Tag Archives: Conferences

Apr 18, 2011

Conference Wrap-Up: Museums and the Web 2011

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It’s been a week since the end of Museums and the Web 2011, and we’re still talking about the conference. We had a great time meeting interesting people from around the world and learning about some really creative and innovative museum technology projects.

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 13th 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 13th and Arch (urban development and row house architecture), 12th and Arch (railroads and Reading Terminal Market), 10th 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!

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Apr 01, 2011

Preparing for Museums and the Web 2011

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Next week is a busy time here at Azavea. The annual Museums and the Web conference is in town, and we’re excited to be part of the festivities! An international gathering of those interested in web-based museum technology, we’ve attended Museums and the Web for the last few years and really enjoyed the chance to meet a diverse group of people excited about discussing new innovations in cultural institutions.

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!
  • 10th 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.
  • 11th and  Wood – The Callowhill neighborhood provides great insights into Philadelphia’s industrial, residential, and transportation heritage. The Reading Viaduct, 19th 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!

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Mar 18, 2011

Data and People: A Summary of SXSW Interactive 2011

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I recently returned from my first trip to South by Southwest Interactive. Everything I had heard about being overwhelmed, excited, surrounded by incredibly smart and interesting people, and exhausted because choosing to haul that laptop around was a really bad idea? All completely true.

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.

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Mar 09, 2011

Upcoming Conference Sessions on Augmented Reality

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One of my favorite aspects of working on PhillyHistory.org and the forthcoming augmented reality application is talking to other people about the projects. As a public history enthusiast, I love the chance to get feedback on the website and learn how users interact with the historic photos. Several of the features the Department of Records implemented on PhillyHistory.org have come at the request of visitors to the website, and we’re always eager to hear more suggestions.

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!

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Nov 11, 2010

Conference Wrap-Up: Museum Computer Network 2010

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From October 28-30, I was fortunate to attend the annual Museum Computer Network conference, held this year in Austin, Texas. My only previous experience with Texas involved a long, hot, six hour van ride between Dallas and Lubbock so the chance to get another view of the state by spending a few days in Austin learning about new digital projects and discussing museum technology was much appreciated!

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?
    • 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!

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Apr 12, 2010

AWRA GIS and Water Resources Conference

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The American Water Resources Association (AWRA) held its Spring Specialty Conference on GIS and Water Resources from March 29-31, 2010 in Orlando, Florida.  I had the privilege of attending this event to present a poster on using the Sajara software framework to manage hardcopy infrastructure plans.  Azavea also prepared a paper for the conference proceedings to help utility organizations digitize their hardcopy documents and otherwise prepare them for integration in the Sajara software framework. 

The AWRA Conference covered a diverse range of subjects involving the use of GIS in the water resources industry.  There were presentations on hydrologic modeling, watershed delineation, data sharing, software interface development and land use applications, just to name a few.  The poster session added topics such as coastal management, agriculture, community water systems, education and irrigation, as well as document management.  Many of the organizations looking at Sajara to manage their infrastructure plans were also interested in using GIS for stormwater management applications, similar to what the Philadelphia Water Department is doing with phillystormwater.org.    

The opening plenary session featured Jack Dangermond with additional details on his vision for GIS in the cloud” and web services to enable data sharing.  He particularly referenced CUAHSI HIS (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science Inc.), an organization representing over 100 United States universities.  CUAHSI has received National Science Foundation support to develop a web API and the HydroDesktop software application.  The desktop application has been released as open source and available at no cost to users to help them download and manage available water data.  But the web API and the database behind it are most interesting parts of the project.  CUAHSI harvests sensor feeds of water data from 1000’s of sites across the United States.  This data is archived and made available through a SOAP interface   Dangermond collaborated with David Maidment on a paper for the AWRA proceedings that outlined the integration of water resources data using GIS and the web more generally and the CUAHSI project specifically.  Maidment is the Director of the Center for Research in Water Resources at the University of Texas in Austin and heavily involved in the CUAHSI project.  Both of them were also part of a panel discussion on the future of water resources information. 

In addition to discussing Sajara with various organizations, one of the highlights of the conference for me was a presentation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding GIS past, present and future for water resources applications.  Part of their vision for the future includes augmented reality applications, enabled by smart phones, special glasses or potentially car windshields, which would augment the reality experience of approaching a well or other infrastructure asset, for example, with critical descriptive information, or even diagrams and engineering plans overlaid on the reality view.  The potential for these projects is very exciting to me, particularly since the Philadelphia Department of Records recently received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities under its Digital Humanities Startup Grant program to develop an augmented reality application for PhillyHistory.org that would enable smart phone users to view historic photographs of the city as an overlay on their camera displays by simply pointing their smart phone cameras at selected buildings. 

AWRA will be holding this year’s annual conference right here in Philadelphia beginning on November 1, 2010.  They will be addressing regional topics of interest to Mid-Atlantic water resources organizations.  Perhaps Azavea will see you there.

The Poster Session at the AWRA Conference demonstrated Sajara’s ability to organize, search and retrieve infrastructure documents in a single web interface. Azavea’s poster was one of more than forty posters showcasing various aspects of GIS for the water resources industry.

The Poster Session at the AWRA Conference demonstrated Sajara’s ability to organize, search and retrieve infrastructure documents in a single web interface. Azavea’s poster was one of more than forty posters showcasing various aspects of GIS for the water resources industry.

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Oct 14, 2009

Using Sajara for Water, Sewer and Stormwater Infrastructure Management

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The Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association held its 67th annual conference and trade show from September 13th to 16th, 2009.  Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities provide potable water, sewage treatment and waste management services to municipalities across the State.  I attended the conference on September 15th to learn more about current trends for GIS in the water, sewer and stormwater management industries, and to evaluate the conference as a possible future venue for Sajara.

You might already be familiar with the use of the Sajara software framework in the popular PhillyHistory.org and MuralFarm.org web applications.  Sajara provides an excellent means of managing and geographically displaying historic documents that had previously been languishing in file drawers, or celebrating the City’s unique collection of architectural murals and local artists.  Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities and other infrastructure management organizations often have historic documents as well, and they have a very specific set of management needs that the Sajara software framework can help to address. 

Much of the water and sewer infrastructure in the United States was built between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.  For water and sewer management purposes, infrastructure includes things like pipes, manholes, fire hydrants, water mains, wells, pump stations, water storage tanks, and sewage treatment plants.  For stormwater management purposes, infrastructure includes things like inlets, outfalls, drainage basins and culverts.  The original plans and blueprints of these facilities provide invaluable reference when repair or replacement is needed.  Unfortunately, finding these archival documents can be difficult, since they have often been haphazardly stored over long periods of time and may not even be accurately indexed.  It can be very frustrating to manually search through hundreds of original hardcopy infrastructure drawings in order to find the one critical piece of data that is really needed, particularly in an emergency situation when time is of the essence.  The Sajara software framework can geographically reference these important documents and make them instantly searchable by address, date, type of infrastructure and other criteria.  The plans can be made available specifically to authorized personnel over the Internet and through various mobile platforms to provide field access when and where it is needed. 

Next time you turn on the tap, drain the bathtub or watch the rivers of stormwater pooling in a drainage basin after a heavy rainstorm, think of the infrastructure people behind the scenes that make it all possible.  We hope that by applying the Sajara software framework to their historic infrastructure data, their work will become a little less challenging. 

 

Using the Sajara software framework for an infrastructure application might look something like this. Water, sewer and stormwater management documents will be easily accessible in relation to their geographic locations or other search criteria important to infrastructure management personnel nationwide. The Sajara software framework will provide a much more efficient means of searching for historic data than rummaging through stacks of hardcopy drawings, particularly in the event of a water main break or other emergency situation.

Using the Sajara software framework for an infrastructure application might look something like this. Water, sewer and stormwater management documents will be easily accessible in relation to their geographic locations or other search criteria important to infrastructure management personnel nationwide. The Sajara software framework will provide a much more efficient means of searching for historic data than rummaging through stacks of hardcopy drawings, particularly in the event of a water main break or other emergency situation.

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