This document summarizes the MapIt1418 project, which aims to add geographic data to historical photos from World War 1 by activating communities on Flickr. The project "mashes up" Flickr photo data with mapping data from OpenStreetMap to allow people to geotag photos on a map and add their own stories. The organizers chose OpenStreetMap due to its openness, social ecosystem, and ability to be customized. They developed MapIt1418 with thorough interaction and graphic design to make mapping accessible despite the non-technical audience. The project brings together Flickr, OpenStreetMap, and other technologies to enrich cultural heritage collections and make them more discoverable.

1. MapIt1418
Mapping Collective History Together

2. a few statements
to start with

3. since early
times,
we’ve
wanted to
know
where
things
were and
when
Antikythera Mechanism

4. the older things are, the less
we know about their origin

7. Images for the Future
• Saves audiovisual heritage through
conservation and digitization.
• Makes digital material available for
educational purposes, for the general
public and for the creative industry.
• Innovates the heritage sector by sharing
knowledge and experience

8. IFTF =
• National Archive
• Knowledgeland
• Sound and Vision
• Filmmuseum
• Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken
• Centrale Discotheek Rotterdam

9. IFTF =
• National Archive
• Knowledgeland
• Sound and Vision
• Filmmuseum
• Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken
• Centrale Discotheek Rotterdam

10. • National Archive: 1.2 million photos:
• digitisation & metadata generation
•  broad availability!
• Professionals & volunteers
• Making use of the crowd

12. monitoring
“interestingness”

13. top 10 “interestingness”
4 out of 10:
World War 1 photos

16. Mapping Collective History,
Together: MapIt1418
• Most “interesting” (whatever that may be)
• Of all NA photos on Flickr, the WW1 collection
gets the most views, comments & tags
• Geographical data are mostly unknown
• Activate WW1 communities to add
geographical data to the collection

17. MapIt1418: big leap for
archive, not for mankind
• ‘mashing up’ data streams from Flickr & OSM
• people can put photos on map, thus adding
data to Flickr
• add own stories, add photos of ‘now’ situations

18. So, why OSM?
we like:
• openness
• benefits for the sector: re-usability
• portability
• its social ecosystem
• temporal quality: up-to-date
• customisation (possible phase II of MapIt1418)
• Map content
• Cartographic visualisation

19. Developing MapIt1418
• Not a typical OSM-example
• Not a map-savvy organisation
• Not a map-savvy audience

20. Mitigation
• Thorough functional design
• Interaction design
• Graphic design

21. Developing MapIt1418
• “Classic” example of mash-up
• OpenStreetMap
• Flickr
• Re-mashable: KML/GeoRSS

22. Bringing it together
• Flickr API
• OpenLayers
• Fusebox: PHP framework
• MySQL

23. let’s have a look
23

24. ro
ug
h
sk
et
ch
!

25. ro
ug
h
sk
et
ch
!

26. mapit1418.nl (live August 21)
thanks!
Questions?
te@kl.nl /
judith.moortgat@nationaalarchief.nl /
edward@webmapper.net