How can we the Public Help find MH370

Around the world people are stunned after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur carrying 239 people vanished just 50 minutes into the flight over the Gulf of Thailand. Millions of people think of the crew and passengers in their prayers thinking that’s the only thing they can do; but wait, there’s something else that we can do. Thanks to the advancement of technology and the vast ever expanding reach of the internet Digital Globe Inc. on Monday announced a crowdsourcing platform that will allow anyone to help look for the missing Boeing 777 by combing through satellite images for clues of its whereabouts.

According to IBTimes “The Longmont, Colo., company said two of its commercial satellites have already collected images comprising roughly 1,988 square miles at the confluence of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the Beijing-bound aircraft mysteriously went missing on Saturday. The company is continuing to update the images to reflect new information about the search area provided by the Malaysian government.” 

Internet users can help in the search by visiting www.Tomnod.com, DigitalGlobe’s crowdsourcing arm, where volunteers can search through images and tag objects of interest. Users can tag objects using special icons that indicate possible rafts, oil slicks or pieces of airplane wreckage. The campaign has been deployed via DigitalGlobe’s emergency management service, FirstLook, and already has attracted a huge amount of interest. The service was down periodically on Tuesday as DigitalGlobe worked to handle what it called “an unprecedented level of Web traffic and interest in supporting the search.”

 The service is currently back up as people around the world contribute to the search of MH370. Stay tuned to www.itechnoblog.com for updates on the situation and don’t forget to post your comments and views below. This is Brandan Shamsher for iTechnoblog  hoping for the best.