Minotour: A Mobile, Spatially-Aware Wiki: Theory and Application

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Students

Drew Dara-Abrams, Psychology
Brent Hecht, Geography
John Roberts, Computer Science
Kirk Goldsberry, Geography

Nicole Starosielski, Film Studies

Faculty Advisors

Keith Clarke, Geography
Mary Hegarty, Psychology
Dan Montello, Geography
Tobias Hollerer, Computer Science

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Abstract

Völkel et. al. (2006) identify Wikipedia as "the world's largest collaboratively edited source of encyclopedic knowledge". Minotour is a location-aware mobile device that frees this content and its collective representation from its physical and organizational restrictions, allowing users to immediately generate narratives relevant to their geographical location. Utilizing Wikipedia’s semantic organization and a multi-disciplinary approach, Minotour threads together the significant geography of a user’s route through non-spatial Wikipedia articles. Its novel narrative algorithms incorporate meta-narratives reflecting the larger issues of the user’s location. In other words, Minotour helps its users connect a sense of place with their current space. Utilizing a cinematic aesthetic that foregrounds transitions and other visual effects, Minotour presents the stories it produces in an engaging manner.