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News from the Future of Public Media
Storymapping, Mapumentary and More
email discuss Posted by Jessica Clark on Oct 4, 2007 at 6:15 PM
2007 may well be heralded as the “year that put maps on the map.” Free tools for mapping and visualizing have exploded online, and a wide range of amateurs, nonprofits and media outlets are harnessing these new technologies to make public media.
The Center for Digital Storytelling is a nonprofit organization “dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives.” Their StoryMapping initiative matches up communities and individuals with tools like MapBuilder and CommunityWalk—interfaces that make it easy to create customized Google or Yahoo maps.
One StoryMapping project, Placemeant features a map of narratives collected from communities around Ukiah, California. Map links lead to online videos that illustrate each story associated with that location. Another, Save Our Shoreline offers links to a text and photo tour of Albany Bulb, an undeveloped stretch of beach along the San Francisco bay. Yet another maps Houston’s Third Ward; map markers point to multimedia documentations of personal histories from a community facing gentrification. Additional projects examine the relationship between space, public concerns and private experiences in locations around the United States.
The StoryMapping initiative reflects a larger trend that Di-Ann Eisnor of Platial calls “mapumentary.” Subtitled “the people’s atlas,” Platial provides a suite of tools that allow users to combine maps with photos, stories, feeds, videos and tags, and to feature their custom maps on their blogs or Web sites. Nearly 15,000 users created maps on Platial in 2006 alone, on topics ranging from taquerias in San Francisco, to historical trolley lines in Portland, to the businesses and residents that populated one Winnepeg city block in 1945.
On a page titled “neogeography,” the Platial site notes, “There seems to be incredible passion and energy these days around geography, mapping, locative devices, psychogeography, and how they all are going to tie into our technologically infused lives.”
The 800-pound gorilla of neogeography is undoubtedly GoogleMaps; by providing users with free maps and mashup tools in 2005, they sparked a trend of intergalactic proportions. For more terrestrial concerns, Google Earth Outreach, launched in June, is specifically targeted to nonprofits and public advocacy groups; current users include the United Nations, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Jane Goodall Institute.
The Center for Social Media is exploring a number of mapping tools that lend themselves to public media; check this space for further updates.
Discussion
Cambridge Community Television (where I serve on the Board) has a StoryMapping project that might be of interest, titled CCTV MediaMap. From the website:
“The map provides a dynamic and lively tour of the richness of the arts, cultures and history of our City.”
It’s located here: http://cctvcambridge.org/mediamap