Skip to content

Geographic annotation and visualisation

Jump to bottom
RadaVarga edited this page Oct 12, 2017 · 9 revisions

Thursday October 5, 2017, 16h00-17h15 British Summer Time

Session 3: Geographic annotation and visualisation

Convenors: Paula Granados García (Open University), Valeria Vitale (University of London)

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/vVS4jde6yWs

Outline

This session aims to provide a framework about techniques and software available for geographic annotation and visualisation. We will start with an introduction to semantic annotation and Linked Open Geodata to later focus on disambiguation, geo-referencing, list of authorities, and geo-data visualisation. We will discuss how LOD and semantic geo-annotations can enhance academic research and how they can be used to discover and investigate connections. The practical exercise will focus on the annotation of text and images through the free, online platform Recogito, developed within the Pelagios Commons project. We will present the process of annotating digital classical sources, to finally give an overview on the various export data formats available and the different tools and applications for the visualisation of spatial data retrieved from textual annotations.

Seminar reading

Further Readings

  • Rainer Simon, Elton Barker, et al. (2015). “Linking early geospatial documents, one place at a time: annotation of geographic documents with Recogito.” e-Perimetron, 10.2, pp. 49–59. Available: http://oro.open.ac.uk/43613/1/Simon_et_al.pdf
  • Kenneth E. Foote, Shannon Crum, and Natalia Vorotyntseva, "Cartographic Communication", The Geographer's Craft, 1995 (with subsequent revisions). Esp. the following sections: The Value of Maps; Cartography as Communication; What Is a Good Map?; Basic Elements of Map Composition; The Cartographer's Palette: The Semiotics of Cartography
  • Kenneth E. Foote and Donald J. Huebner, 'Error, Accuracy, and Precision', The Geographer’s Craft, 1995 (with subsequent revisions).
  • Elton Barker, Leif Isaksen et al. (2013), “On using a digital resources for the study of an ancient greek text: the case of Herodotus’ Histories”, in Stuart Dunn and Simon Mahony (eds.), The Digital Classicist 2013. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement (122), Institute of Classical Studies, University of London, pp. 45-62, Available: http://oro.open.ac.uk/34498/8/Barker_etal2013_Hestia_BICS.pdf
  • Ryan Horne, “Beyond Maps as Images at the Ancient World Mapping Center”, ISAW Papers 7.9 (2014). Available: http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/isaw-papers/7/horne/

Other resources

Essay title

Discuss how spatial annotations may change the study and understanding of an historical source, and what is the benefit of sharing such annotations in a standard format.

Exercise

Create an account on Recogito and upload one source file (either in text or in image format). Perform at least 100 place annotations, and any number of person and event annotations, if relevant. Be sure to use tags and comments to refine your annotations. If you are working collaboratively with other students and colleagues, discuss your rationale and the common guidelines before starting the annotation process. Look at your annotations on the map view and discuss with your colleagues or with your instructor what information can be derived from the cartographic visualisation.

Optional 1: Draft a new research question that is stimulated by the outcome of your annotation exercise. What new insight have you gained about the text? Optional 2: Download your annotations in CSV format. Open the CSV in a suitable application (for example Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers). What can you see? Describe all the columns that have been generated and what is the origin of the information they show. Optional 3: Download the annotations in CSV format. Upload the file as a layer in Google MyMaps. Try different kinds of visualisations (for example, according to tags, or to place-type).

Clone this wiki locally