Bob, WB4APR, the creator of APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) introduced the term: APRS operator. He wrote about it here. It really gets me thinking about the possibilities of APRS besides position reporting.
As Bob writes: “A perfect example of an APRS operator data
entry station is a home station where a volunteer can serve this
“back room” function. Without even leaving his room, he can
tune to the nets in progress, listen for every tid-bit of information
that is appearing on the nets, and then enter that onto his display
that everyone then at the EOC can see.”
I can see how that works. It would be handy if you’re able to see were accidents happened for instance. These often cause a lot of congestion. Wouldn’t it be handy to follow a Twitter-feed from, let’s say, your local emergency department and somehow reroute accidents from the feed to APRS as (temporary) objects. If that can be done via a script, it wouldn’t even need manual operations. I don’t think that’s the only useful application but maybe it should be one of the tools a APRS operator should have.
The Netherlands is a very small country in comparison with other countries around the world. So APRS is a bit less useful here then in remote area’s. When you want to plot everything that’s happening in The Netherlands on an APRS map, it wouldn’t be readable anymore. If all mobile stations are plotted as well (and they are) it would be one big mush. So we have to be a little selective what to forward and what not.
At the other hand, now there isn’t much dynamic information on the Dutch APRS map besides mobile stations, weather stations and ships. A little more useful information wouldn’t hurt.

If I can find some time, maybe I dive into this aspect of APRS. Maybe I can be a good APRS operator. Would be nice to set up a group of APRS operators and bring APRS more up to it’s potential (at least here in The Netherlands).