ECAI and the Cultural Atlas Browser

ECAI: Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

ECAI is a global consortium of scholars interested in visualizing human culture through time using GIS technology. The Web site includes links to dozens of projects, a dynamic map catalog, and technologies such as TimeMap.

What is a Cultural Atlas?

A matrix of spatial and temporal information with associated cultural information or attributes. It must include at least one dynamic map with multiple layers, or multiple maps. It is created by an author or team of collaborators with a specific focus, theme, and/or intended audience. The focus can be either large or small scale in time and space. Information included can be either generalized or complex and detailed.

The spatio-temporal information must be integrated with the additional cultural material and documentation in a user interface that allows browsing back and forth between the different dimensions.

To be an academic work the atlas must include appropriate documentation of the source of data and the methods of analysis and construction of the project.

Historical, religious, ethnographic, and language atlases are related genres of work. Cultural atlases generally include information from several of these more specialized genres.

Cultural atlases have been published in book form for a very long time. The relationship between this original format of atlases and what is now available through electronic media is a primary area of research and investigation for ECAI.

Electronic cultural atlases must include all the features of the paper version but pose new questions about the best ways to represent the information in the new media. Electronic cultural atlases can also include new functionality enabled by the use of electronic media including:
        Interactive viewing and dynamic presentation of the material
        Content searches
        Content filtering
        Analysis
        Incorporation of larger volumes and more complex data
        Flexibility in integrating content for specific authors goals and intended audiences
        Possibility of online community input of information