New Wordpress blog online

The new Wordpress blog is now live. Still a bit of work to do. I need to categorise some entries. I have a few ideas to automate that. Tomorrow morning. A few little tweaks and widget additions and it should be fine.

Flickr's digital footprints used to create geospatial visualisations

Fabien Girardin illustrates how using our digital "footprints" can be used to create rich geospatial visualistaions of urban areas.

As Fabian points out "we leave behind footprints from our interaction with the urban environment and its digital infrastructures (e.g. taking and sharing digital photos, communicating through wireless networks, withdrawing money)." These footprints when combined with other data such as grafitti, stickers and the like can be utilised to develop an alternative view of urban landscapes.

In this example Fabian shares how Flickr photo tagging, descriptions and location details could be utilised to create geovisualisations.

He shares another interesting example, MIT's Wikicity project and its recent application in the city of Rome. This graphic reveals cellphone activity in Rome while Madonna was singing the song "Live To Tell".

I cannot help but think that this idea could be simplified and utilised in the Geography classroom. Data would need to be collected, aggregated and depicted in a practical manner. How to collect the data? Which data? The ideas are still formulating. Students could collaborate. I need to think more on this.

Driving around Wollongong

Shao Ping and I went out to purchase some plants for the garden and some sugar soap to clean the walls of our home before they are painted in a week or so. Anyway, the little Casio camera mentioned in the previous post was sitting on the table and I thought that it might be an idea to record the journey from our home to the store as we drove through town. That attempt failed as I must have switched off the camera as I adjusted the two rubber bands that held the camera to the front of the passenger's sun visor.

Our second attempt, from the store through town and back home was more successful. The cricket commentary can be heard on the car radio. Australia is playing Sri Lanka as well as some interstate matches. I cropped the ending of the video before we reached our street. I wish to maintain a little anonymity.

Bird sounds in our neighbourhood

My little Casio digital camera has a small built in voice recorder. I used it to record the bird sounds one can hear from our back yard. One tends to take these things for granted. The birds and their calls are interesting. It changes during the course of the day. Can you recognise the bird calls?

Morning bird sounds ~ 6:16AM

Midday bird sounds ~ 12:24PM

Evening bird sounds ~ 7:09PM

I have also photographed birds in our garden. Gallery One. Gallery Two.

The little Casio camera is quite handy. I always use it in my digital photography workshops with teachers in order to demonstrate how a standard digital camera can be quite handy and powerful. It is also a fully mobile podcasting studio. In addition to taking digital photographs it records video and audio. That is all one needs when out in the field.

Galleries Updated

Added five new galleries last night. The new galleries feature photographs taken at the NavCon2K7 Conference, Central Coast ~ NSW, places around Singapore, gatherings in Singapore and the Web 2.0 workshops at Nanyang Technological University.

Tanjong Pagar MRT

The rush hour at the end of the day is approaching. This moment was captured outside Tanjong Pagar MRT. It is located within Singapore's CBD. I often used this station when I worked with Knowledge Village. The office was in South Bridge Road, Chinatown. The camera is perched on a park bench. I am perched alongside with some other people.

Looking at the video just now there is a gender imbalance. Do more men drive in Singapore? Do they work longer hours and are not yet a part of the rush hour mix? When I worked at NTU I noticed that there were fewer men than women on the buses that brought the staff to and from the campus.

Bugis MRT Singapore

Singapore has an excellent rail network. A new train comes along every few minutes during peak hours and are still frequent at other times. Some of the stations are busier than others. I wonder what the stats are for all the stations. Anyway, one of the busier stations is Bugis. I set the camera up on a bench and let it run and this is the result as the patrons came and went.

A walk with the throng in Bugis Village

I walked with the crowds in Bugis Village, Singapore. I held my digital still camera above my head. It created an AVI at 640 x 480 pixels and 25fps. It suffered a little from the shakes. I compressed the video down to a 320 x 240 pixels at 15fps. Gives you an idea of the tourists and locals that flock through this part of Singapore.

Didgeridoo in Bugis Junction

Captured this gent busking in Bugis Junction. A mix of media and cultures.

Victoria Street ~ Bugis Junction

One of the more busy pedestrian crossings in Singapore. One that my wife Shao Ping and I crossed many times. People often take a chance as the lights turn to green.

Journey from Tiong Bahru to Red Hill MRT

I experimented with my small Casio digital camera to capture a few movies that I could use during my vodcasting workshop today. I wandered a little around Singapore and simply caught people going from one place to the other.

I resized each movie to 320 x 240 at 15fps using Quicktime on an Apple Macintosh. In a way these movies are a homage to Kevin Lim who is a source of great inspiration.

Bulli Rock Platform

After visiting the Mount Kembla Mining Heritage Festival Shao Ping, Fiona, Michelle and I went to Ruby's Cafe at Bulli Beach to grab a bite to eat. I wandered about the rock platform at the water's edge and took some photographs of the intricate designs in the rocks. The weather was fine and the light was good. Explore the gallery.

Mount Kembla Mining Heritage Festival

Shao Ping, Fiona, Michelle and I checked out the Mount Kembla Mining Heritage Festival. We watched the parade and wandered about. There were lots of stalls, vintage cars & bikes and historical displays. We walked up to the cemetery and I took some photographs of the tombstones of the miners that perished in the 1902 mining disaster. The festival was most entertaining. Explore the gallery.

Mount Keira Bush Walk

The adventurers went for a hike on the Mount Keira ring tack today. They took the walk up to the summit and then descended via the Dave Walsh track. The adventurers then took the ring track back around to the starting point in Mount Pleasant. Stay posted for the update on the Adventurers' Club site.

New gallery over at the Adventurers' Club

My friend Larry just dropped a line to say that the The Adventurers' Club has uploaded a gallery of images taken on their recent excursion to Botany Bay and Cape Solander on the 6th July. The adventurers took in the rugged coastline and paid a visit to the birthplace of European settlement in Australia. Why not have a look at the excellent photographs and historical mementos Diamond captured with his brand new camera?

Macritchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah hike

My friend Siva went on a hike with some friends from Macritchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah in Singapore today. Wish I was there! These are some of the sights they may have seen...

July Singapore galleries updated

Added commentary to the galleries displaying photographs taken at various points across Singapore including River Valley Road, Zion Road, Bukit Batok, Chinatown, the Funan Centre and Toa Payoh.

Galleries Update

Linked up a number of the recent photographs taken in Singapore last week to the appropriate categories in the various galleries. Quick correction to a link on the Podcasting Workshop page as well. Thanks for the tip Lay Kock!

Singapore Events Gallery Update

Just updated the events gallery in the Singapore section of my photography galleries. This is my last morning in Singapore following a week of conducting Web 2.0 and Podcasting workshops. Photographs taken at the the Web 2.0 and Podcasting workshops are included. Plus some nice photographs of Vivien and Paul during dinner in Holland Village.

Around Singapore ~ July 2007

Presently in Singapore conducting workshops on behalf of Nanyang Technological University. I have been to a few different parts around the town and the images can be found in this gallery.