Google Earth opens window to refugee world
11:08AM
Wednesday April 09, 2008
By Laura MacInnis
Google Earth Outreach has added tools to allow its users to see close-up the situation in various UN refugee camps. Photo / Reuters
GENEVA - Google technology first envisaged as a video game backdrop has been adapted to raise awareness - and potentially financial support - for the plight of refugees and vulnerable people once far from the public eye.
The search engine's Google Earth platform, a mapping service that allows users to move through three-dimensional satellite images of city streets and countryside, now offers a close-up view of UN refugee camps and aid projects.
Rebecca Moore, head of Earth Outreach for Google, said the browsable, high-definition pictures of humanitarian crisis zones stood to captivate a mass audience that may not otherwise see them.
Many of the 350 million people who have downloaded Google Earth use it to scan for holiday destinations or to see what other corners of the world look like from above. The sharp satellite images are updated about every month, though in some places they are older and in others no public shots exist.
Moore told a packed audience of aid experts at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) headquarters that they could add video interviews of refugees, photographs of displacement crises and educational text to the satellite backdrop to educate even casual users about unfolding crises.
