Place, Time, and Biography
Michael K. Buckland, University of California, Berkeley
buckland@simsberkeley.edu

Cultural and Archaeological Virtual Landscapes: the Case Study of the Appia Antica Park
M.Forte, S.Pescarin, E.Pietroni, C.Rufa, CNR-ITABC
maurizio.forte@itabc.cnr.it

GLORIAD – Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development
Greg Cole, GLORIAD
gcole@gloriad.org

Building up Information System for the Urban Historic Cultural Districts Using WEBGIS Based on the San Fang Qi Xiang Area in Fuzhou
Shuo Chen, Fuzhou Planning & Design Institute
shuo.chen@ic.ac.uk

Digitising Exchange Banks, India, the British Imperial Matrix and the Rise of Capitalism
Maggie Exon and John McGuire, Curtin University of Technology
M.Exon@curtin.edu.au, J.Mcguire@curtin.edu.au

Searching for Narrative in the Viet Nam Historical Atlas
Brian Zottoli, UNESCO Hanoi
bzottoli@gmail.com

Abstracts

Place, Time, and Biography.
Michael K. Buckland, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative and University of California, Berkeley

The difference between memorization and understanding lies in knowing the context and relationships of whatever topic is of interest. Basic facets of context are the geographical area, the period of time, and the related persons.

This paper will present research in progress where the goal is to provide a demonstration of how existing and emerging information interchange standards and protocols can be used or adapted to support learners with respect to What? Where? When? and Who?

“When” requires a genre of resource that has only recently started to be developed for digital libraries: a Named Time Period Directory that is designed for defining, disambiguating, and relating chronological periods, and supporting chronological displays as timelines or chronologies. Our Period Directory resembles a gazetteer. A gazetteer typically will include elements such as:

While a time period directory will include:

Note that in an overwhelming number of cases the gazetteer depends on time periods (i.e., changes in place names over time) while named time periods depend on places (e.g., “Civil War” means quite different calendar periods depending on whether you are interested in the United States, Great Britain, or China.

Although biographical records are of very widespread interest there is little established “best practice” or standards. Biographical records are largely composed of references to places, times, topics / activities / performances, and other persons, in unstandardized and unstructured forms.
The paper will present progress to date including: Developing draft format and content standards for Named Time Period Directories and Biographical Directories; Screen shots of prototype interfaces; Advice from prospective users; and Problems encountered.

Going Places in the Catalog: Improved Geographic Access. [Project website] http://ecai.org/imls2002/
Support for the learner: What, When, Where, Who. [Project website.] http://ecai.org/imls2004/

Cultural and Archaeological Virtual Landscapes: the Case Study of the Appia Antica Park
M.Forte, S.Pescarin, E.Pietroni, C.Rufa, CNR-ITABC

With a methodological approach on to the principles of the ecological thinking its possible to face in a completely different way technological issues related to cultural heritage. The reconstruction of archaeological landscape could be faced as a continuous activity of exchanging and comparing information with the goal of propose different mindscapes. In theoretical sense we distinguish three levels of landscape to investigate and to interpret: mapscape (virtual landscape by GIS and spatial data), taskscape (activities and relations of the landscape), mindscape (perceived landscape, digital ecosystem). In conclusion, we will face up methodological and technological problems of the virtual reconstruction using OpenGlS software and libraries in order to project, to reconstruct and to navigate the ancient landscape in real time. The new rules of this digital ecosystem will be, in the sense that they follow ecological and cyber-anthropological theories. Each interaction in real time within the virtual landscape will produce difference and, through the difference, new ways of learning. In this paper we will focus on the realization of the virtual reality system of the Appia antica Park (in Rome), a very complex virtual archaeological landscape reconstructed from the fieldwork using integrated technologies: laser scanning, photomodelling, photogrammetry, DGPS. Data acquired belongs to different realms, different historical periods, different places; they comprehend other data and can produce new kind of data, etc. These two dimensions (narrative and spatial) can use different grammars in order to create applications for various purposes. Two directions have been undertaken by the research team. The narrative approach to cultural data is focused more on graphic and photorealistic scene generation, using software such as 3DStudio Max and Virtools, which allow interactive, game-like quality applications for the web and Virtual Reality. The work is based on the creation of complex behaviors inside the virtual worlds in order to stress the communication through different types of narration (story-telling).

Building up Information System for the Urban Historic Cultural Districts Using WEBGIS
Based on the San Fang Qi Xiang Area in Fuzhou
Shuo Chen

In this paper, the key technology is discussed in developing the digital museum of San Fang Qi Xiang which has a reputation in Chinese architecture as an architecture museum for Ming and Qing Dynasties. The WEBGIS technology will help to build up not only the management system for the districts, but also the database for the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

(The author is a senior engineering working in Fuzhou Planning & Design Institute and PhD candidate in Chinese Literature College in Beijing Normal University)

Digitising Exchange Banks, India, the British Imperial Matrix and the Rise of Capitalism
Maggie Exon and John McGuire, Curtin University of Technology

While capitalism has been variously defined, its origin, in a Marxist sense at least, can be traced back to the early nineteenth century when industrial capital began to impose itself on other forms of capital. From that point it underwent a number of transformations, that were expressed in long movements, either upwards or downwards, that were punctuated by short-term business cycles. Indeed, as this process of uneven development unfolded, the accumulation of capital was defined by distinct stages. In particular, there was, from the mid nineteenth century through to the beginning of World War 1, three clear stages that characterised the rise of capitalism: 1848-1872, 1873-1893, and 1894 –1914.

While this expansion of capitalist development was driven by the process of industrialisation, it was realised through the circulation of money capital. Of the various mechanisms which drove this circulation process, the banking system was of central importance. It is in this context then, that we explore the role of what were known as the British Colonial Exchange Banks in providing the means whereby the international exchange of money occurred in linking India to Britain and the imperial matrix as well as to the world economy more generally. While nearly all of these exchange banks were established in the 1850s and 1860s, two disappeared as a result of the Bombay banking crisis in the mid 1860s, leaving six to manage the business of international exchange and India for most of the remaining years through until 1914.

In exploring the links between this set of banks and the rise of capitalism in India, we have adopted a case study approach by concentrating on one bank: the Chartered Mercantile, India, Australia and China. As the second bank founded - in 1852 – behind the Oriental Bank Corporation and as the largest bank, in terms of the size of balance sheets, that dealt with India by the end of the period under discussion, it represents a means of exploring questions of space, place, money and time in so far as they relate to the development of capitalism. More specifically, we have constructed digitised maps, which provide a spatial framework within which we have endeavoured to plot the expansion of the bank’s branches in terms of time, location, and turnover of money.

Aspects of the collection and processing of the temporal data for this study will be discussed in the paper, offering an example of the use of temporal/spatial data in the investigation of such historical questions.

For centuries (c.1400 1850), Viet Nam was a kingdom divided, repeatedly splintering into regions contested by rival forces. Two factors were its fractured geography unlike, for example, Thailand or Myanmar, it is not centered in a single river system, and the ways these regions interacted with different parts of China. The formation of modern Viet Nam can best be illustrated and understood in terms of these complex connections. This presentation explores how map-based animations, based on dynastic geographies and gazetteers, can put on view a more intricate narrative than what is found in history books. Visualization techniques using GIS help us move beyond national and regional histories to find new and richer perspectives on the past.