Following the Locative Media Workshop, K@2/RIXC, Karosta-Liepaja, July 16-26, 2003
"We [Jo Walsh & Andrew Paterson] set out to develop a data structure for 'locative media'. This is partly a holding-place; an open standard format that can be simply re-purposed and re-represented. RDF was chosen because it allows metadata freedom; rather than the prescribed structure of a table with fixed relations to other tables, the underlying model is a graph of connections. 'database' carries the wrong connotations; this is more of a data model, a world model."
From Wilfried Hou Je Bek's database cartography: Mapping the patchwork of the street grid as a pattern of connections enables the cartographer to organize them in relativistic space"
"In this locative world model, the atomic unit is the 'Packet'. a Packet is a state of affairs in space and time. Each Packet can be found at a unique URL on the web. the Packet is tagged with properties; these can be concrete, like latitude and longitude and timestamp, the packet's creator; or they can be abstract, descriptions of moments, feelings, smells. the 'tags' come from shared vocabularies which are published on the web."
"The Packets can be filled up with media objects: Video, Audio, Image, Text. An unlimited number of each kind of media object can be attached to one Packet, if desired. Each media object can also be tagged with arbitrary properties."
"The Packets can be connected together, spatially or temporally or in a way that is purely abstract. We define 'spatialNext', 'spatialLast', 'temporalNext', 'temporalLast' connections between the Packets. They can be strung together like beads on a string. The sequences are like streams, or stories; again from Hou Je Bek, "They are flow charts or 'streetgrams' that visualize the connections between the loci in the database". a Packet that is concretely located in space can be connected to one that is not; jumping off from the cartographic map into a purely narrative or subjective dimension. a Packet that is 'temporalNext' to another need not succeed it in the flow of time in seconds; stories can be told backwards, space can be traversed sideways."
"Conventional cartographic maps can be annotated with these Packets, or they can stand alone and tell stories; they could provide the backend for a MUD model of the world. They can be distributed throughout the web and collected and exchanged by bots. They can provide an annotation backend for emerging vector plotting and visualisation technologies like SVG and GML."
-Jo Walsh
a 'Packet form' for hard-copy, field-trip data gathering
Stratigraphical Sources - Andrew Paterson. adopts and explores archaeological stratigraphy methods and recording structures for authoring spatio-temporal media context.
.spatial RDF resources on the ESW wiki