This past weekend I loaded up both of my kids and road tripped from North Carolina to Steubenville Ohio. My son’s Christmas vacation from college and it was time to get him back to Franciscan University for the spring semester. While on campus I decided to do a short Geocast using IncaX Live Media GPS and a Photosynth. There are many beautiful buildings I could have chosen for my subject, each with fascinating stories behind their history and name, but the one I chose was a modest little stone chapel on campus called The Portiuncula. The Portiuncula is a replica of the original Portiuncula built near Assisi Italy by Saint Francis. The building has a special place in the heart of my family and I because of the person responsible for its construction, Fr. Sam Tiesi.
Fr. Sam was a warm, generous, Franciscan Friar back when my wife Tracy and I attended Franciscan University many years ago. Well known for his joy of life, he was always quick with a kind word, ready to offer a helping hand wherever needed, always up for some fun, and very beloved by the students at Franciscan University. During her time at Franciscan my wife became quite close with him as he helped her through some difficult times and even helped her after college moving her apartment and just being a support. When my wife and I became engaged to be married it was Fr. Sam we approached to perform the ceremony and he married us up in Saginaw Michigan. When our first born child arrived on this earth, we named him after Fr Sam. Over the years we would visit him when possible and toward the end of his life, with his health failing, Fr. Sam was still the ever gracious host making breakfast for my wife in the friary during visits, and entertaining my children and spending time with his namesake, our son Samuel.
The Portiuncula was a labor of love by Fr Sam. He felt that Franciscan University should have a reminder on campus of the humble beginnings of the Franciscan order and the namesake of the University. He wanted it to be a quiet place of reflection where students could go to quiet their hearts, reflect, and pray. To help raise money for the effort he made, and sold countless San Damiano crosses (my wife helped him make quite a few for the effort). Fr. Sam is now in a better place watching down on my wife and son but his legacy lives on in the small humble chapel on campus know as The Portiuncula.
I have created a short geocast talking about The Portiuncula as I walk up to it as well as a Photosynth of the structure done during a cold Winter morning ( it was 16’ outside at the time…. Brrrr). Some of the great possible uses of geocasting and synthing of digital images includes rich capture of events and places during vacations/travels. Cataloging of historical landmarks is another, and what about news reporting. Imagine using the technologies to capture rich information for the internet to supplement a human interest story, a newsworthy event? The possibilities are endless and I am just scratching the surface here. I do need to mention that the video quality of the geocast is not a limitation of the technology but rather of my phone used. I have an HTC Ozone, which although a good reliable work device, is not a high end social media mobile device with only low end optics. Use of better devices with higher quality optics will deliver much better video quality.
Check out the geocast and synth and then think about how you can use the technology on your next vacation, to supplement your next news story, to showcase a historical landmark.
You can…