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Did Facebook save the Coast Guard $30,000?

Posted on 22 June 2009 by Ryan Erickson | Comments

CG_Social_Media
Who ever said that the world of social networking, specifically the site of these networks, have no place on military computers were just issued an “in your face” notice. Yesterday a press release found on our good friend John’s site, Coast Guard News, tells the tale of how some crafty SAR controllers in the New England area were able to use Facebook to locate an overdue mariner; thus saving the Coast Guard- not to mention the taxpayer- about $30,000. I don’t want to know how they used it, but the fact that the controller was smart enough to get on there and use it just goes above and beyond.

“Sometimes we have to be very creative in our information gathering,” said Conner [the SAR controller]. “A simple internet search can often help us locate a missing person before a boat or aircraft is even on scene.”

This re-opens the debate whether or not we should have access to said sites- don’t you think the likes of Twitter, Facebook, or LinkeIn may be of use in these situations? I could see it now- adding the District Command Center as a Facebook friend could almost be like leaving a float plan (not adivised though…). I wonder if the use of such tools will be in the next iteration of the Coast Guard SAR Addendum? Maybe it could take the space that is currently used for the now defunct *CG program?

Oh the potential… anyway, good job and a shout-out to Paul Conner for thinking of this creative way of doing business

Category: Facebook, SAR system, Social Media | Comments
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  • Ryan,
    This is another example of the new communications channels being used for search and rescue. Between the Twitter example in D13 and the Twitter alert Amver received about a missing American off the coast of Honduras social media is playing a larger part in how we communicate with our customers.

    Think back to Hurricane Katrina. What if Twitter and Facebook were more main stream back then? While mobile voice service may have been spotty, many people were able to use SMS on their cell phones. Twitter can be updated via SMS.

    Once a new communications channel is open I believe it becomes the responsibility of the channel operator to monitor for these few and far between cases of distress notification.

    The SAR controller that solved an overdue boating case using open source information? Put 'em on the FIST!

    BZ to the command center team for using the application and BZ to you for covering it.
  • I can see that someday when you add sectors and stations as friends on Facebook, twitter, Myspace and linked in. It just proves that the power of social media to not only change how society does things, but it also can save someone's life and save the taxpayers the expense of paying that $30,000 SAR bill.
  • Nicely done on the part of the controller, but this was nothing more than good investigative work using all available tools at the controller's disposal. The bigger issue isn't that FB was used but what is the Coast Guard going to do about institutionalizing these new tools and pursuing them to their maximum use.
  • "this was nothing more than good investigative work" come on Peter... you
    got give him more credit that that. It's not every day that our controllers
    go that far outside the CG domain to get the job done. Though I guess it
    should be expected that they do so.
  • matt
    The title of the story mentions Facebook but the body of the story seemed to indicte he used 411.com, anywho.com. There's no mention of Facebook.
    I don't know how he could have used facebook. It's a prohibited site (see I.S.S. general mandated training) and blocked on the CG network.
    The controller did a good job. Having said that, does anyone else smell more than a bit of "hype" in the air?
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