This post will be a mix website review/investigation into a new digital and web-based software application: WhatWasThere.com. WhatWasThere (for the remainder of this post called WWT) attempts to “aiming to become ‘the Google of historic photos.’” The idea for the website was developed between December 2009 and mid 2010 by Ann Arbor, Michigan-based digital marketing and software development firm Enlighten, part of a corporation called Enlighten Ventures. Their CEO is Steve Glauberman, and his express reason for the website, is “‘Our goal, quite simply, is to be the largest database of geographically tagged photographs in the world.’” In essence, the website takes a software application (which is downloadable on the Apple iPhone, as well) that overlays historic photos on Google Maps’ Streetview option, orienting the photographs to match up on angle and perspective. The potential for the software is phenomenal, and it’s a shame that a history-based organization or archives has not done this on a wide-scale stage. This software was initial developed as a side project of several techies at the company, rather than being a main-line development from the company. As such over the past year and a half of its operation, it has yet to develop its full potential, and few archives and libraries know that the service is free and open to anyone—with the company’s CEO particularly looking for libraries to use its service.
While the site is tremendous, there are some major downfalls. Additionally, the end of this post will discuss what technology I believe needs to be developed based on the idea of WWT. The WWT site uses the angles of photos that Google took for its Streetview maps, which limits the use of the software—the historic photos need to be an almost dead-on match to the angle of the Google shot to match-up. How many 1920s photographers thought, “I should really take this photo from the middle of the street so Google can us this photo in 90 years.” If any did, I’m going to faint! Also, there are very few American cities represented on the WWT website so far, mainly since the site relies on user uploads. The site only represents a few major U.S. cities, and does not take advantage of the tremendous opportunity of smaller communities with historic districts to see what the entire town once looked like—which could be a boon for many depressed, once-great communities in restoring community pride. The impact of the visual tracing of history in a 3-D manner, as this software could provide, would help reach constituencies with an interest in history often unable to be reached by the historical community. Grandparents and grandkids could sit around a computer as the grandkids upload to the WWT site the grandparents photos, and they can see how things have changed together in an instant over decades of history and change.
The WWT site is not being promoted very well right now. There are no specs on the site’s server storage capacity, which is important if Glauberman hopes the site to become a world-wide depository of historic photographs. The software app is being utilized to promote the company’s website development options, rather than the preservation of history—though that is a side effect of the software. Another weakness is the reliance on Google for the 3-D map. Obviously, no one else has done a 3-D road map like Google has, and past attempts by historical organizations to create 3-D photographic exhibits of changes in cities or historic sites has failed to develop the excitement that people have when going to Google Maps to see historic downtowns miles away without leaving their living room. While Enlighten’s development is noble, there is much, much more that can be done with the software than is now being considered.
What I would like to see be developed along similar lines as WWT is a virtual 3-D historic landscape, that utilizes historic photographs from numerous people and repositories to create a landscape of any community over time, that can be viewed next to the present-day landscape. Right now, WWT has one photo in one spot that you have to click on to see it in place over the Google Streetview screen. I want to see someone develop a seamless side-by-side 3-D view of Google Streetview with historic photos stitched together and placed adjacent the Google Streetview pane, allowing a side-by-side comparison of the present with the past. The U.S. Department of Defense utilizes stitching software to join reconnaissance photos together to give an as uninterrupted view of suspected terrorist training camps and other targets as possible. This same software could be used with historic photographs. And, unlike WWT—where one photo at a time from one historic period can be viewed on the Googe Streetview—I would like to see virtual historical environments created for different decades or years, similar to the environments viewed in such online virtual environments as Second Life. Imagine having four sets of historic period landscapes—1860s, 1890s, 1920s, 1940s—of a small town, able to be pulled up adjacent a Google Streetview pane on your webrowser! Imagine families scanning their photographs on holidays together, then putting them on this 3-D world, as other families are doing the same thing at the same time (it could become the photographic version of Ancetry.com’s genealogy forums and family trees). Efforts to create 3-D environments of historic sites and features are underway in Europe, though they use physical--not photograph--environments to work with:
3D CITY MODELLING AND VISUALIZATION OF HISTORICAL CENTERS by Jose Luis Lerma and Antonio Garcia of Valencia Polytechnic University in Spain. While all this sounds great, there are two obstructions to this grand idea.
First, the issue of copyright. It is like pulling teeth for historic organizations and archives to put their historic photos online, mainly due to copyright issues (plus the issues of unauthorized use for publications and the time necessary to scan and describe photographs). The greatest reason why more historic photographs and films are not available for research or use by the public is the issue of copyright and restrictions by copyright owners. The U.S. Copyright laws have not caught up with the 21st-century, and even if they did they still would not be kind to historians and archivists. Because of the nature of historic materials—and in particular photos—the legal liabilities from publishing or distributing online photographs of individuals not contacted for their permission to use the photos (and copyright law says that everyone in a photograph has to have their permission given before the photos are published--technically speaking, of course, since that never happens in reality) is more costly than are the cultural losses of not having the photographs for use (at least according to the U.S. government). This is a travesty, and is the reason why this nation’s historic images are fading away to time and the elements.
Second, how would all these photographs be stored, and who would own the rights to them? What organization can assure the continued storage capacity needed to manage billions of historic photographs each 4-12 megabytes? And what rights would the users uploading the photographs have versus the rights of the company providing the storage space? Ultimately, the issue of rights may hinder such a grand software program from being developed within the next 10 years. But, as WWT’s early effort has shown, such a software could be possible.
Resources
Nathan Bomey, “Ann Arbor software firm Enlighten wants new site to become 'Google of historic photographs,'” March 18, 2011, at http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/ann-arbor-software-firm-enlighten-wants-new-site-to-become-google-of-historic-photographs/.
WhatWasThere website, at http://www.whatwasthere.com/.
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