In recent years, a handful of projects have used online map
programs such as Google Maps to provide access to historic
images of San Francisco. These programs allow website creators
or users to “geotag” digital versions of historic images – in
other words, to situate the digital images on an online map.
Some of these projects are examples of Web 2.0, meaning that
users are able to make contributions by uploading images of
their own, or add tags or comments to others’ photos. By
considering some of these projects together, it is possible to
compare their features. I’ll discuss five projects here, and
then raise three issues related to this kind of work. One
project is HistoGrafica. Users can upload images, as well as a
free-text description of the image and its source. Users can
also contribute to others’ photos by rating the image, adding it
to a list of their favorites, recommending it to other users, or
suggesting that the location assigned to the image may be
incorrect. Images can be searched by location o