WhatWasThere is an online application created to merge the software of Google Maps, with historical photographs of a given location. Any user can upload and explore different photos of a location, making it beneficial for studying urban sprawl, city development, or simply watching your favorite locations change throughout history. With the added software of Google Maps, the user can simply type in a location that they are familiar with and view different photographs of that location from different periods in time. The purpose of this application is to clearly show the user how locations have changed over time, and give an idea of how time periods or historical events can generate change of particular locations. The user achieves this by adjusting “the fade bar”, which places a historical photograph layered over a contemporary street view map of the same location, allowing one to fade the historical photograph in and out of the frame. This application is important because its objective is to educate and inform users of the major changes and development of spaces through time by using photographs to illustrate changes. It lets users know how land use has changed by giving information of historical buildings and landscapes. Another objective of this application is to display surroundings from different eras while providing historical information of architecture and the different land uses.
Data and Methods
The WhatWasThere application is designed in a simplistic way allowing user to navigate through areas regardless of how computer literate they may be. Users are encouraged to add photographs that specify the year and location it was taken at. This allows the user to take a virtual tour of the past. Images can date back a year, a decade or even a century ago. For example, if the user were to type in Toronto, the application will show a map of the area along with the submitted historical photographs of the same location. The map will display points, represented by orange circles with numbers in them, which correspond to the number of photos available for that particular location. There is an option to observe the landscape in Google Street View, which shows the particular street or building in a timeline setting from when the photograph was taken to the current landscape today. WhatWasThere is a great application as it lets people reflect and reminisce about the environment you grew up in. In addition, many photographs simply showcase important buildings and landmarks of the past while others show important cultural events and people. For example if you search for Central Park in New York City you can find pictures of the Bethesda fountain, a picture of the first winner of the New York City Marathon, and a picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in front of their apartment overlooking the park.
If interested in a particular photo, the user can click the image and read a description of the environment. WhatWasThere is a fantastic resource for historians, students, and photographers. The pictures vary greatly. Each new photo helps contribute to our knowledge of a particular location.
Methodology and Analysis
In most geospatial applications there is a key purpose and function for the user to find data, thus, the program and its administrators need access to data. The methods of most geospatial applications utilize satellite imagery from Google Maps and GPS technology. Many geospatial applications utilize the base satellite information provided by Google Maps. WhatWasThere operates through existing spatial reference data of Smartphones equipped with GPS and its own geographic reference technology providing the specific information for the region. The website and phone applications give the user a great ‘before and after’ illustration of many areas across a city, where they can capture nearby historic photographs and videos plotted on a map. This application in particular operates through a combination of the GPS technology using Google Maps and provides a platform where anyone can easily upload a photography with two straight forward tags to provide context, Location and Year. The information is obtained from the individual that uploads the picture, and then identifies the location and enters this data into a recording system. WhatWasThere accesses its information through public information; it works as a search engine for historical photographs and videos.
Issues and Evaluation
The potential ethical concerns surrounding this application have to do with the incorporation of individuals within photographs and the street-view setting of the particular location. This could pose a problem because it impedes on their privacy. This has always been an issue with Google maps and street view but in the application WhatWasThere, images of the people are slightly pixilated removing individual identities, relieving any privacy concerns. Also, since any user may upload images, the addition of photos that are inaccurate or not actually of the location could diminish the importance of the landscape and the historical accuracy of a location, either past or present. There is also the political aspect to this application which is evident when looking at the history of the Waterloo Region, it displays that there use to be street cars traveling down King Street. This is important as it can be used as clout in order to re-establish light rail transit back into the city. There are numerous examples of particular groups being excluded from this application. The most striking are, ChinaTown and Little Italy, which are two of the most known areas of Toronto but are not part of this application. On a more global scale, the continents of Australia, Africa and South America are all very under represented even though the majority of the “Wonders of the World” are location in those areas. Lastly, there are aspects of colonialism, as when looking at the French Polynesia there is “a location photo” of a half naked woman in native tribal gear. This out of context photo makes it seem as if the local populous of the French Polynesia are still highly underdeveloped even though the photo was taken in 1921. This application would be better if there was a larger time line of the areas, rather than just selected photos from nearly a century ago.
Conclusion
Regarding the WhatWasThere application, the consensus opinion appears to be more positive than negative. There are many great aspects to this geospatial application such as; it is easy to use, it have GPS connection that can lead you to any place that you search and of course, the fact that it is free. WhatWasThere also detects where the user is when they request a search, resulting in the user getting the results that are closest in proximity to your current location. This application has the potential to reduce a large amount of paper if one day and could completely replace any historical books and maps. Thus, from an environmental stand point, this is a very good application with a potential to continuously help environmental consumption of paper. Overall, WhatWasThere has created a successful application with a diverse range of uses.
Works Cited
http://www.whatwasthere.com/about.aspx
http://wiredcpu.com/whatwasthere-is-an-ios-app-which-adds-history-to-augmented-reality/
By: Steven Campbell, Lisa Truong, Matt Morrison, David Wisniewski and Colin Bezeau
