Space-Time Applications and Crowdsourcing of
Geographic Information at the NYPL

SPEAKER:
Bert Spaan
New York Public Library (NYPL)

Wednesday, May 17, 2017
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Room: 1004 HN

Abstract: The NYC Space/Time Directory is a project of The New York Public Library which turns historical maps, street photos, city directories and other geographic sources from the Library's collection into a digital time-travel service for New York City. How did my street look in the 1920s? Who lived on 150 Bowery in 1850? Are there maps of Long Island City in 1900? The NYC Space/Time Directory will make answering questions like this easier, using open data, search APIs, data visualizations, and crowdsouring tools.

Biography: Bert studied computer science at Utrecht University and cartography at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He wrote his master's thesis on geometric algorithms during an internship at TomTom in Amsterdam. Before moving to New York City, Bert lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he worked for Waag Society, a non-profit research institute for arts, science and technology. At Waag Society, Bert worked on many different open data, geo and visualization projects, and he was the organizer of Maptime Amsterdam, a monthly digital cartography meetup.

All are invited to attend!