Shortly after Google launched Google Maps in 2005, the first mashup was created, an automatically generated map of apartments for rent listed on Craigslist. Since then, a huge variety of map based mashups have been created. Indeed, Yahoo! has an experimental tool that creates a map mashup from any site that has addresses!
For the first year or so, creating a mashup required some reasonably heavy duty web programming, not that hard, but certainly beyond the skills of most folks. The game changed when Google added the My Maps feature. Now all you had to do is put down a point, a "push pin" on a map, and add rich content to it. Subsequent users of the map could click on one of your "push pins" and get access to the content you'd created. It gets even better when you can point to images stored in photo sharing web sites like Flickr.
That site and most of the other major photo sharing sites also offer the option of geocoding your uploaded images, that is, you can tell folks where this picture was taken. My new mobile can do this automagically (as soon as I figure out the hopelessly obscure setting to do so...), so every pix is identified as to where I was when it was taken.
So, why am I blogging about "ancient" technology, gosh it's three years old!
Well, 'cause I think anyone who has a web site with some IA content should create interesting maps relating that content. At the very least, you should have a map that shows how to get to your museum or whatever. For things like SIA Chapters, making a map of "interesting" sites in your local area is really easy, and of great value to our outreach mission. A couple of thousand people have viewed the IA Sites In Northern California map linked off the Knight Chapter web site or the Historic Highway Bridges map derived from the Caltrans survey.
Ultimately, I'm interested in "location aware industrial heritage touring". There are MILLIONS of devices out there that know where they are, and can connect to the internet at very high speed. What if we had tools to create a guided tour with rich multimedia content that took you through an interesting neighborhood or wonderful industrial heritage site? We can do this NOW with a LOT of work, but we need to create tools and guidance to allow anybody to do it. Come along, contribute your ideas and gimme a hand!
jay
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
SIAWiki - an Experimental Wiki
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Slides - What Can the SIA Do?
A chance meeting with Deborah Douglas, Curator, Science and Technology at the MIT Museum, brought some thoughts into sharper focus. We were chatting about preserving the heritage contained in slide collections. They are hard at work on the slides of "Doc" Edgerton, "the man who made time stand still" via the invention of numerous techniques for very high speed photography. She was pleased to hear that MTU has started on Robert Vogel's slides. Both projects are very ambitious, and are planning to have a significant web presence for the results.
Their efforts include very high resolution scans and reasonably complete documentation, pushing the costs per slide above $1 (it costs about $0.25 for a basic, commercial scan), and beyond. EXCELLENT, preserve these unique insights for future researchers who really need the best possible imagery!
As noted in an earlier post, I am hopeful about the collections of our most prominent members. I am far less hopeful (at the moment, keep reading) about the excellent collections of SIA members who may not have achieved international prominence, but have images with unique insights into particular industrial heritage sites.
My "elevator speech" "...and when one of our members passes away, the heirs look at the slides and say 'Gosh, it's just pictures of a junkyard, no need to save them' and a bit of our industrial heritage disappears."
What should the role of the SIA be in preserving this heritage? We're less than 40 years old, and don't have any permanent archival facilities. Still, can we be a catalyst/sponsor to spur preservation of these collections?
One of my all time favorite quotes is from Soul of the New Machine, where an exasperated project manager tells a team member "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well!" Even low resolution capture of historic images is better than losing them.
Again, as always, more questions than answers, stay tuned...
jay
Their efforts include very high resolution scans and reasonably complete documentation, pushing the costs per slide above $1 (it costs about $0.25 for a basic, commercial scan), and beyond. EXCELLENT, preserve these unique insights for future researchers who really need the best possible imagery!
As noted in an earlier post, I am hopeful about the collections of our most prominent members. I am far less hopeful (at the moment, keep reading) about the excellent collections of SIA members who may not have achieved international prominence, but have images with unique insights into particular industrial heritage sites.
My "elevator speech" "...and when one of our members passes away, the heirs look at the slides and say 'Gosh, it's just pictures of a junkyard, no need to save them' and a bit of our industrial heritage disappears."
What should the role of the SIA be in preserving this heritage? We're less than 40 years old, and don't have any permanent archival facilities. Still, can we be a catalyst/sponsor to spur preservation of these collections?
One of my all time favorite quotes is from Soul of the New Machine, where an exasperated project manager tells a team member "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well!" Even low resolution capture of historic images is better than losing them.
Again, as always, more questions than answers, stay tuned...
jay
11 Most Endangered Industrial Heritage Sites - Some thoughts
The National Trust for Historic Preservation publishes an annual list of the 11 most endangered historic places in the US. There have been a few industrial sites on the list in past years, but their net is pretty broad, and the industrial heritage sites we know and treasure might not make their prioritized lists. The list is a great thing, and benefits these sites immensely. Recognition by a national organization with excellent connections and influence has helped many of these sites in past lists to survive. The record isn't perfect, but even if not every site is preserved, it's a great thing that some are.
I wonder if the SIA (and perhaps allied organizations?) should undertake creation of a similar list? We are all WAY too familiar with seeing a significant industrial heritage site simply disappear with little or no public awareness or comment. By helping to identify significant sites that pass some level of SIA scrutiny, we, as an organization can help local groups preserve these sites.
Obviously, this needs LOTS more thought and work before even becoming a proposal. Right now, consider it to be just some more musings. But, isn't that what all blogs are...
jay
I wonder if the SIA (and perhaps allied organizations?) should undertake creation of a similar list? We are all WAY too familiar with seeing a significant industrial heritage site simply disappear with little or no public awareness or comment. By helping to identify significant sites that pass some level of SIA scrutiny, we, as an organization can help local groups preserve these sites.
Obviously, this needs LOTS more thought and work before even becoming a proposal. Right now, consider it to be just some more musings. But, isn't that what all blogs are...
jay
Monday, June 23, 2008
Location Aware IA Tours
iPhone 2.0 contains a GPSr (I'm a purist, it's a Global Positioning Satellite (r)eceiver), as does my much cheaper Samsung Blackjack, and millions of other devices. My Blackjack is a 3G device, capable of megabit/sec connection in most cities.
How can we take Cannery Life (an SIA 2008 Tour), the Google Street View of the area as part of Google Maps, external links to the History San Jose Cannery Life web site (the inspiration for the SIA 2008 tour) and turn it all into an engaging, captivating, informative look at a now gone aspect of San Jose's industrial history? Oh, and by the way, I don't have any money to spend on this. (blew it all on the data plan...)
As little as two years ago, this would be impossible to realize on a shoestring budget, now, hmmmm, anybody really know how to figure out where somebody is and pop the appropriate images, data etc?
How would we tell a visitor to the area that 10 min from her downtown SJ hotel is a cool, safe walk in an interesting area that even locals don't really know much about?
What about YOUR area? If we had simple directions on how to create this sort of thing, what would YOU like your visitors to see about the industrial heritage of where you life and work?
More questions than answers at this point, stay tuned...
jay
How can we take Cannery Life (an SIA 2008 Tour), the Google Street View of the area as part of Google Maps, external links to the History San Jose Cannery Life web site (the inspiration for the SIA 2008 tour) and turn it all into an engaging, captivating, informative look at a now gone aspect of San Jose's industrial history? Oh, and by the way, I don't have any money to spend on this. (blew it all on the data plan...)
As little as two years ago, this would be impossible to realize on a shoestring budget, now, hmmmm, anybody really know how to figure out where somebody is and pop the appropriate images, data etc?
How would we tell a visitor to the area that 10 min from her downtown SJ hotel is a cool, safe walk in an interesting area that even locals don't really know much about?
What about YOUR area? If we had simple directions on how to create this sort of thing, what would YOU like your visitors to see about the industrial heritage of where you life and work?
More questions than answers at this point, stay tuned...
jay
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Virtual Chapters
It's our tradition to have members of each of our Chapters stand and be recognized at the Annual General Meeting. After I had done that at SIA 2008, it struck me that quite a few SIA members are not members of a local Chapter. In many cases, there isn't a Chapter in the area.
That shouldn't prevent folks from doing some of the things Chapters do, like organize tours, publish newsletters, and advocate for industrial heritage preservation.
So, let's organize a "Virtual Chapter" that anybody, anywhere can join. I've put up some place holder items on the knightsia.org forum If this takes off, it's easy to set up a more sophisticated mechanism.
We usually create a name for our Chapters, most often a local figure relevant to IA. Any suggestions?
jay
That shouldn't prevent folks from doing some of the things Chapters do, like organize tours, publish newsletters, and advocate for industrial heritage preservation.
So, let's organize a "Virtual Chapter" that anybody, anywhere can join. I've put up some place holder items on the knightsia.org forum If this takes off, it's easy to set up a more sophisticated mechanism.
We usually create a name for our Chapters, most often a local figure relevant to IA. Any suggestions?
jay
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
My Goals for the SIA
First, thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve the Society as Vice President for the next two years. I hope that with your help, Mary Habstritt, the incoming Board and I can move the Society forward.
There are a several things on my agenda as Vice President. Some of these are “stretch goals”, things that are ambitious and might not be fully achieved in the next two years. An organization cannot achieve great things without reaching for things beyond the current grasp.
First, we must improve the technology we use to find, reach and stay in contact with our members, friends and allies. Although we will continue to reach members via standard mail, I’d like to see us move aggressively to use electronic means of communication to improve timeliness of communications and reduce costs. This is more than email, it includes RSS feeds, text messaging, and social networking. Anybody want to help build a copy of the Troy Gasholder in Second Life? How about a YouTube video on one of the sites YOU are passionate about? We also need to find ways of being discovered by new friends and allies. Improving our web presence and relevance is part of this, as is seeking new ways to engage the public in industrial heritage awareness and preservation. There are millions of geographically aware mobile devices out there, what can we do to point out industrial heritage sites as one gets near one of them?
We must find ways of reaching under-served demographic groups. We must broaden our geographic base, and actively seek out new potential members and allies in the ranks of students and young professionals, and in the immense cohort of the Baby Boom, now entering active retirement with resources, interests, and time to get involved in our activities. Coming up with new programs and events to entice, captivate and engage new members is a top priority for me.
I am also very excited about aligning our interests in industrial heritage preservation with the green movement. Existing industrial buildings in creative adaptive reuse are exceptionally green. It is particularly interesting to see how leading edge companies have achieved formal green certifications for buildings over 100 years old. We need to make sure our interests are in sync with the organizations, processes and people in the green movement, and to seek creative alliances with other organizations and people in the historic preservation community who share a green vision with us.
Finally, I was struck by the risk of losing vital parts of the documentation of our industrial heritage while working on SIA 2008. It was a delight to hear that Robert Vogel’s slide collection has been donated to Michigan Tech, and to see the initial steps being taken to make it available to the public. I spoke with other prominent SIA members who were taking similar steps. However, we have a rich legacy of imagery in the hands of individual members who, on their own, have collected slides etc. documenting our industrial heritage. I plan to propose programs in which the SIA can foster the preservation and greater dissemination of these collections. This is still an embryonic idea, and I’d welcome inputs, ideas, and discussion on it.
Thank you for your support. Let’s make something HAPPEN!
jay