vici.org, a crowd sourced Roman map

René Voorburg, DH2014, The Hague rene@digitopia.nl

Introduction

location aware HTML5

static JSON data

Design considerations• When creating a database backend, why not opening

it up for others to add / edit data?

• If others provide data, why not help them to retrieve and access the data?

• Wikipedia as a model, but maps central & multi-lingual

• Map embeddable by other websites

• Open JSON API, Pelagios RDF, downloads

Core functionalityUsers can add:

• Markers (since February 2012)

• Images (since May 2013)

• KML line tracings (March 2014)

.. but no real community supporting features as of yet.

User engagement

User engagement summarized

• 200 activated user accounts

• 68 users added markers

• 6073 markers added by users

• 90% of all markers were added by 9 users.

!

(June 2014)

Discussion• How to attract users beyond NL, DE and BE?

• What did the 132 users that only registered expect?

• Populating the map ’enough’ appears to have been essential in engaging users

• Will an investment in community features pay off?

• Stuck in the middle between science and marketing?