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Visible Past, which is a collection of tools and experiences, relies on two main technologies. First, there is the Georeferenced Wiki (gWiki) on which the information is stored. Although our implementation is built on top of MediaWiki, a gWiki can be built on top of any other wiki platform. The main characterstic of a Gwiki is that it allows storing and indexing of information spatially and temporally.
Second, the Visible Past relies on a set of tools that locate the user in real or virtual space. These tools also query the gWiki and deliver information about that specific location. Visible Past information is presented both textually and spatially, which makes it a location-aware technology.
The combination of wiki with location aware technologies make Visible Past a very powerful tool for retrieving, editing and enhancing spatially aware information. However, the policies and technologies of editorial control in the gWiki are much more expert friendly than typical wiki environments, such as Wikipedia.
In its current iteration Visible Past is designed to interact with a number of models. One is that of Omaha Beach battlefield, as it appeared on June 6, 1944. Another is that of the ancient Roman Forum, as it appeared in Antiquity (cca 400 AD). The VR model was created by Diane Favro (UCLA), Bernard Frischer (UVA), Cairoli Giuliani (University of Rome), Russell Scott (Bryn Mawr College) & Modelers Dean Abernathy, Philip Stinson, Carmen Valenciano, Alessio Mauri. The model can be visualized in Google Earth. A link is provided on our gWiki site.
Visible Past can facilitate real life visits to this or other ancient or past geographic environments. Our team works on enhancing these environments with game-like scenarios and location aware applications supported by the gWiki.
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