Humans as Sensors: Early Signals

I just came across two great example of people using their cellphones to sense the environment.  One is illegal immigrants trying to cross the border using an application that provides the best recommended path across the border given their position (http://futurismic.com/2009/12/04/cellphone-app-could-help-illegal-immigrants/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+futurismic_feed+%28Futurismic+-+the+fact+and+fiction+of+tomorrow%29)  Today this is simply based on terrain maps, but much like Garmin and TomTom, these will evolve to include real-time updates from aother illegal immigrants that relay the position of security forces and other relevant information to increase their chance of success.  The other example I picked up was a NASA scientist developing a chemical sensor that can be plugged directly into an iPhone (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/features/2009/cell_phone_sensors.html) This obviously has enormous implications for homeland security, but could also open up a whole new set of applications for everything from factory process monitoring by workers to air quality monitoring by people.  Could you imagine being able to tell  an airline how bad the air quality on the plane really is and report it to other users?  Or individuals monitoring CO2 levels in different regions to monitor the effects of climate change?  The power of this will come when billions of users have these types of sensors in their device and can act as a giant sensing network around the globe to relay important information to improve security and the quality of life.  This would be a great example of the collective power of Digital Swarms as I discuss in my book (http://www.whartonsp.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=9780137003792)