We are currently in beta, building the navigation system and design of the site and the database of articles. Below, you can read about our goals. Our intention is to make the site simple to use and a pleasure to peruse whether readers are looking for quick summaries or in-depth information, and using a variety of learning modes including interactive 3D imagery.
We are currently looking for writers and historians to help us build our library of articles. Almost any topic is of interest to us but all articles are subject to editorial review.
Research is always difficult. There are many routes to knowledge and they need to be considered, analyzed, and evaluated. No one person’s knowledge could encompass a topic as large as Canadian history. It would be easier if researchers didn’t need to sift through outdated materials, but how do we decide what we can safely ignore?
This site takes a different approach. Let us assume that history contains stories: hundreds and thousands of stories.
How shall we discover them? We let experts and amateurs tell their narratives.
How shall we read them? We shall simply read them, as many as we can in our lifetime and understand them for what they tell us. But we will also rate them, comment on them, and amend them.
We will look for debates and discuss what we know. In other words, we will share what we think we know to learn more. The web is the perfect medium to allow this. It was designed to share documents. The Visual Past asks us to share our knowledge of Canadian history in moderated environment that encourages debate.
Click on the tabs to read about our aims.
At the moment the navigation systems are still under development. These are the projects we are working on:
Navigation
- There are multiple methods for clustering information so that it can be found. Readers can enter via a map, a timeline, icons, or a drop down menu.
- The articles are peppered with related links.
- Breadcrumbs are used to place the reader
- There is a searchbox on every page.
Our goal is to create pages that are easy to read with lots of resources to help you validate the work and find related materials.
Usability
- The interface is designed to be easy to read.
- In-depth articles are prefaced by a short excerpt that positions the importance of the topic.
- This is followed by a brief overview.
- The rest of the article is available in a tabbed format to minimize scrolling and the tabs provide headings to indicate the content within each.
- The excerpt is supported by a visual which may be a graphic, slideshow, video or interactive 3D model.
- The articles are supported by more graphics.
- Articles are referenced with footnotes that appear as popups inline.
- Asides and pullquotes are also shown in-line many of which open popup windows with more content.
- Sidebars provide links to related topics
- Other sidebars provide background information on world events that correlate to the timeline for the article in view.
- Ratings by experts help users decide the value of each article
Some sites are beautiful. This one aims to be practical first and foremost. Here are some of our guiding principles:
Design
- The design itself is minimalist and uncluttered.
- The focus is the article, accessible at 3 levels: an excerpt, summary, and extended articles.
- Articles are surrounded by clusters of resources: documents and maps; comments, related topics, concurrent events.
- Visual elements include interactive 3D as well as photos, videos, and other graphics.
- Advertising is positioned to the far right, top and bottom of the page and will be linked by topic. That is, ads will appear on pages with relevant topics.
- The excerpt and its associated visual are sectioned off above the main article.
It seeks to be fun to use.
- Read experts debate topics in history
- Upload collectibles for identification
- Put family oral history into cyberspace — it may even make it to the front page
- Comment on topics
- Vote on polls
The Visual Past is an NFP internet based business with a purpose. Essentially, the Visual Past seeks to become a popular and social Canadian history portal that is built by experts and shared with Canadians.
A Not for Profit
Even though it is a not for profit, The VP intends to generate sufficient revenues to continue growing without turning to government grants for core financing. The reason VP remains a NFP is to remain independent of government and shareholder constraints.
A Word About Copyright
On this site, where possible, we are using 3D models and our own photography, but there are 1000s of great graphics available in the public archives, museums, and online. Many of the archived and online graphics are in the public domain, but it is not always clear where the originals can be found because people don’t always include that information. That’s especially true given that some of the material we have originally came off tourism brochures or packaging and we don’t know where they came from.
This left us with a few options. We could exclude the graphics altogether, but we want people to know what a rich medley of detail is out there, so that was unsatisfactory.
We could insert the graphic pulling it from the website where we found it. That doesn’t always mean the site where we found it had copyright clearance and further, websites change and are abandoned, so in the end this approach would lead to many broken links.
We could link to other websites where our visitors could go to find graphics. This of course means that they don’t know where they are going or what they will find when they arrive and the visitors are left jumping around from website to website.
So in the end, we have copied the graphics to our database including the source in the description and linking the graphics to the pages where we found them. Visitors are encouraged to click graphics and visit other websites with more or different perspectives on Canadian history and this gives us an opportunity to ‘advertise’ sites we found useful.
If you see a graphic where you can provide information about its origin that we don’t have, please let us know so that we can update our database and point our visitors to the right place to find the best copy of the graphic.
If you own copyright to something shown on this site and wish us to remove it, simply send us an email and if possible, let us know where our visitors can go to find the original graphic. Meanwhile, our apologies. We want our visitors to find you because you obviously have great information for them to see.
Contact Us
If you would like more information, please contact us at caroline @ visualpast.com