedia, movie, music, book, and travel recommendations from others - we all "get by" with input and participation from a huge online community of people.

One real-world application of this is the ability to "mash up" integrations between different software tools to create something new.

Google Maps has been one of the most popular tools to do this, because people can add local annotations depending on locations, and up-to-the-minute details. This was very valuable in October when many people put together details of the various Southern California fires.

These included evacuation routes, new danger zones, emergency housing sites, etc. and this was a real aid in this time of need. Find out more on the Google Blog. What do you think?