Watch Jefferson CountyALERT
2008-05-13 - 2008-05-14Gypsy Moth Spraying is scheduled for Wednesday, 5-14, as early as 6 a.m., if conditions remain favorable. Treatment areas include parts of Shannondale, River View Park and John Brown Farm. Converted bombers have been used in the past and have a startling impact due to their size, speed, noise and the relatively low altitude which is required for accurate and effective application. The diluted spray is non-toxic to people and pets, but prudence dictates avoiding it if possible. A cool shower will effectively remove any spray residue. Gypsy Moths: Farewell!
Watch Jefferson County at ISCRAM 2008
I was invited to demonstrate Watch Jefferson County at the 2008 International Community on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) conference at George Washington University yesterday. The demo session lasted about 2 hours and I had the opportunity to discuss and field questions about Watch Jefferson County from researchers, students and other professionals from around the world. Watch Jefferson County was very well received and I came away with many exciting new ideas. While there are now similar systems in use elsewhere, they remain primarily focused on disaster recovery and management. I believe that we are still the only active program in the country to combine input directly from law enforcement and concerned citizens and am proud of the fact that Jefferson County, WV is at the forefront of this exciting development.
I’d like to thank the ISCRAM community for the opportunity to share our project with you and I look forward to continued conversation and dialog.
View the full article for photos, downloads and more information
Some of the most common questions – and answers:
Isn’t Watch Jefferson County a standard crime map ‘mashup’? Where does your data come from?
Our data comes from our members, concerned citizens and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office. Our website is not a ‘mashup’ (overlay of multiple sources of external data on a map) – our data is unique to Watch Jefferson County.
Can anyone file a report? How do you avoid spam?
Anyone can file a report. Reports filed by members are processed automatically while anonymous reports are queued for approval. Incident reports are entered manually from the paper logs maintained by the Sheriff’s Office and processed by a system proprietary to Watch Jefferson County.
What is your source of funding?
Watch Jefferson County is privately funded and is not supported by any government agency.
What technology is used to support Watch Jefferson County? Is it available as open source?
Watch Jefferson County runs on Drupal. The details specific to the functionality of our site depend on a heavily modified version of the Location module and 4 custom modules. I do plan on making these modules available to the Drupal community as time allows. We use Google Maps and MIT's SIMILE Timeline for spatial and temporal data display respectively.
What is the most important lesson you've learned?
Websites and technology are secondary to personal relationships, actively involved community members and good law enforcement. Watch Jefferson County could (and often does) succeed without a perfect web interface but it could not exceed without the dedication of volunteers, engaged citizens and the enthusiastic support of the Sheriff's Office.
What has caused the most frustration?
Our inability to obtain the interest of the local press. Local coverage would increase awareness and reporting across the County and would drastically increase the usefulness of Watch Jefferson County.
A PDF version of the display materials is available here.
A PDF version of the demo description from the program is available here.
Comments
Way to go, Art!
Super job! It's about time you get the recognition you deserve, and the site gets the public airing it deserves as well! I think your efforts are on the cutting edge of LE and citizen cooperation/ interaction, and I applaud ISCRAM for not only recognizing you and your efforts, but also providing an International forum to spread the good word!
Proud of you, sir!
Dave