Director's Report

August  2002

Content includes:

1. ECAI sponsored conferences
2. ECAI workshops and training institutes
3. ECAI attendance at other conferences
4. ECAI and instructional resources
5. ECAI publications
6. ECAI technology and standards development
7. ECAI content development

1.  ECAI SPONSORED CONFERENCES

Korea Conference (May 2002):  In May, ECAI joined the Korean Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Korea University, and other Korean sponsors in hosting “Global Networking of Digital Cultural Heritage” at Seoul National University.  Two days of presentations by ECAI members and Korean digital cultural heritage researchers were followed by two days of ECAI work sessions.  The conference was followed by a four day workshop at Academia Sinica in Taiwan on digital gazetteers and interoperability research.

Japan Conference (September 2002):  The next ECAI international conference is scheduled for September 15-23, 2002.  This conference will have three sites:

-September 15-19, ECAI work sessions at the  University of Shimane;

We have a full program for these days.  You can see the program and register for the conference at http://pnc-ecai.oiu.ac.jp.  Please do so soon if you are planning to attend.  If you have any questions, contact  ecai@socrates.berkeley.edu.  There will be over 300 delegates for the three venues. I hope to see you at the sessions.

Budapest Conference (April 2003): ECAI and the Hungarian Academy of Science will host an international conference April 14-16, 2003 in Budapest.  The head of the local arrangements will be Professor Kristof Nyiri of the Academy.  Registration and program planning will be started in October.

Subsequent Conferences:  The Fall 2003 ECAI international conference has been scheduled for Bangkok.  Negotiations are underway for future conferences in Vancouver, Paris, and Shanghai.

2.  ECAI TRAINING INSTITUTES AND WORKSHOPS

GIS and the Humanities Workshop:  University of Sydney, September 5-6, 2002.

Ian Johnson and Andrew Wilson will be conducting a 2 day workshop on behalf of the Australian e-Humanities Network, building on their experience in GIS training workshops for archaeologists.  They will highlight the work of ECAI to the participants.

ECAI Workshop:  Virtual Systems and Multimedia Conference, Kyongju, Korea September 25-27, 2002:  Organized by Jeanette Zerneke and Ruth Mostern, this will be an opportunity for those groups involved in virtual reality and cultural heritage preservation to explore the ECAI methodology and TimeMap technology. The workshop will be on September 25 and is open to all participants in the VSMM conference.

ECAI Institute: United Kingdom September, 12, 2002:  ECAI is co-sponsor of a workshop entitled "GIS in the Arts and Humanities".  Led by William Kilbride and Ian Gregory, this one day workshop seeks to raises awareness of GIS for scholars across the UK.  Demand for the event has been overwhelming. The event is hosted by the Archaeology Data Service at the University of York, and has received additional support from Queen's University Belfast and the Association for Historical Computing.  Initial planning for a repeat workshop is already under way.

ECAI Workshop:  Digitizing Rubbings:  Cambodia, January, 2003:  The workshop is to be held in mid-January at APSARA, the government organization charged with care for Angkor. The purpose is training in digitizing and geo-referencing rubbings of inscriptions and planning for future steps in making these materials digitally available.  While the training is set up for Southeast Asian residents, others working on material for that region can apply. Caverlee Cary is the organizer.

3.  ECAI ATTENDANCE AT OTHER CONFERENCES

·         Digital Gazetteers:  Integration into Distributed Digital Library Services:  July 18, 2002, Portland, Oregon (in conjunction with Joint Conference on Digital Libraries): presentation by Ruth Mostern.

·         University of California Computing Services Conference: July 28-30, Berkeley, California:  presentations by Ruth Mostern and Jeanette Zerneke.

·         American Association of State and Local History:  September 25-28, 2002,  Portland, Oregon:  presentation by David Bodenhamer.

·         World Heritage in the Digital Age:  UNESCO World Heritage Center 30^th Anniversary Virtual Congress:  October-November 2002.   I am on the Scientific Committee for the Congress.  ECAI will participate in the Virtual Congress.  At the associated conference Heritage Management Mapping:  GIS and Multimedia, Alexandria, Egypt, October 21-23, 2002 there will be a presentation by Ian Johnson.

·         Social Science History Association:  October 24-27, 2002, St. Louis, Missouri:  ECAI associates are participating in many historical geography sessions, including sessions on both metadata and GIS.  A session on ECAI electronic publication is organized by Paul Ell.

·         American Historical Association: Jan 3-5, 2003, Chicago, Illinois: there will be several papers on ECAI activities, one panel including David Bodenhamer and another Anne Knowles.

·         Association of Asian Studies:  March 27-30, 2003,  New York:  I will be a discussant on a panel dealing with scholarship and digital material organized by Helena Kolenda of the Luce Foundation.

·         Computer Applications in Archaeology:  April 8-12, 2003,Vienna, Austria:  ECAI will participate in this event being held prior to the Budapest International ECAI conference.

4.  ECAI AND INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES

ECAI has received a grant of $20,000 from the UC Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). The funds will be used for a pilot project working with a consortium of faculty members who wish to start using digital materials in the classroom.  ECAI will work with faculty and teaching assistants to develop strategies for incorporating TimeMap into lectures and course assignments and using the ECAI metadata clearinghouse for access to material.  At the same time, I have joined the CITRIS Executive Committee as the representative for the humanities.

5.  ECAI PUBLICATIONS

·         The volume edited by Anne Knowles,  Past Time Past Place: GIS for History published by ESRI and featuring ECAI projects has sold out the first print run.  A second edition is underway.

·         The first round of ECAI ePublications will soon be released by the California Digital Library.  A second group of authors are working on subsequent publications:  Franciscus Verellen and Justin O’Jack, John Corrigan and Tracy Leavalle, Larry Crissman, Susan Whitfield, David Blundell.  Some of these will be done by the end of the calendar year.

·         A special issue of History and Computing on GIS for history is being edited by Ian Gregory.  It will include articles by a number of ECAI affiliates.

·         Ruth Mostern and I are writing an article on ECAI Silk Road activities for the Central Eurasian Studies Review.  An article about the ECAI Silk Road atlas will also appear in conference proceedings published by Cal Performances.

·         Andrew Wilson and Ian Johnson have six articles forthcoming on TimeMap and ECAI. 

6.  ECAI TECHNOLOGY AND STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT

·        TimeMap Development - TimeMap’s principal software developer, Artem Osmakov, is currently in Sydney for three months working with Ian Johnson and Tom Murtagh on major revisions to the ECAI clearinghouse, the TimeMap Java mapping applet and the TimeMap suite of programs. The changes are primarily aimed at streamlining registration of data in the clearinghouse and increasing the speed and stability of the system.  The new Java applet is only 200K in size, has improved cartographic rendering and has a fully customizable interface. The TimeMap viewer and metadata editor will be combined. Additional map customization features have been added.  On the development horizon is support of the Open GIS Consortium web mapping service (WMS) standard. The President and Executive Director of the Specification Program of the Open GIS Consortium will be visiting the TimeMap project in August.

·         The digital gazetteers project to evaluate, extend, and develop standards and best practices for history and culture is well underway.  We are embarking on a test bed project for providing gazetteer services and permitting searches of multiple, multilingual gazetteers. 

7.  ECAI CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

·         The Silk Road atlas project that began last spring is still continuing.  We are adding content on empires, religions, and trade routes, and developing a website to allow instructors to use interactive Silk Road maps in courses.

·         ECAI has contracted with a  commercial client from the energy industry to develop a demonstration showing the spatial and temporal distribution of energy production and consumption.