Alfredo Covaleda,
Bogota, Colombia
Stephen Guerin,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
James A. Trostle,
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Last week, O'Reilly's Radar posted an interesting account of a project to scan historic photos of Philadelphia and link them to Google Maps. Hence, the reader can see the pic and then relate it to the photo's original location. Most newspapers have photo archives. Many of these shots are not just of people, but events which have a geographic location. It might be difficult to tie a picture with a specific location, but some might be possible. So why don't newspapers start scanning those photos and put them on the paper's web site, a la “Mapping Philly”? Doing so builds a reporter's sense of place in the community's timeline, the photos will attract a certain audience to the web site (and that could then reflect specific advertisers) and the photos would be preserved by the scanning.
Yes, it would require an investment in time and money, but hey, instead of just cutting expenses by laying off staff, how 'bout a little investment in the future of the enterprise?
Source: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/11/mapping_philly.html
Mapping Philly
Posted: 08 Nov 2007 06:12 PM CST
By Peter Brantley
One of the most engaging sessions at the Digital Library Federation Fall Forum meeting in Philadelphia this week was a panel discussing a georeference-supportive project from the City of Philadelphia itself. We were thrilled to have representatives from Philadelphia's Department of Records, who have been gradually developing a project called PhillyHistory.org with several technology partners including Avencia, a firm in Philadelphia; it is Avencia's presentation [pdf] that I highlight in this entry.
The Department of Records in Philadelphia has one of the best historical image archives in the country, with over two million photographs. To date, some 47,000 pictures have been digitized, with descriptive metadata; the Department is digitizing photos at a rate of approximately 2000 each month. The most critical information associated with the images are locational data that facilitate mapping and georeference services.
An image search can be delimited by time period and location, and relevant results are returned as thumbnails with brief descriptions. Advanced search operations on many other metadata fields are also available. Location based searches are mapped, and presented as a tile on a nearest-to-furtherest scale. Clicking on an image's descriptive information will provide a screen of detailed metadata, and clicking the image itself produces a higher resolution version of the picture.
The most attractive features of the site are social; images can be shared with others (via email, right now, although theoretically it would be possible to export out to other social environments or provide internal community social site features, such as neighborhood blogs). Images can also be collected in a Favorites list.
PhillyHistory also has a mobile interface, so one of the things that I've most wanted to see in a metropolitan image archive application — standing on a street corner, and being able to retrieve both historical and contemporary information about the location — is within reach of this project. PhillyHistory is not integrated into the mobile stack, and so a location must be manually entered, but it is still pretty cool.
PhillyHistory also has a blog, where interesting archival images are discussed, as well as general application updates and news. The site also provides advanced sections where it provides detailed information on how to construct url query strings against specific metadata fields, such as location or time period. Searches can be named (“bookmarked” in the site's nomenclature) and then made available as an RSS. Using GeoRSS, a set of images can be easily displayed within Google Maps.
In a terrifically cool new feature just added this November, the first 100 image search results from any query can be mapped into Google Earth. Clicking on any of the result markers pops open a window with the original archival image. This is fantastic.
PhillyHistory's sustainability model is straightforward, financed in part by taxes, and through the sale of quality image prints (e.g., $20.00 for an 8 x 10 color print).
The app has generated a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in Philly. The locally based Editor of the City Paper, Duane Swierczynski, said in a post, “I've become a PhillyHistory.org junkie … This is the best use of taxpayer money I've heard of in a long time. I'd even be willing pay more taxes … “
We don't normally think of city governments as maintaining currency in software application design, but it happens more often than we realize. At the meeting, someone from NYC was nearly jumping up and down with excitement, at the hope that it would be possible to migrate the application north.
Perhaps west, as well.
We knew this was coming, but missed the announcement in July of Ricoh's GPS WiFi camera. This strikes us as something that can become a high-impact journalism tool. Imagine how it could be applied for covering mass demonstrations or even sporting events. It could also be great for travel stories — everything from walking tours through Scotland to pub crawling in New Orleans — when linked to Google Maps.
The opening day price is about $1,100. Not too much, we think, as an investment for a newroom's digital R&D person/team. (Those do exist, don't they?)
Anyway, check out the link below.
Posted Jul 16th, 2007 by Chief Gadgeteer
The continuing growing popularity of mapping (particularly Google Maps, Google Earth and their street views) and GPSRicoh 500SE Digital Camera that is GPS enabled. Take a photo with the 500SE and it automatically embeds the position info into the photo. In a year or so, this will probably become a pretty standard feature on digital cameras and camcorders, or at least highly coveted. solutions means that consumers will want more products that automatically tie those things together. Enter the
The Ricoh 500SE is no slouch in the camera department either. It is an 8 megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom, large 2.5″ TFT LCDWiFiBluetooth 2.0 connectivity.
Now back to the GPS stuff. Just imagine how cool it would be to embed your photos automatically in the right spot on a map by adding them as layers to existing maps that have GIS capabilities. Well, nevermind the last part if you don’t get that. Think about how cool it would be if you could pull up your pics in Flikr, Gallery or whatever, and then display a map alongside it that shows where the pic was taken. monitor screen, SD card slot, camera shake blur reduction and a 28mm wide-angle zoom lens. It also comes with 802.11b/g and
This comes from the Poynter blog…..
While much of Southern California burns, online news staffs and citizen journalists definitely aren't fiddling around. Here's a quick roundup of some of the more intriguing efforts:
What kinds of innovative online coverage of the fires are you seeing today? Please comment below.
(Thanks to the members of Poynter's Online News discussion group for tips to some of the items above.)
Today, literally hundreds of square kilometers of Southern California — Los Angeles to San Diego — are burning. Some very alert newspapers and radio stations, though, are using Google Maps and a program called Twitter (www.twitter.com) to update the maps on a regular basis. A good example, I think, of applied tools of analytic journalism.
Southern California fires on Google Maps
CALL FOR ENTRIES:
Philip Meyer Journalism Award postmark deadline: October 31, 2007
The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism; the Knight Chair in Journalism at Arizona State University; and IRE are proud to invite you to participate in the Philip Meyer Journalism Award, a contest created to recognize the best journalism done using social science research methods.
Three awards will be given – a first, second and third place – to recognize the best work using techniques that are part of precision journalism, computer-assisted reporting and social science research. The awards include cash prizes: $500 for first, $300 for second, and $200 for third. Eligible entries must have been published or broadcast between Oct. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007.
The awards are in honor of Philip Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Meyer is the author of Precision Journalism, the seminal 1972 book (and subsequent editions) that focused growing numbers of journalists on the idea of using social science methods to do better journalism. He pioneered in using survey research as a reporter for Knight Ridder newspapers to explore the causes of race riots in the 1960s.
The contest also helps identify the techniques and resources used to complete each story. Entries are placed in the IRE Resource Center, allowing members to learn from each other.
For more information, please call the IRE Resource Center at (573) 882-3364 or refer to these helpful links on our website:
Philip Meyer Award FAQ: http://www.ire.org/meyeraward/meyerFAQ.html
Download a PDF of the entry form: http://www.ire.org/meyeraward/PhillipMeyerEntryForm07.pdf
Past winners:
2006: http://www.ire.org/meyeraward/06winners.html
2005: http://www.ire.org/history/pr/2005MeyerAward.html
It's important to note that Philip Meyer Journalism Award is unique in its efforts to avoid conflicts of interest. Work that included any significant role by a member of the IRE Board of Directors or an IRE contest judge may not be entered in the contest. This often represents a significant sacrifice on the part of the individual — and sometimes an entire newsroom. The IRE membership appreciates this devotion to the values of the organization.
Beth Kopine Contest Coordinator Resource Center Director Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. 138 Neff Annex Missouri School of Journalism Columbia, MO 65211 Phone: 573-882-6668 Fax: 573-884-8151 Email: beth@ire.org
Yes, call us fickle and lacking in loyalty when it comes to note-taking and research organization tools. Does anyone else remember the 5×8 cards with holes punched on all four perimeters? You entered “tags” or keywords by clipping out the outer edge of the hole, and when you needed to find a particular note card, a knitting needle-sized wire was inserted into the whole pack. Shake the cards and the desired note fell out. Sometimes.
Since going digital 25 years ago, we've tried dozens of tools to try and bring some order to what we've turned up online and need to save. Most were fine innovations and advances at the time, but there was often something that didn't quite meet all of our needs or desires. That still might be true, but a new entry in the research management derby (thanks to the cite from The Scout Report quoted below) delivers up an impressive new tool.
Zotero is a Firefox extension with rich, intuitive tools that are flexible enough to support the way YOU want/need to work. This is only version 1.0, but I think I have a new best friend.
Zotero http://www.zotero.org/ “It can be hard to keep Tom Wolfe and Thomas Wolfe straight at times, and if you are working on an academic paper that incorporates both of these august characters, you probably want to keep those research sources in good order. Thanks to Zotero, it is very easy to do just that. Zotero is a Firefox extension that helps users collect, manage, and cite their research sources. Zotero can automatically capture citation information from web pages, store PDF files, and also export these citations with relatively ease. This very helpful extension is compatible with computers running Firefox 2.0.” [KMG]
http://www.zotero.org/
“It can be hard to keep Tom Wolfe and Thomas Wolfe straight at times, and if you are working on an academic paper that incorporates both of these august characters, you probably want to keep those research sources in good order. Thanks to Zotero, it is very easy to do just that. Zotero is a Firefox extension that helps users collect, manage, and cite their research sources. Zotero can automatically capture citation information from web pages, store PDF files, and also export these citations with relatively ease. This very helpful extension is compatible with computers running Firefox 2.0.” [KMG]
Here's a train journos should get on, m'thinks, because of its long-term value, implications and potential for synergy.
http://openstreetmap.org/ — OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you. OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth. OpenStreetMap's hosting is kindly supported by the UCL VR Centre and bytemark. — tj
Andy Crain, of the Cincinnati Enquirer, just posted an interesting item on the NICAR listserv related to an innovative integration of news stories and JAGIS. Check it out.
All, The Cincinnati Enquirer has just launched a database application we hope will become our primary vehicle for providing highly local database content to our readers. We call it CinciNavigator. It's a map-based application where users can search currently about half a dozen types of data from numerous sources (much more to come), updated as often as hourly, including stories published in the paper. Check it out, and please share any comments/criticisms/suggestions. Thanks! http://data.cincinnati.com/navigator/ Andy Crain The Cincinnati Enquirer acrain@cincinnati.com
All, The Cincinnati Enquirer has just launched a database application we hope will become our primary vehicle for providing highly local database content to our readers. We call it CinciNavigator. It's a map-based application where users can search currently about half a dozen types of data from numerous sources (much more to come), updated as often as hourly, including stories published in the paper. Check it out, and please share any comments/criticisms/suggestions. Thanks! http://data.cincinnati.com/navigator/
Andy Crain The Cincinnati Enquirer acrain@cincinnati.com
We were pleased to see last week (via the NICAR listserv) that multiple newspapers, at least in the U.S., have discovered they can get public records data bases, create specialized look-up tools for their frontends and post it/them on their web site. Let's keep on keeping on with this. It seems quite possibly that the next phase of bringing bits and bytes to the people might well be in the realm of 3D, mapping and simulation modeling. To that end, take a look at the “Terrain Tools & Software Packages” jumpstation. This is a nifty collection of commercial and open-source apps that just make your job easier and more interesting.
From O'Reilly Radar's Publishing blog comes this interesting item. See http://radar.oreilly.com/publishing/
The Traditional Future
“A prominent U.S. sociologist and student of professions, Andrew Abbott of the University of Chicago, has written a thought-provoking thesis on what he terms “library research” — that is, research as performed with library-held resources by historians, et. al, via the reading and browsing of texts — compared to social science research, which has a more linear, “Idea->Question->Data->Method->Result” type of methodology. “The pre-print, “The Traditional Future: A Computational Theory of Library Research,” is full of insights about library centric research, including intriguing parallels between library research and neural net computing architectures; a comparison that made me think anew, and with more clarity, about how the science of history is conducted. Armed with a distinctive interpretation of library research, Abbott is able to draw some incisive conclusions about the ramifications of large repositories of digitized texts (such as Google Book Search) on the conduct of scholarship…”
“A prominent U.S. sociologist and student of professions, Andrew Abbott of the University of Chicago, has written a thought-provoking thesis on what he terms “library research” — that is, research as performed with library-held resources by historians, et. al, via the reading and browsing of texts — compared to social science research, which has a more linear, “Idea->Question->Data->Method->Result” type of methodology.
“The pre-print, “The Traditional Future: A Computational Theory of Library Research,” is full of insights about library centric research, including intriguing parallels between library research and neural net computing architectures; a comparison that made me think anew, and with more clarity, about how the science of history is conducted. Armed with a distinctive interpretation of library research, Abbott is able to draw some incisive conclusions about the ramifications of large repositories of digitized texts (such as Google Book Search) on the conduct of scholarship…”
