links for 2010-07-06

Guardian article about the 'Time Travellers' Guide to Bristol': "The Time Traveller's Guide to Bristol project will launch a website later this week and an iPhone app at on July 28, allowing users to browse archive material and upload their own images of contemporary Bristol. It features 100 years of film and photography focused on six areas of Bristol, and invites users to superimpose archive material on a 3D model of contemporary shots – some of which were badly damaged during WW2, like Castle Park."

Augmented reality style mobile device-mediated tour guides of Bristol using historical archive material to make the past present in the users' experience of the city.

Excellent presentation by Gene Becker outlining the present state of what some call pervasive media or ubiquitous media or locative media, which goes beyond the fad of augmented reality.

Discussion of whether apple's vertically integrated apps-ecology is a part of the web or is it perhaps a closed system.

Interesting and provactive argument: "Open data is not a magic recipe for righting wrongs. What will move things on is the stories that communities tell about their situations and their possible futures."

Guardian article discusses local approaches for open data: "A great opportunity now presents for a truly open form of governance. Working together as central, regional, local with the creative input of the agile software developer community we can begin to shape what a transparent state might look like for the benefit of citizens. So here are a couple of do's and don't's for councils starting out on this road."

Nic Nova discusses the design fiction of the WIRED 'found' illustrations.

"What the creators of the Sci-Fi Airshow have done is extend that fascinating imaginary into the realm of science fiction flying machines. They make the flying machines somehow ordinary insofar as they appear at a typical airshow with families and fans enjoying the machines, the sunshine and a chat with a pilot. In this way, the objects become tangible."

A soundwalk to be experienced in the rain.

More AR-type overlays of physical reality with images of the past. Similar to 'Time Travellers' Guide to Bristol': "History Pin [historypin.com] hopes to become the largest user-generated archive of the world's historical images and stories. The website acts like a digital time machine, and uses Google Maps and Street View technology to allow the wide public to dig out, upload and pin their own old photos, as well as the stories behind them, onto an interactive map. Uniquely, Historypin lets people layer old images onto modern Street View scenes, providing a series of geo-located time tunnel views into the past."