1. A computer-implemented method comprising: collecting data, comprising image data and textual data, from a plurality of real-time electronic information sources; extracting information related to an event from the data, said extracted information comprising image descriptors, visual features, and categorization tags, by applying statistical analysis and semantic analysis; aligning the extracted information to generate aligned information; recognizing event-specific information for the event based on the aligned information; and generating a common operating picture of the event based on the event-specific information.