Perhaps one of the most enjoyable events for us came before the main conference even started. On Tuesday, April 5, we hosted a walking tour of several Philadelphia neighborhoods followed by a cocktail reception at the Azavea offices. About twenty early arrivals for the conference braved the cold and wind to join me for a combined traditional walking tour and smartphone/augmented reality (AR) tour through the Center City, Chinatown, and Callowhill neighborhoods.

With smartphones in hand, we stopped at 13^th and Market to talk about the development of Center City department stores such as Wanamaker’s and Gimbels. We then headed to City Hall to discuss architecture and William Penn’s plan for Philadelphia before walking over to 13^th and Arch (urban development and row house architecture), 12^th and Arch (railroads and Reading Terminal Market), 10^th and Arch (immigration and cultural organizations), and several other stops. At each stop, we discussed several topics connected to Philadelphia history, looked at a binder of printed images, and found historic images from PhillyHistory.org via the augmented reality application.

We had fun experimenting with the PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application at a stop in the City Hall courtyard.

While playing with the new PhillyHistory.org AR application was fun by itself, I think the tour emphasized how mobile technology can help provide access to information and images that might not be covered on a traditional walking tour. We visited several neighborhoods that are broadly connected to very different components of Philadelphia’s history (commercial development, immigration, residential architecture, industrial change, etc). Rather than being dependent upon a prepared script focusing on only a single theme, tour attendees could use their phones to access historic images and make comparisons between the past photos and the present landscape at their own pace. There are obviously some drawbacks – photos aren’t as plentiful for certain areas, photos can’t answer questions like a tour guide can, cold weather severely limits your desire to take your hands out of your pockets to use a phone – but I think AR and mobile technology in general is certainly worth investigating for the ability to provide new ways for us to interact with history.

After a couple hours in the cold, we were all excited to head to Azavea for warmth, wine, beer, and some delicious food. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for the reception! It was fun to hear about the many projects going on at everyone’s institutions. My Azavea colleagues also had a great time and remarked on how friendly everyone was.

For the rest of the conference, we spent our time at Booth #23 in the exhibit hall and attending various sessions and demonstrations. I particularly enjoyed the Thursday morning panel session on augmented reality. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit interested in the topic! We had some excellent conversations with people who came to visit our booth and finished off the conference by presenting on the PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application as part of the Mobile Parade session on Saturday. The full paper is available here.

This was my second Museums and the Web, and it was another great conference filled with interesting people and exciting ideas. I’m glad that I could be part of the group, and I’m looking forward to going through my notes and checking out many new projects, papers, and websites!

Erik and Deb experiment with the new PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application.

On Tuesday, April 5, I’ll be leading a walking tour of various local history sites around the Center City, Chinatown, and Callowhill neighborhoods. With my public history background, few things make me happier than a walking tour! In addition to an intro to Philly’s history, we’ll be looking at how images from PhillyHistory.org, the website of historic photos that Azavea built for the Philadelphia Department of Records, can help tell the history of a neighborhood. Tour attendees will be able to view images from the site via the PhillyHistory.org smart phone web application and will even have access to a sneak peek of the new Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application.

Where exactly will we be stopping? Here’s a hint at a few of the spots.

• City Hall – You can’t walk around Center City without being aware of City Hall. Architecture, government, Penn’s plan – the building brings up so many topics connected to the city’s history. Besides, there’s a great new exhibit up featuring images from PhillyHistory.org!
• 10^th and Arch – This intersection has a fantastic history. From the Chinese arch today to a 1919 photo with a sign declaring that “Food Will Win the War,” this corner’s history can help spark discussion on how neighborhoods in Philadelphia grow, change, and adapt over time.
• 11^th and  Wood – The Callowhill neighborhood provides great insights into Philadelphia’s industrial, residential, and transportation heritage. The Reading Viaduct, 19^th century workers’ rowhomes, and architecturally interesting industrial buildings illustrate a few of the many stories connected to Philadelphia’s status as the Workshop of the World.

After the tour, we’ll be hosting a cocktail reception at Azavea to help kick off the conference. We’re looking forward to the chance to meet people active in the field, get their feedback about the AR app, and acquaint them with some of our humanities work.

Throughout the conference, I’ll be attending sessions and we’ll be exhibiting some of our projects in the conference exhibit and demonstration hall.  On Saturday, we’re excited to be part of a mobile parade session where we’ll talk about “Implementing Mobile Augmented Reality Applications for Cultural Institutions,” and specifically our findings from creating the PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application.

If you happen to be at Museums and the Web, stop by Booth #23 and say hello. We’ll be talking about our work in the humanities and perhaps demoing the new PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application. Should be a fun and busy week!

Although it’s difficult to distill general themes from a five day conference with over 19,000 registered attendees, my experience seemed to focus over and over again on data (visualizing it, organizing it, crowdsourcing it, opening it up to others) and people (designing for the best user experience, opening technology for public use, creating communities both virtual and physical and both professional and public).

Admittedly, these themes are probably due to how I selected panels. I’m a public historian/project manager/archivist who works primarily on GIS related projects. Data, particularly historic or geographic data, and how to view it are relevant to my work. Working on publicly accessible web-based projects like PhillyHistory.org and Muralfarm.org has also greatly influenced my interest in freeing data for public access and designing the best user experience. Still, I felt that several communities in the technology world are very focused on the idea of how to best use and manage the rapidly proliferating amount of data in a digital world.

Of the many presentations I attended, two really stood out.

Time Traveling: Interfaces for Geotemporal Visualization: Displaying just time based data is easy, as is displaying just geographic data. Displaying the two of them together is often a nightmare that leaves designers and developers looking for the nearest office item to throw against a wall. This panel provided excellent examples of how to handle the geotemporal visualization conundrum, a discussion which is continuing on the Geotemporal Viz blog. Azavea’s work on PhillyHistory and HunchLab faces the issue of time/space quite frequently, and I’ll definitely be reading more on this topic.

The 2011 Open Architecture Challenge: Revisioning Decommissioned Military Facilities: I’ve never been so glad that a session was full (sorry HTML5!). This presentation by Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, was inspiring. From a discussion of the Open Architecture Network to camel powered clinics to a design challenge to re-purpose decommissioned military facilities, the presentation provided ample evidence of their desire to “design like you give a damn.” By the end of the session, the audience was on their feet clapping and I was ready to give up public history to move to Haiti and help them rebuild schools.

While I had heard from many people that the conversations, the meet-ups, and the spontaneous lunches and dinners were more useful and enjoyable than the panels, I didn’t quite realize the truth of that statement until day two of SXSW. After the first day, I was on the fence about the conference. Then I went to the Librarians and Technology meet-up and I was sold. It was a great conversation that continued throughout the weekend at various lunches, core conversation sessions, meet-ups, and via Twitter. I’d strongly encourage any future SXSW attendees to use these official and unofficial casual events to meet people doing exciting technological work in specific fields, an opportunity that can be lacking from the overly large sessions and generally overwhelming size of the conference.

Sampling of Libraries, Archives & Museums Mashups, SXSW 2011 from Jon Voss on Vimeo.

I was fortunate enough to speak with Jon Voss, Danielle Plumer, and Michael Edson on a panel entitled Innovating and Developing with Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs). We had a great crowd for a 9:30am session and had an excellent discussion in the Q and A portion on everything from APIs to copyright to public access. I truly feel that the LAM community is facing technology issues head-on and will develop some creative, useful, and educational new innovations in the coming years. What other group would start compiling a list of LAM APIs over lunch in order to keep the conversation going? My slides are available here on Slideshare if you’re interested.

So what did I come back with? Along with a minor case of sleep deprivation and a new found love for blackberry cobbler, I have twenty pages of stream of consciousness notes I’m excited to review and links I hope to explore further. Perhaps most importantly, I’m invigorated by the discussions I had and enthusiastic about the possibilities available as libraries, archives, and museums expand their technology efforts and seek further options for innovative collaborations.

Lucky for me, I’ll be attending several conferences in the next couple months, providing a chance to hear what you think about the new Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application, Philadelphia history, digital history projects, and GIS and the humanities in general. Let me know if you’ll be at any of these events!

SXSW Interactive, Austin, TX – “Innovating & Developing with Libraries, Archives & Museums” – March 15 at 9:30am
Panel presentation with Jon Voss (LookBackMaps), Danielle Plumer (Texas State Library and Archives Commission), Michael Edson (Smithsonian Institution). I’ll be speaking on how the PhillyHistory.org team has addressed scaling, display, linking, and collaboration issues for the PhillyHistory.org database, mobile application, and augmented reality project and how public access and linked data initiatives have influenced the development of the website.

Visual Resources Association and the Art Libraries Society of North America (VRA + ARLIS/NA), Minneapolis, MN – “From Filing Cabinet to iPhone: How Collaboration and Technology can Introduce Photo Collections to New Audiences” – March 26 at 8:30am
A case study session on several image related projects. I’ll be speaking on how collaborative efforts, combined with digital initiatives, can bring new life to old photos.

Museums and the Web, Philadelphia, PA – “Implementing Mobile Augmented Reality Applications for Cultural Institutions” – April 9 at 11am
A mobile parade session highlighting mobile projects developed by cultural institutions in 2010. I’ll be speaking on the process of creating the PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application and how our research findings could be applied to other institutions.

As part of the Museums and the Web conference, Azavea will also be hosting a historic walking tour of Philadelphia followed by a cocktail reception at our offices.

Museums and the Web – “Walking Tour of Historic Philadelphia” – April 5 at 4pm
The walking tour will showcase historic locations in downtown Philadelphia, specifically in the Center City, Chinatown, and Callowhill neighborhoods, and give conference attendees an opportunity to use the PhillyHistory mobile and augmented reality applications. A cocktail reception at Azavea’s offices after the tour gives us a chance to hear everyone’s feedback about the app and for guests to get acquainted with some other amazing projects on which we have worked in the humanities.

“Augmented Reality Check: Seeing the Future Now,” Philadelphia, PA – April 26 at 6pm
My colleague Josh Marcus and I will be part of a panel of artists and software developers (and me who is neither!) discussing the intersection of art, technology, and science and the use of augmented reality. This event is organized by Breadboard, in conjunction with the Philadelphia Science Festival, Philly Tech Week, and Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

If you’re attending any of these conferences or will be visiting Philadelphia and want to talk GIS and digital humanities, let us know!

To read more about the photo selection process, check out the following entries on the PhillyHistory.org blog.

Something New in Your Neighborhood: Augmented Reality

Selecting Images for Augmented Reality

And in case you’re curious what all of this might look like….

Memorial Hall in 1876 and 2010

The Philadelphia Department of Records, however, is certainly not the first cultural institution to investigate the use of augmented reality as an educational and access tool. Within the last three years, several interesting projects around the world have provided new and innovative ways for the public to view the collections of various museums and cultural organizations. While you’re waiting for the PhillyHistory.org AR app, you may want to check out some of these great augmented reality applications. Some of the projects require you to be in a specific location, but others can be accessed anywhere.

Augmented Reality for Interpretive and Experiential Learning (ARIEL), Philadelphia – A group of organizations working on “fixed-station exhibit devices with augmented and virtual reality interfaces.”

Augsburg Display Cabinet, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles - Using a printed marker and a web cam, users can manipulate and more closely view a digital model of the cabinet.

Berlin Wall, Berlin –  A layer in Layar that enables users to view a recreation of the Berlin Wall.

Gene Becker and Adriano Farano, San Francisco - Experimenting with historic photographs and augmented reality in San Francisco.

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney - Enables users to view historic photographs of Sydney, Australia.

Streetmuseum, Museum of London, London – Historic photographs of London available as overlays on the current landscape.

The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh – View information and images of locations in Pittsburgh and New York connected to Warhol’s life and work.

Urban Augmented Reality (UAR), Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam - An architecture focused application that provides images of past buildings, designs that were never built, and artist’s impressions of the future built environment.

With the rapid pace of AR development, I’m sure that I’ve missed a few projects. Leave a comment if you know of other great AR work going on in cultural institutions!

North Broad Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard in 1916 and 2010.

What have we been up to lately at Azavea? Let’s just say that it involves fantastic historic images from PhillyHistory.org, mobile technology, and augmented reality. And what might that result in? For now, you’ll have to be content with this mock-up! More information coming soon…

Formed in 1967, the Museum Computer Network serves as an organization where members can discuss, debate, and investigate new technologies and practices in the museum field. The group operates a very active listserv and holds an annual conference. While other of my Azavea colleagues had been to the conference before, this was my first time attending.

Some of the highlights of the conference included:

• Case Study Showcases: Featuring a quick five minute introduction to a variety of projects, these showcases were a great chance to hear about activities going on around the country. After the initial presentations, each speaker was available to answer further questions or provide more information. Some of my favorites?
  • Lights, Camera, Action! at the James A. Michener Art Museum
  • Hands on with Augmented Reality at the J. Paul Getty Museum
  • The Ins and Outs of Feminist Art Online and On Display at the Otis College of Art and Design
  • Invisible Interactive at the British Library
• Information Visualization and Museum Practice: How do we use visualization tools in museum activities from representing visitor information to understanding our collections? This was a great session that continued into an unconference discussion I unfortunately couldn’t attend. It’s a fascinating topic that I’m excited to read more about in the future.
• Great conversations with museum professionals from around the country.
• Barbecue and delicious food!

In addition to hearing about these topics, I also had the chance to speak on GIS for preservation and community engagement as part of a panel on 21st Century Conservation. My session included information on Muralfarm.org (powered by Sajara) and its use by the Mural Arts Program to make more mural information and photographs available to the public.

Overall a great conference that left me with a long list of projects to check out and websites to read!

]]> http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/11/conference-wrap-up-museum-computer-network-2010/feed/ 0 30.267153 -97.7430608 http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/08/mapping-literature-postscript/ http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/08/mapping-literature-postscript/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:26:02 +0000 Deb Boyer http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/?p=1370 Turns out that I’m not the only one in the office who likes the idea of combining place and literature. A conversation with my deskmate, Dana, led me to a few more great literary mapping projects.

A Literary Map of Manhatten: Having grown up in a small town in the Midwest, my New York City was the New York of books and movies. When I finally got to the city and visited the Met for the first time, I was so excited to see the place where Claudia and Jamie lived in From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!

Get London Reading: London is the other city forever connected with literature in my mind. I haven’t made it there yet, but until I do, this site provides a great overview of the writings associated with the city!

The combining of literature and geography doesn’t require mapping software or a digital interface. For decades, beautiful literary maps have provided a visual representation of the connection between writing and place. In 1993, the Library of Congress hosted “Language of the Land: Journeys into Literary America,” an exhibition of literary maps, that later traveled throughout the United States. An online exhibition provides access to some of the maps and photographs that were part of the exhibit. I’d love to see another exhibit like this!

]]> http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/08/mapping-literature-postscript/feed/ 0 http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/07/mapping-literature/ http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/07/mapping-literature/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:30:11 +0000 Deb Boyer http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/?p=1305 In May 2010, I was fortunate to attend THATCamp 2010, the Humanities and Technology Camp hosted by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Amidst all the discussion of digital humanities, text mining, linked data, and open source software were several great sessions on geolocation, mapping historic sites, and the use of place and space in humanities scholarship.

Many of these conversations focused on the use of geography in the study of history. From historic photographs to maps to artifacts used at a particular place, both non-profit organizations and the academy have embraced geography as a way to connect the past to the present. Azavea has worked on several projects that use GIS to help understand and visualize the past including PhillyHistory.org and AfricaMap.

In one session, however, we were encouraged to look beyond spatial analysis and history. What about applying GIS technology to other fields in the humanities such as literature? Place has long been recognized as a great influence upon many writers and their work. Flannery O’Conner, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston are inextricably linked with the American South just as Dickens is forever associated with London and Mark Twain with the Mississippi River. Other writers create their own locations as varied as Tolkien’s Middle Earth or Jonathan Swift’s Lilliput. Travel writers, journalists, and non-fiction authors also help tell the stories of a place and describe the culture, people, and events that are intimately connected to a region.

With geography so interwoven with literature, it seems like GIS could be a perfect way to help further analyze and understand both fiction and non-fiction. A little bit of online research led me to some great literary GIS projects.



A W.E.B. DuBois map (c. 1896) of Philadelphia's 7th ward.

Mapping the DuBois Philadelphia Negro – Led by Dr. Amy Hillier in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mapping DuBois project uses GIS technology and archival data to depict the demographics of the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia in 1899 when W.E.B. Du Bois surveyed the area as part of his book, The Philadelphia Negro. Azavea assisted with the GIS technology for the project.

Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania – Developed by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, this literary map shows the authors and works associated with counties across Pennsylvania. Clicking on a county provides additional information about the authors as well as links to books, newspapers, and maps related to that area.

The Map of Early Modern London – Using the Agas map (circa 1560), visitors can gain a better understanding of the relationship between the geography and history of London and how those factors influenced Renaissance theater in the city.

Haverford College Department of Classics – Want a better understanding of the geography of Homer’s poems? View locations associated with Homer’s ships using Google Earth.

Google Lit Trips – Developed as part of the Google Certified Teachers program, Google Lit Trips enables teachers and students to view locations associated with certain books by downloading kmz files for use in Google Earth. Works range from Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey to Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann.

]]> http://www.azavea.com/blogs/atlas/2010/07/mapping-literature/feed/ 0