The concept is based on SMS. Citizens file reports from their cell phones via SMS, which are then shown on a Google Earth map. They explain it better:
So we sent SMS text messages to a gateway phone number, converted the results into a format that Google Earth could understand and ended up with a map layer showing SMS postings. With GPS-equipped mobile phones this would be trivial. Ours aren’t, so we asked senders to make the message body start with the San Diego street address, followed by two semicolons, with the rest of the message body comprising the actual information being sent from the location. (Note: it was stupid of me to use semicolons as a way of separating the message from the location; just try to find the semicolon on the average mobile phone.)The developers created this as part of major disaster scenario, but the uses extend from blogging about events going on at the state fair, breaking news, or even during the annual Audubon Society bird count. I'm sure you can think of even more uses.
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