VIVA2 or The Visual Index of the Virtual Archive 2 is a wonderful site full of interesting innovations of the web. The archive consists of 3D representations of Manhattan, New York City. The original archive, or The Visual Index of the Virtual Archive version 1 created by the Skyscraper Museum in Manhattan was an actual archive which they digitized and created a a virtual world for people to travel through. The original collection is based on over 500 photographs and scrapbooks and papers of skyscrapers in New York and beyond. VIVA2 is comprised of these photos and other memorabilia to create a very comprehensive and intuitive database which is at times hard to search through, but very appealing to those that wish to gain a better understanding of the pieces that make up the Big Apple. This project was funded by a grant given by the IMLS foundation.
Collection Principles
The collection principles were to digitize everything, I believe. They found a way to market all of their collection by creating an interesting a new way of looking at the information which was originally just kept in a finding aid and within the museum itself. The amount of access to these documents was limited due to this, and by creating this website they have given even the most uninteresting items life! I believe that the website is an item in the collection as well, it is very interactive, and the principles behind it seem to be ones for harvesting interest within a community of educators and travelers. Problems I see with this site are its uses of advanced programs on the internet which require newer machines with more capabilities. The use of Flash seems to be the greatest deterrent for those who can't afford a top of the line PC which would allow them to view some of these spectacular images and interactive functions, like the viewing of Manhattan over many periods and additions to the city's skyline, or the viewing of the worlds tallest buildings back to back.
Object Characteristics
The original finding aid states that the images were only digitized as TIFF's at 8 bit color depth, which is not quite up to standards. The original digitizing occurred around 2001, so maybe this is the reason why. It is a bit disappointing, I find that the images are not poor, but small. There isn't a very intuitive way of enlarging the images either, after right clicking one can zoom in as many times as one wants but the image then lacks any definition due to the pixelation. It is unfortunate that this collection cannot work as individual documents, but must remain a part of the overall site in order to deduct real meaning from the photographs.
Metadata
The metadata on this site was really fascinating. It is not contained with the images but rather on a separate finding aid page, which provides a comprehensive list of attributes and keywords for the collection, not necessarily every item. What is interesting is that within the composing of this information on their site they have created little blurbs about the buildings themselves which incorporates the metadata into a narrative. Within the Flash diagrams of the information you can search the archive for keywords and genres of the information. I liked that the flash incorporated this into it. I found that the metadata could have been a bit more accessible to the more scholarly folk who would wish to peruse this site for credible documents, unfortunately this isn't so. I think that the format of this site has a lot of potential within the world of Web 2.0 in creating more interaction between people and their information, but this has been somewhat neglected. Possibly one day other sites will learn from the lessons and innovations of this site.
Intended Audience
As I postulated earlier, I believe that the intended audience for this collection is most likely young students and tourists, as well as some curious members of the community within New York. This is made evident by the different options created for children and other adults wishing to search the interactive archive. Hopefully they might do better to incorporate other pieces of the metadata to make this site more operable.
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