geography, time, and the representation of cultural change – experience from a large...

Geography, Time, and the Representation of Cultural Change –

Experience from a Large Collaboration:The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

(ECAI)

Michael BucklandElectronic Cultural Atlas InitiativeUniversity of California, Berkeley

Knowledge by NetworkingBerlin, June 22, 2007

June 22, 2007 Knowbynet, Berlin. 2

ECAI Mission: Transform education and research through better understanding of place, time and culture.

Five ideas . . . 1. Understanding requires knowing the context.2. Using Internet resources should be like using reference books in a library – and as easy and as reliable.

3. Design: Find the context of any museum object, document, or performance: What is related to it in what it is, where it came from, when it originated, and who is associated with it?

4.WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and WHO (“4W”) as a structure.

5.Make better use of existing descriptive metadata.


“4W” Search Support

Any resource:Audio, Images, Texts, Numeric data, Objects, Virtual reality, Webpages

Any catalog: Archives, Libraries, Museums, TV, Publishers

Facet Vocabulary Displays

WHAT Thesaurus Cross- references

WHERE Gazetteer Map

WHEN Period directory Timeline

WHO Biograph. dict. Interpersonal

e.g. Who’s Who relationships


WHAT Subject headings Cross-references

Kung fu movies SEE Martial Arts filmsFORMERLY Hand-to-hand fighting, oriental, in motion pictures

“Automobile” in four dialects: - PASS MOT VEH, SPARK IGN ENG (U.S. Import/Export statistics) - TL 205 (Library of Congress Classification) - 180/280 (US Patent classification) - 3711 (Standard Industrial Classification)

“HS 847120 Digital auto data proc mach contng in the same housing a CPU and input & output device.”(International Harmonized Commodity Classification System).

NEED TO MAP TO & BETWEEN UNFAMILIAR VOCABULARIES

= Computer!


WHERE Place name gazetteer Map

Ctesiphon (Ancient site)

Dots link to portal


WHAT is WHERE? Catalog + gazetteer + map. Search for books on Folklore, then geographical sort.


WHERE is WHAT? Draw box on map around South America. Gazetteer names capital cities (“PPLC”) for search in catalog.


WHEN Named Time Periods Timeline

People speak of time by naming periods and events: - In reign of Charlemagne… - During the Weimar Republic… - After the Vietnam War… - When I was a student…This practice is culturally situated -- and resembles the use of place names. We developed a “Named Time Period Directory” like a place name gazetteer:

Place name gazetteerPlace name – Type of place – Lat. & Long. – when

Named period directoryPeriod name – Type of period – Chron. Time -- where


Example: WHAT happened in IRELAND in 1690s?

Time Period Directory records in Google Earth. Zoom to Ireland and 1690s. Icon for Siege of Limerick, 1690. Click link for library search. Catalog records list books and show context.


WHEN Time Period Directory Timeline

Search LC Catalog

Search Wikipedia


WHO Biographical Dictionary Complex relationships

Life events metadata

WHAT: Actions prisoner

WHERE: Places Holstein

WHEN: Times

1261-1262

WHO: People Margaret Sambiria

But for “knowbynet” we need external links!

New project: Automatic context finding for biography.

Example: Electronic search engine pioneer.


Emanuel Goldberg, b. Moscow, 1881; son of Grigorii Goldberg; Univ. of Moscow, 1900-04; Ph.D w. Robert Luther, Leipzig Univ., 1906; Assistant, Adolf Miethe, TU Charlottenburg, 1906-07; Prof, Akad. f. graphische Künste, Leipzig, 1907-17; ICA, Zeiss Ikon, Dresden, 1917-1933; Kinamo cine camera, 1921; microdots, 1925; search engine, 1927; Contax 35 mm camera 1932; kidnapped by Nazi SA; refugee in Paris, 1933-37; Laboratory, Palestine, Israel, 1937; d. 1970.

WHO?

Click a name to search for an internet resource.



WHERE?



WHAT?


Technical comment: WHAT, WHERE, WHEN indexes are often complex. Links create infrastructure!

Library subject headings:Topic – Geographic subdivision – Chronological subdivision

Place name gazetteer:Place name – Type – Spatial markers (Lat & long) – When

Time Period Directory:Period name – Type – Time markers (Calendar) – Where


Any document, object, or performance

Any resource:Audio, Images, Texts, Numeric data, Objects, Virtual reality, Webpages

Any catalog: Archives, Libraries, Museums, TV, Publishers

Connect it with its context – and other resources.

Facet Vocabulary Displays

WHAT Thesaurus Cross- e.g. LCSH references

WHERE Gazetteer Map

WHEN Period directory Timeline

WHO Biograph. dict. Personal e.g. Who’s Who relations


A “4W” search interfacehttp://ecai.org/imls4w/


Entry Vocabulary Index suggests correct LCSH with different spelling

Buttons for searchable resources & local catalogs

Search term recommender service for LC Subject Headings


Potentially related people


Potentially related periods


Mostly in India 16th-18th century


Find out more about this area.


Different Browsing Options!


Zooming to South Asia

Set limits in time frame

Select


General information about the country of India…

Interface generates menu page

WikipediaCIA Factbook

BBC Ethnologue

Berkeley Natural History Museums


ECAI Cultural Atlases: presenting history in its geographical & chronological contexts


The Electronic Cultural Atlas InitiativeAdvancing scholarship through increased attention

to place and time.http://ecai.org http://ecai.org/imls2004

This represents the work of many people, including Dr Vivien Petras (GESIS-IZ, Bonn). We thank the US Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Science Foundation, and the Luce Foundation for their support.

Come to the next ECAI conferences!Berkeley, Oct 17-20, 2007; Perth, Australia, April 22-24, 2008.

Understanding means knowing context.Go geo-temporal! Use dynamic links! Provide context!

geography, time, and the representation of cultural change – experience from a large...

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