The Re:Call Project

The first Memory prototype developed was named re:call (record, explore, collect, add, look later). re:call was developed specifically for Vancouver's Granville Island.

As users explored Granville Island, they were alerted to interesting historical and contemporary facts about the locations around them. re:call will enabled users to create a time-stamped personal journal of the places they visited, complete with historical and professional facts, community comments, and personal notes and pictures, like a virtual journal created wirelessly.

Strolling through Granville Island, users received, via PDA, information about the places and activities around them, and were able to hear what other visitors have had to say about each particular event, building, restaurant, gallery, etc. they pass by. Users could capture the information they received in a personal archived memory (diary) of their experience, complete with professional historical vignettes, community comments, and their own personal photos and notes.

Users could also contribute to a collective memory of Granville Island by leaving comments or images, and responding to the comments and images left by other visitors.

The following questions were explored.

Memory is exploring the following questions related to human factors and the usability of the application:

• How do users interact spatially, temporally and socially with media-rich location-based cultural content, services and experiences?
• What are the dynamics of participatory culture as facilitated by the re:call prototype?
• What happens when a disparate group of people is brought together digitally to both consume and produce culture?
• How can a theoretically-based design framework be developed to situate applications like re:call within a location-based, time dependent and socially constructed experience?
• Memory is exploring the following questions related to the design and infrastructure development of the application:
• How can the design of the re:call interface be best constructed for access to a multi-faceted content repository?
• What workflow practices are required for the generation, migration and population of digital content for such a repository?
• What technologies and/or existing applications will be needed to prototype a repository for location-based, mobile-delivered digital content?
• What data format and delivery modes are best suited for mobile, location-based content, services and experiences?

Downloads:

• What will Re:call show me? (95kb PDF)
• Re:call FAQ (36kb PDF)