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Topics - sunnylew

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Using M4OPS for specific OPS / Hethersett OPS - using OPS as a Recursive Research Tool

« on: 23 January 2017, 04:58:49 »

This is a continuation of the discussion here:

http://mapping4ops.org/current-needs/using-the-map-as-a-recursive-research-tool/msg411/?topicseen#new

Thanks for such quick work!

I wish I could work these things out as quickly as you do.

One thing I would suggest is that the highlighted text should only be the ID number, not the description followed by the ID as it is at the moment.

In a case use scenario, I had envisioned something like research into manorial records.

The record would say something like:

"In 1836 Joe Bloggs has been given Copyhold of field named 'Bloggs Field' (which was his father's), bounded to the North by John Smith's Field and the West by Feral Errol's field."

I imagine coming across that and seeing that field 570 in my Mapping4OPS Map ( see attached image) is named 'Bloggs Field'.

Ideally I would right click on 'Bloggs Field' on Mapping4OPS, copy the ID '570' and paste that into the ID field in my database for the reference for the field. I would only need the ID number itself.

I could then do the same and select ID 562 as owned by John Smith, and 569 as owned by Feral Errol.

Later on I could then add the new information from the Manorial records and it would map straight to the IDs on Mapping4OPS.

Cheers,

Lewis

Current Needs / Using the map as a recursive research tool

« on: 20 January 2017, 11:05:49 »

I couldn't really think of a better way of describing it in a short title, but what I would love is the ability to use the information uploaded in the map when I am gathering further information to later be uploaded.

For example, if I read a newspaper report about an incident that happened in the "house next to William Henry's House", I would love to be able to look at the map, right click (for example) on the house next to William Henry's House, and automatically have copied the Location ID to my clipboard for adding to my research file.

That way, the next time I update the data in the file online, the new event will be associated with the correct Location ID.

Concievably, it might be possible to have a menu where you can choose what a right click copies - Land Owner, Land use, Occupier, Area, etc.

Other Aspects of Mapping of One-Place Studies / Linking Data from different maps across time

« on: 23 December 2016, 11:10:30 »

Something I've had trouble getting my head around is how to refer to representations of the same specific location over time.

Often you will find that a field in 1800 has become many more fields by 1900. You can also find that a few smaller fields have been combined and become a single larger field later on in time.

This can cause trouble when you want to say that such and such a field is the same as a field 100 years ago: it may very well not be - only parts of it are, though it still has the same name.

If all fields gradually became many smaller fields over time, we could use some sort of a descendency tree to link them together properly, but all manner of things can happen. I don't think a GEDCOM style of linkage could cope with fields that split, rejoin, then perhaps in the eastern corner combine with a different earlier field etc.

At the moment when I try to link different maps or properties over time I've taken to calling the specific area at that moment in time a "Parcel". I then link different parcels over time to a single "Location".

In my head, I see this as something like finding a record for Joe Bloggs and recording this as a "Name" fact for a "Person". There can be many names used over time, but it is still all the one person.

This approach works to a degree, but it's still very difficult to decide what the objective "Location" actually is.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to approach this?

Other Aspects of Mapping of One-Place Studies / Visualising Maps using Game Engines

« on: 22 December 2016, 10:06:44 »

I recently watched a google hangout for OOPS about visualising places, and as Peter described some of his ideas about visualising places I realised that he was talking about the same things I'd been quietly working away at.

One thing that he hadn't brought up, and which I thought might be of interest to people is using Game Engines.

If you imagine a computer game, you walk through an environment, interact with objects and characters, and when you select some objects, an onscreen display brings up information about them.

Those capabilities can be utilised to display information about a place in a sort of game where the object is not to kill the bad guys, but to learn something new.

I am by no means an expert on creating games, but I have spent some time playing with an open source 3d program called Blender, and am slowly learning my way around a free program called Unity which can be used to create games.

Games can be georeferenced so that for example you could wander the streets of a village with your phone, press "More information" when your phone is pointing at an existing building and call up its history.

For those who can't visit a village in person, a First Person Shooter Game format could be used to wander a virtual version of a village. Anything could be created, although the time taken to do so would always be a factor.

The beauty of a game engine is that a lot of the visual representations can be generated on the fly. It is definitely possible to use, for example a Lidar map to generate a 3D version of the ground. If you have traced the Tithe map into a GIS program like QGIS, it's fairly simple to link that data to the information regarding cultivation.

Within a Game Engine you can decide that any field with a cultivation of 'pasture' has a grass texture, of 'Woodland' should be populated by trees, and of 'arable' should have rows of wheat (for example). Auto generating in this manner is called 'Procedural Generation."

You could also label fields by Tithe numbers and link information from a CSV that lists any associated information in a pop up.

I am slowly finding my way towards making an online game version of my particular village of interest. At the moment I am still mapping and gathering data, but I think it would be possible to procedurally generate the above information, as well as buildings if floor plans and some brief descriptive information is supplied in a database (such as could be derived rom the 1910 Valuation).

Is this of interest to anyone else?

If so, I could share what I've learnt so far.

Some of what I know is still only in the "I know this is possible" stage, but I do already have some experience in overlaying maps on LIDAR to create 3D representations if people are interested in learning what I have picked up.