I think an interesting question is, what techniques could have improved the crowdsourcing attempts by reddit, 4chan, etc.
Obviously there's a huge amount of training that had the FBI zero-in on the terrorists. Was it different data they had access to, or was it simply the techniques that they used, and if so, can they be taught en masse?
To me, a large, motivated source of volunteer work like reddit or 4chan when looking for a needle in a haystack might be valuable in the future if something like this arises again.
In the beginning, "crowd-sourcing" should have been limited to anyone and everyone that had video and photos from the scene to upload them to a central DB. Then everyone can sift through and look for stuff... but instead of spewing their speculations all over the Net, let the FBI know so someone at the FBI can continue.
Once the FBI had photos of two people they needed help finding... THAT is when the crowd-sourcing really helped. There was a focused mission so it was easier to stay on target. Before that, it was just a (partially racially charged) cluster fuck.
Obviously there's a huge amount of training that had the FBI zero-in on the terrorists. Was it different data they had access to, or was it simply the techniques that they used, and if so, can they be taught en masse?
To me, a large, motivated source of volunteer work like reddit or 4chan when looking for a needle in a haystack might be valuable in the future if something like this arises again.