Galapagos Launch Party | LIVE Blog Stream

Green with Galapagos envy

October 14, 2009 by Andy Morrissey
Live blogging from UNC

7 p.m.

Wow, no questions from the audience. Lots of applause, but no questions. Everyone is ready for the reception outside, where the questions likely will be asked and friends will catch up with each other.

Impressions:

* High caliber of work from “students.” I just spoke with my photographer friend, Jason Arthurs, and he says the editing often lasted until 4 a.m. while they were on the islands. He was one of three coaches assigned to the teams in the Galapagos. Another coach for the Web site worked from Chapel Hill.
* The quality of the editing was remarkable, but so was the level of technology deployed for the project. The videos were broadcast quality. The slideshows were top shelf.
* There isn’t a lot of text on the Web site. It is a multimedia project, but I found myself reading a lot of background material to better understand the overall context of the graphical presentations.
* Personally, this was a harsh reminder that my reporting skills are showing a lack of practice. My fingers are too slow on the keyboard, and I should have been better prepared with background material, such as the names of the speakers, before getting here.

6:50 p.m.

Some of the interviews make use of 360 panoramic cameras, much like the Google streetview images. It adds a sense of place to the people who are being interviewed.

Some cool underwater video is also available.

Lots of spectacular photos throughout.

6:40 p.m.

Pat Davison, who teaches multimedia, just explained the intentions for the project.

UNC has a multimedia team that produces local projects, but they also have taken on two international projects over the last few summers.

Davison learned about UNC’s ties to the Galapagos after he was referred to Steve Walsh, the geography professor doing work in the Galapagos.

“I began to realize just how little I knew about the Galapagos Islands. I, like many people, think it was still a pristine wilderness,” Davison says.

Walsh explained the challenges facing the islands, and Davison says that led to the idea to tell the story about the human impact on the islands. Much has been written about the islands animals, plants and ecological diversity, but he says he found little about the people who live there and how tourism and immigration is changing the islands.

Another peg was that the project coincided with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.

Davison visited the islands last year and met with a colleague from USFQ who helped him create a preliminary story list, which led to last summer’s trip.

The students were divided into three groups to cover the three main population centers on the islands. The students would go out each day to take photos, shoot video and gather data and information about the people they met. They would get together at the end of the day to begin producing.

“Every day at 5:30, we’d go watch the sunset and the sea lions and then we’d go back in and work ourselves to the bone,” Davison says.

The design team decided to use a map interface to divide the content into four sections: Video documentaries, people, places, and then a section for infographics and data-driven reporting to give context.

The site is also available in Spanish, and it will automatically detect the connection speed of users who view it. A low-band-width version was developed so that people in the Galapagos could see the project.

6:10 p.m.

The opening preview from the Web site is being played. Questions to follow.

6:05 p.m.

I missed posting this earlier. It’s a link to the Wikipedia entry about the Galapagos.

The islands are along the equator in the Pacific Ocean off Ecuador. Pat Davison said that it took two days of travel to reach the islands.

5:45 p.m.

Steve Walsh, professor of geography, is the opening speaker and is going an overview of how the project came about. Tonight’s presentation is focusing on the multimedia project, but it’s clear that the relationship between UNC and Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) is more extensive.

Walsh said that the relationship began after he was invited to the Galapagos to study invasive species, and he met some colleagues at the USFQ. He said that initial trip led to a broader effort between the two universities “to articulate the challenges to the historic flora and flauna that make the Galapagos such a unique setting.”

Participants from the USFQ have been in Chapel Hill since Friday. They even went to Saturday’s UNC football game. I wonder what they think of American football?

5:15 p.m.

It’s cold and dreary outside, but it’s sunny with optimism inside the Mandela Auditorium at UNC-Chapel Hill.

I hate weather leads, by the way, but I just wrote one. Ha!

I’m in the auditorium waiting for the presentation on Living Galapagos, a Web-based project by 30 21 journalism students at the University of North Carolina. They spent 26 days on the Galapagos Island gathering information and stories this summer or what they believe is the first multimedia effort focusing on the islands.

I spoke briefly with Pat Davison, the instructor who coordinated the project, as he rehearsed his speech. He has something to proud of. The Web site is engaging and informative. It tells the story of the people who live on the island and how modern development threatens the islands’ ecosystem.

Davison says that 50,000 people live on the islands, with a mix of natives and immigrants. He says that the island even have a problem with illegal immigration.

I had heard of the project through a photographer I used to work with at the Winston-Salem Journal. He was part of the team who went to the island. I’d say he made better use of his summer than me.