[okfn-discuss] Weaving History and related work...

[Jonathan Gray]

Hi all,

We've been doing a bit of work behind the scenes on Weaving History
(http://www.weavinghistory.org/) and suchlike - but I think we really
need to find someone to be our 'point person' in this area.

This might include being main contact for the WH project - and
associated work. Also it would be great to strengthen the network of
people working on this kind of thing - from Simile's timeline suite,
to people publishing time/geo tagged data, to visualisation experts,
to contacting relevant research institutions, such as The Virginia
Center for Digital History. Perhaps in the first instance, we could
start a working group and start having regular meetings to discuss
relevant developments and to try to keep things ticking!

In addition to doing technical work on the Weaving History software, I
think it would also be useful to better articulate the longer term
vision here. At the end of the day, we are not interested in a single
website, so much as the underlying open-source technology to visually
represent spatio-temporal information.

Some thoughts and questions:

  * Using bibliographic metadata to represent authors and works? This
would be an excellent way to flesh out the intellectual culture of a
certain place/period.
  * Time-based visualisations. E.g. having a time slider, which would
show events on the map appearing and disappearing.
  * Representing regions rather than just points. E.g. how national
borders have changed over time.
  * Plotting journeys. E.g. the movement of a certain person or group
of people over time.
  * Integration with existing projects/services. E.g. Wikipedia.
Representing authors and works on Project Gutenberg. Etc.
  * Use cases? E.g. in education, in research, etc.
  * Other time-based visual representations on maps. E.g. showing
population change over time in a given area with graphs or colours.
Animating to show change.

I saw the CFP below - which looks very interesting!

Jonathan


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Humphrey Southall <Humphrey.Southall at port.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 7:47 PM
Subject: CFP special issue: Applied historical GIS and related work
To: HISTORY-GIS at jiscmail.ac.uk


Forwarded from the AHC-UK list -- reply to pastinformingfuture at gmail.com
, not to me.

***************************** CALL FOR PAPERS
*****************************

[For easier viewing of this CFP go to:
http://www.georesearchdata.com/announce/ijagr_hgis_issue_cfp.pdf (pdf)
or
http://www.georesearchdata.com/announce/cfpijagrhgis.html (html)]

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: July 1, 2010
(with prior expressions of interest encouraged)

SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE PAST INFORMING THE FUTURE: APPLIED GEOSPATIAL
SOLUTIONS

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED GEOSPATIAL RESEARCH (IJAGR)

Guest Editors: G. Rebecca Dobbs and Mary B. Ruvane
[http://www.linkedin.com/in/grdobbs and
http://www.ils.unc.edu/phd/students.html#Ruvane]

Geographic information systems and other geospatial technologies have
emerged as important tools by which geographers, historians,
anthropologists, archaeologists, information scientists, and other
social and physical scientists answer questions about the past. Within
this trend, the variety of approaches is both large and multiplying,
defying attempts to characterize historical GIS neatly and succinctly.
This special issue of IJAGR, scheduled for publication in late 2011, is
intended to expand the available body of historical GIS literature by
exploring applied research on problems or questions about the past,
incorporating not only GISs as conventionally understood, but also other
kinds of geospatial technologies and spatial-temporal information
sciences. In keeping with the spirit of IJAGR's mission statement (see
below), we interpret not only "geospatial technologies" but also
"historical" broadly, seeking papers that address/explore issues from
any period of the past and from any part of the earth, with varied
approaches to human spatial and social existence and to earth
environments and human-environment interactions.

The key requirement is that the research described be "applied" in the
sense of contributing knowledge or understanding with the potential to
inform practical decision-making activities (again, broadly interpreted)
in today's world. Because geospatial phenomena of the past are not
generally thought of as having practical applications, manuscripts
should address this aspect of the research explicitly. By way of
example, work on the past might be considered to have practical
applications in the present day if it introduces new understandings of
present landscapes for planners and preservationists but also for the
general public alters understandings of key events, landscape features,
or places makes visible the previously hidden roles or experiences of
marginalized groups produces new pedagogical possibilities enhances
spatially oriented access to sources from the past and many other
possibilities.

RECOMMENDED TOPICS:
Topics to be discussed in this special issue include (but are not
limited to) the following:

* microscale histories that affect local knowledge and decision-making

* geographical analysis of key historical moments such as battles,
epidemics, or natural disasters
* new analyses of past global or regional trends that contribute to
understanding of present trends at those scales
* lab and classroom approaches incorporating geospatial technology for
historical analysis
* public history adaptations of geospatial technologies such as in
museum settings
* explorations of the lives of marginalized groups in the past
* analysis of past land or resource uses
* uses of geospatial technologies to document indigenous peoples'
traditional territories, special sites, or pathways, or other uses
relating past conditions to current legal claims
* development of tools for persistent access to historical spatial data

* online collaborations involving historical spatial data, including
Web 2.0 initiatives
* development of library/archives catalog systems that use map
interfaces for accessing collections geographically


IMPORTANT DATES:
* Manuscript
 submissions due: July 1, 2010
* Reviews due: November 2010
* Notification of conditional acceptance: December 2010
* Final revised manuscripts due: January 2011
* Final manuscripts ready for IJAGR: February 2011
* Publication: October 2011

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this
special theme issue on THE PAST INFORMING THE FUTURE: APPLIED GEOSPATIAL
SOLUTIONS on or before July 1, 2010. All submissions must be original
and may not be under review by another publication. INTERESTED AUTHORS
SHOULD CONSULT THE JOURNAL’S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at
http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guidelines
submission.pdf. All submitted papers will be reviewed on a double-blind,
peer review basis. Papers must follow APA style for reference citations.


Authors should submit manuscripts directly to the guest editors as
directed below. ABOUT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED GEOSPATIAL
RESEARCH (IJAGR):

The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research publishes
research that exemplifies the usage of geographic information science
and technology (GIS&T) to explore and resolve geographical issues from
various application domains within the social and/or physical sciences.
IJAGR is designed to provide planners and policy analysts,
practitioners, academicians, and others using GIS&T useful studies that
might support decision-making activities.

The IJAGR is interested in research highlighting various GIS&T
application domains that span the social and physical sciences. The
limiting factor is less topical, but more whether such studies
incorporate geospatial technologies (geospatial statistics, global
positioning systems, geographic information systems, remote sensing,
etc.) to answer practical, utilitarian, and applied geographic
questions.

This journal is an official publication of the Information Resources
Management Association, www.igi-global.com/ijagr

Editor-in-Chief: Donald Patrick Albert
Published: Quarterly (both in Print and Electronic form)

PUBLISHER:
The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research is published
by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the
“Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference)
and “Medical Information Science Reference” imprints. For additional
information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com.

All submissions should be directed to the attention of:

G. Rebecca Dobbs and Mary B. Ruvane
Guest Editors
International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research
E-mail: pastinformingfuture at gmail.com



-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org