PlaceBook Wiki

Creation of a platform that would allow people to create wiki-type entries to record both historical, public narrative and personal memory and, by fixing these with GPS co-ordinates, content could be shared through the physical landscape in which it occurred. This platform could be set up so in a way that would allow users to link items as flexibly as possible (using a Graph database?), so that connections between these data points in the landscape could be made chronologically, ancestrally, topically, geographically, or in other ways as yet unenvisaged. This would provide a valuable, context-relevant educational resource, as well as creating a new way for narrative to propagate across generations.

This is a proposal for a new Wikimedia sister project.

PlaceBook Wiki
Status of the proposal
Status	rejected
Reason	No support. Pecopteris (talk) 03:44, 20 August 2023 (UTC)
Technical requirements

Currently, the majority of content on the internet is mainly accessed through keyword searching and this requirement naturally constrains how we engage with this material. By using GPS co-ordinates as a primary key with which to index digital files, we can open up an alternative mode for people to navigate content. This could even be embedded within their physical environment through QR codes or other novel means, which would provide new entry points onto material that might have be of interest and significance for a user, but currently is difficult to access without pre-knowledge of its existence.

Proposed by

Joe Aeberhard

Alternative names

WikiMemories

Domain names

www.placebook.wiki

Mailing list links

• http://article.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/76083

Motivations

What will happen to the mass of digital material that is being generated currently at such a phenomenal rate and how will future generations be able to catalogue and process this, so that it retains an associated narrative. Without the ability to attach relevant metadata to this content, as the generations pass on and first hand testimony is lost, it will loose considerable meaning and will inevitably get cut adrift from the memories and stories that imbue it with much of its value.

If existing technologies were successfully applied in this way, it would meet a real human need for people to learn about their past and could potentially afford a deeper connection with the physical environment they inhabit. With increased mobility and less social cohesion we need to reinvent ways for cross-generational narrative to occur, which might help to provide people with an increased sense of belonging within changing communities that can often feel transient. Given that these kinds of narratives have always formed a central aspect of all cultures and are important drivers in the formation of individual and social identities, I believe it is of real importance that this kind of dialogue is facilitated using web-based technologies.