Ernest Henry Shackleton, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson on the British National Antarctic Expedition (a.k.a. Discovery-Expedition), 2 Nov 1902. Source Alexander Turnbull National Library, New Zealand (http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=11714. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
A new learning journey is hopefully about to begin.
I have over the past week or so, following meetings and conversations, been investigating AWMist, Open Street Map and Mappa-Mercia with introductions, invitations and contact sharing provided by Dave Harte and Andrew Mackenzie (Mappa Mercia), to see if there is a way of integrating tagging applications, and linking them to audio-visual content, produced by me, and integrated into social media platforms, served by external providers (ie video served on YouTube or Vimeo, audio via Audioboo and iTunes, and photographs via Flickr etc).
I have today had a telephone conversation with Brian Prangle (Mappa-Mercia), who has given me a brief overview about how the content management system and database work best, and how the principals were applied with the AWMist system for the IT Cluster, work that was commissioned by Mike Musson. At 7pm on the evening of Thursday 4th March, I shall also be meeting with the OSM & MM team in central Birmingham (please do join us if convenient).
Following the ET cluster team meeting on Thursday daytime, hopefully we shall develop a design brief and outline of the functionality that such a system can provide, and by applying my skills to the exercise, we can experiment with the new tools, and hopefully showcase these outcomes at the up-coming event in April. If successful, my main focus at the event will be to demonstrate and advice companies on how to use the social media platforms and content creation tools available to them, link their content to the map, and be searchable across not just the West Midlands, but globally via the web.
With the expert knowledge, background history, commissioning role, in-depth experience, and the business plan and technical documentation at the disposal of the IT cluster team, I would like to say that I am very much looking forwards to meeting with them all, discussing the idea in detail and working with them during the coming months, to successfully deliver what, for me, is a technologically advanced and challenging Production Lab project, as part of my MA studies in Social Media at Birmingham City University.
However, there are two possible elements that could either delay or cancel the successful outcomes- budget (to commission the new platform) and time (to generate content, edit, tag and link for the showcase demonstration). Following Thursday’s meeting, hopefully a positive direction will be ascertained. Further thinking, planning and risk management is now required.
Anybody got a compass?