Creating a mobile urban tourism storytelling application presents several interactivity challenges on how to convey an engaging multimedia experience on-site. This article describes a methodology for fast prototyping of a multimedia mobile applications dedicated to urban tourism storytelling. The application can be a game that takes advantage of several locationbased technologies, freely available geo-referenced media, and augmented reality for immersive gameplay. The goal is to create serious games for tourism that follow a main narrative but where the story can automatically adapt itself to the current location of the player, assimilate possible detours and allow posterior out-of-location playback. Adaptable stories can use dynamic information from map sources such as points of interest (POI), elevation or virtual buildings. The main focus is for these locationbased storytelling games to create more engagement between the tourists and the urban environment. To explore this concept, an application was designed for the city of Porto: Unlocking Porto. This location-based game with a central, yet adaptable, story engages the player into the main sights following an augmented reality path while playing small games. The article discusses and presents solutions for media acquisition, interactive storytelling, game-design interface and multi-disciplinary coordination for mobile app development.
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Cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable for climate change and there is an urgent needto become more resilient. This research involves the development of the City climate scanRotterdam (September 2017) methodology to measure, map, scan and assess differentparameters that together give insight in the vulnerability of urban areas and neighborhoods.The research at recent City climate scan / Sketch your city in April 2018 used storytelling andsketching1 as main method to connect stakeholders, motivate action, evoke recognition in ajointly formulated goal, such as taking climate action. The city climate scan also involved thedevelopment of a set of measurement tools that can be applied in different urbanneighborhoods in a low-cost low-tech approach with teams of stakeholders andpractitioners. The city climate scan method was tested in different cities around the globe(Rotterdam, Manila and Cebu) in groups of young professionals and stakeholders in rapidurban appraisals.
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Information and communications technologies (ICT) can be very important to provide access to urban cultural heritage collections. Urban archives contain a lot of (historical) information about people, places, events, objects, trade and artefacts. Its worthwhile to make this information accessible for a bigger public. The core challenge nowadays is to explore the role and meaning of ICT in disseminating this historical knowledge in public spaces. In this paper, we will research the theoretical background of the information value chain in archival science and of the use and context of new media technologies in public spaces. Our research method was a combination of desk research and a case study, in which new interactive media technologies were used to reconstruct historical images of Amsterdam in public spaces. The case study blended digital historical content with physical interactions to provide a user experience of urban history by using innovative storytelling techniques. The resulting prototype made it possible to disseminate historical information from Amsterdam urban archives.
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Retailinnovatie in Rotterdam onderzoekt de innovatiekansen van bestaande MKB‐retail-ondernemingen met een fysieke vestiging in de Rotterdamse binnenstad. Daarnaast wordt de ontwikkeling van de binnenstad als relevante betekenisvolle context voor MKB‐retailers in Rotterdam onderzocht. Samen met MKB’ers en andere stakeholders worden nieuwe retailconcepten en diensten ontworpen, gedemonstreerd en getest. Centraal staat de vraag: Welke nieuwe concepten, diensten en toepassingen zijn op korte en middellange termijn nodig ter bevordering van innovatievermogen, concurrentiekracht en toekomstbestendigheid van bestaande MKB-retailondernemingen met een fysieke vestiging in de Rotterdamse binnenstad en hoe kan de ontwikkeling van het binnenstedelijke winkelgebied hieraan een bijdrage leveren? Belangrijkste doelstelling van dit project is versterking van de MKB‐retailers in de Rotterdamse binnenstad door ze te ondersteunen in het benutten van hun innovatiekansen. In vergelijking met grootwinkel-bedrijven hebben MKB‐ retailers onvoldoende middelen en spankracht om de actuele innovatie-opgave voortvarend op te pakken. Bovendien staat de positie van MKB‐retailers in de binnensteden onder druk door de zogenaamde filialisering van winkelketens. Innovatie dient nog een breder doel. Kleine retailers zijn medeverantwoordelijk voor het imago en de belevingskwaliteit van de Rotterdamse binnenstad. Ze geven samen met grootwinkel-bedrijven, horeca-ondernemingen en cultuur kleur aan de binnenstad. Vanuit Hogeschool Rotterdam wordt dit project gedragen door Kenniscentrum Creating 010, Willem de Kooning Academie, Instituut voor Communicatie, Media en Informatietechnologie en de opleiding Small Business & Retail Management. Een belangrijk deel van het onderzoeks‐ en ontwerpwerk wordt verricht door studenten binnen het curriculum van genoemde opleidingen. Ze worden daarbij gecoached door docentonderzoekers en lectoren en ze werken intensief samen met de consortiumpartners: zeven MKB-retailondernemers uit de Rotterdamse binnenstad en vier MKB’ers uit de creatieve zakelijke dienstverlening met bijzondere expertise op hert gebied van retailinnovatie. Het consortium wordt gecompleteerd door twee grootwinkelbedrijven, een vastgoedexploitant uit de Rotterdamse binnenstad, een ondernemersorganisatie en Stadsontwikkeling Rotterdam. Creating 010 draagt de wetenschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid voor het onderzoek.
The increasing concentration of people in urban environments in an era of globalisation means that social, economic, and environmental resources for living and working are under pressure. Urban communities experience increased stress levels due to inadequate and overburdened infrastructure and services, challenges due to ethnic and cultural diversity, socio-economic inequalities as well as the impact of environmental degradation. For these communities to build resilience under these circumstances therefore requires a multipronged approach. The underlying question this project will answer is: “What are the key characteristics of experiencescapes that contribute to resilience-building in communities?” The project will dive into the identification of building blocks of experiencescapes and roles of relevant actors that can support communities in building resilience. Within the context of a multidisciplinary approach, this project applies a range of qualitative research methods, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, participant observation, storytelling techniques, life stories, as well as various biometric quantitative methods, available through the experience lab of BUas. The outcome of the project will enable practitioners and researchers alike in various sectors to understand what and how they can contribute to creating an environment in which people can meaningfully interact in a way that builds resilience in communities. This outcome is communicated not only through academic publications and conference contributions, but also through public reports and a handbook for practitioners and students. These reports and handbooks support identification and application of building blocks of experiencescapes that support building resilience in communities. Finally, the knowledge generated in the project will contribute to the development of curricula of various educational programmes at Breda University of Applied Sciences by expanding the scope of experience design into the area of people-to-people relationships.