Events of the 2011 Arab Spring, as well as clashes between students and police on UC campuses that fall, were well-documented with digital video posted on Internet sites. These played an important role in shaping public perceptions. However, because the videos were distributed across many sites (YouTube, Vimeo, and others), forming a coherent interpretation was difficult. While it is possible to present several videos simultaneously, assembling the elements and aligning them is painstaking work and not feasible for a large number of videos. The Rashomon Project offers a “Multi-Perspective Chronology” where a number of videos can be opened and played together, allowing visitors to study an event from many perspectives. Since it is often important to make documentation available as soon as possible after an event, we are developing an open-source, online “instrument” that facilitates assembly of Multi-Perspective Chronologies.
A short video demonstrating the project is available here.
This project is being coordinated by the Berkeley Laboratory for Automation Science and Engineering in partnership with the CITRIS Data and Democracy Initiative, WITNESS, the Guardian Project, the Berkeley Human Rights Center, and the UC Santa Cruz Digital Arts & New Media MFA Program. See http://automation.berkeley.edu/rashomon/
DDI is honored that the Rashomon Project was among the eight winners of the Mozilla Ignite Challenge Brainstorming Round! Announced September 26, 2012.
