Frequently Asked Questions
When you work with Geovistory, you store and produce data & information on different layers. This is explained here.
In the sources section, digital reproductions are stored, which correspond to the data layer of the DIK-pyramid.
In the current version of Geovistory, you can store and manage texts and soon also tables. However, the current version does not yet allow you to directly export these objects with a single click. Copy&Paste is necessary to extract the needed elements. A download function for these objects is part of our development pipeline.
The entity section corresponds to the information layer in the DIK-pyramid.
In its current version, you can download the research data that you produce in the entity section using the analysis function "table" as explained here.
In Geovistory, information is stored in entities. There are two type of entities, persistent items and temporal entities, which are further specified in different entity classes.
Each entity class is well defined according to the overarching ontology, giving it a semantic meaning.
As described in the cycle of knowledge production, at a certain moment you have to translate your research question into a semantic data-model that defines which entity classes are of relevance in your project and how they relate to each other.
In Geovistory, users have different options how they can adjust the entity classes at disposal:
some entity classes are already available within each project and can simply be activated or deactivated.
entity classes are grouped in OntoME profiles, which take together entity classes of relevance for a certain topic. These OntoME profiles can be activated and are then available in your project.
if the entity classes you need are not yet available within an OntoME profile, you can create your own profile in the community-managed ontology platform OntoME. Please reach out to us if you need assistance in this process.
The function to change your password is not yet visible in the user-interface. However, you can nonetheless change your password:
log out of Geovistory
click on login
select "forgot your password?"
proceed as indicated
This turnaround allows you to modify the password.
Currently, Geovistory is still in BETA and individual usage of Geovistory is for free during BETA phase. BETA means that the database is stable and all data is savely stored. Services and functionalities are running mostly smooth. However, we are still improving and developping some features before we close the BETA phase and transition to paid-use.
Users with an active BETA-account will transition automatically to the basic Geovistory account, which will remain for free for them. The exact configuration of the different account types is still to be determined.
Geovistory BETA is already used by several multi-anual research projects in a browser-based and collaborative environment. However, Geovistory BETA is not for free for research projects. In addition, for research projects, often a introductory training and specific customization of the ontological data model is wished.
Contact us if you are interested so that we can discuss your ideas and see how Geovistory might serve your needs: [email protected]
Yes, you can upload excel- and csv-files into your Geovistory project. Csv- and exel-files are treated as digital reproduction of sources and can be added similarly to texts. However, it is not yet possible:
to edit content in uploaded tables
to automatically create entities out of your table
to annotate cells in your table and connect it to existing entities in your project.
These features are currently being developed.
