Treading out Technology theory meets praxis during a

thousand mile walk round Wales

Alan Dix

Talis & University of Birmingham

http://alandix.com/alanwalkswales/

University ofBirmingham

Tiree

TalisTiree Tech Wave14-18 March ’13 (TBC)

today I am not talking about …

• intelligent internet interfaces• visualisation and sampling• situated displays, eCampus,

small device – large display interactions• fun and games, virtual crackers,

artistic performance, slow time• physicality and product design• creativity and Bad Ideas• modelling dreams and regret

… or even lots of lights

http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

what I will talk about ...

... Alan Walks Wales ...

context

vision

inspirations

challenges

invitation

contextWales coast pathTiree

Welsh Coast Path

opened May 2012linking existing pathsa single way marked routewith Offa’s Dyke encircles Walestwo full traversals in 2012 (one running)

About Tiree

poor mobilephonecoverage

750 residents20,000 summer visitors

Tiree

at the edges ...750 people, 20 square miles, 4 hour ferry

Tiree Tech Wavefor the attendee and for the community

Tiree Mobile Heritagelater ...

visionAlan Walks Waleswhy and what for

Alan Walks Wales

April/May – July 2012

complete periplus

with IT focus

vision

personalencircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,

practicalIT for the walker & IT for local communities

philosophicalreflections on walking and space, locality and identity

researchpersonal agenda and living lab

inspirationspaths and patchesmarginality and the electronic village shopTiree mobile archivemobile connectivity and data synchronisation

at the margins

social marginality:poor, old, rural

information marginality:poor connectivity, old

devices

IT deepens the divide... but can IT help in the

margins?

IT in the margins

lessons from the developing worldhole in the wall, Matt simple SMS

an old dream ... the electronic village shop

what now?

www.hole-in-the-wall.com

An IodhlannTiree Historical Centrefounded 1992housed in old ‘reading room’

staffed by volunteers and P/T archivist

12,000 catalogued itemsmaps, land records,photos, audio tapes, ...

cultural heritage problem

information at An Iodhlann noton the ground in the island

20,000 summer visitors to Tireeonly ~ 1000 pa enter An Iodhlann... and demographic ... mature ...

idea! ... mobile access

better availability for thosewho already visit An Iodhlann

offer information to people, where they are, on the ground

new availability for

those who don’tesp. younger!

attract fresh visitorsinto An Iodhlann

challenges ... density of visitors

Edinburgh Castle

Tiree crowds

=> no special installations no guides on the ground

challenges ... mobile signal!

cannot stream data => downloaded app => limited content

good news – no hills, no buildings => GPS good

design solution

preparationand reminiscence

when WiFi connected@ hotel/B&B and @ home

technical solution – data centric

...00101101...

...1010011010...

web dataservices

REST, JSON, SPARQL, RDF

(LOD) linkedopen data

other forms of novelinteraction

mobileapps.

digitalhumanities

challengestechnicalinteractionalsocial

mapsreclaiming the local map within technological space

mapping never easier ... so long as it is ‘standard’

“Post-Renaissance maps cover the surface of the world with an homogeneous Cartesian grip”

Barbara Bender

local maps – local concerns

linear maps too

linear maps too

maps – issues

coordinate transforms – rubber sheeting

transitions – morph or discontinuous

linking trails and localities

authoring and data

always connected?

mobile signalabsent or weak

broadband ...not so broad

=> offline accessand synchronisation

https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

data synchronisation

well studied in early 1990sfor disconnected operation and synchronous editing

... but still poorly implemented e.g. Apple iOS

almost always items are:homogeneousindependent

data integraton

mashups, APIs, RDF,linked data, schema.org

ingest ...or

relate?... heterogeneity

https://developers.google.com/maps/visualize

syncing heterogeneous data

problem of lossinessone solution – create the über format :-/

exploit neo-Galois connectionsf o g o f = f g o f o g = g

f

g

ruler length (log miles)

coast length (log miles)

P.S. is Welsh coast fractal ...

oops!

P.S. is Welsh coast fractal ...

invitationcommunity connectionswalk with meliving lab