In my life I've gone from the grease pencil on acetate to modern computer mapping using GIS tools that are now being augmented by social media applications and citizen reports to "paint" the picture of an incident. To get a great overview of what some of these tools can do check out Jeff Baranyi's, ESRI presentation Evolution of Social Media for Emergency Management on the use of GIS. This is a 74 slide deck PowerPoint you can quickly flip through to get a sense for what these tools can do and how you might adapt them for your own use.
If this doesn't get your GIS and social media juices flowing I don't know what will. If not, check for a pulse!
P.S. Jeff is doing his presentation at the Emergency Management Magazine All-Hazard Stakeholder Summits. There are still seven more being held this year. Check out the schedule at the link provided. There is no cost to register and attend!
