The regulator plans to roll out the early warning system this year, saying it will mine a "rich vein ofinformation" continuously supplied by companies through official filings such as annual reports.
But something changed Wednesday, and mine owner Bob Murray told five of us that we could go into the mine as far as we wanted and provide information, video and photographs for all the news media present.
Governments and public officials are rushing to embrace the concept, throwing open the vast panoply of publicly collected information for the digitally savvy to mine and exploit.
To speed rescue efforts, engineers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a robot that would eliminate some of the unknowns ofmine rescue operations and arm first responders with the most valuable tool: information.