The creators of the Google Maps mashup used to track and avoid police and kettling during student protests in London have now released a suite of apps called Sukey that automates the process, simplifying the preservation of the fundamental right to protest while still opening a line for dialogue between protestors and the authorities (the app has a function that allows the police to message demonstrators and explain what they are trying to accomplish):
Sukey is our name for a set of applications designed to keep you protected and informed during protests. When you see something interesting, you tell us. When we’re confident that something has actually happened, we tell you.
If you have a smartphone with a good web browser, you can look at a really cool compass-thing we call “Roar”. If you don’t, you can use our SMS update service we call “Growl”. Have a look at our guide to getting involved for more information on how to do this stuff.
You can get more details in our executive summary (we call it that because it sounds a bit formal… but its contents are good and informative). You might be able to extract something from our official press release too.
Sukey brings together in-house code (fuelled by many late nights), resources like Google Maps and open-source software like SwiftRiver. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing the workload.
(Thanks, Ben!)