As part of my work as a SharePoint Consultant, it’s often necessary to understand what the business of my client in order to provide the best technology solution for their orginization. At my latest DoD client, I’ve had the opportunity to learn a little about military support during a national disaster. Decision making during a crisis involves digesting a large amount of information quickly. This is one place web collaboration in particular and SharePoint spefically can help.
The potential disaster on eveyone’s mind today is the chance of another large hurricane hitting New Orleans. To many this is personal. I have a good friend who lives just outside New Orleans. We’re prepared to put him up for a few days. I hope he’s prepared with plywood for the windows this time. Earlier today, Chad emailed me this picture from Nola.com. I’m not sure what it is, but it looks like paths of hurricanes aimed directly at him. Whatever it is, it’s scary in the context of the current storm Gustav.
Back at work, part of the solution we’ve provided for the current client is a mapping solution. Our Google Maps SharePoint Mashup provides instant visualization of any information that can be tagged to a particular location. You can read more about the solution in my post from my SASUG presentation in June.
Here’s a strong visual of the hurricane potential. Below is a screenshot from Google Earth of the official National Hurricane Center position and projected path of Gustav, just after noon today.
Zoom
Leave a Reply