George Clooney and Friends Launch Satellite Program to Watch Sudan Border

Actor Clooney’s “Not On Our Watch” (NOOW) group announced on Tuesday it is working with Google and The U.N. Operational Satellite Applications Program to use [added: to use, removed: “to launch”] satellite surveillance of the border between north and south Sudan. The goal: to prevent another civil war after a secession vote planned for January. The data of interest includes troop and civilian movement.

NOOW is funding the Satellite Sentinel Project that will tap on the ground data, too. Analysis will be provided by the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. [I ran into some of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative guys the other day in the AT&T store here in Cambridge; I asked the four young hip fellows if they were a startup!] Google and UN will be publishing the data.

- Yahoo News via @jeffharrison
- press release