Current — AMT Lab @ CMU

Jana Fredricks

Geographical Analysis of Nonprofit Data: A How-to Case Study

Geographical Analysis of Nonprofit Data: A How-to Case Study

AMT Lab’s latest white paper is a preparatory guide for those embarking on geographic analysis for the first time. The case study explores how one organization used this type of analysis to inform decisions about donor recruitment and retention. This guide aggregates useful resources, highlights important considerations, and outlines the process of geographic analysis step-by-step using a succinct case study.

How to Prepare Your Nonprofit’s Data for Geographic Analysis

How to Prepare Your Nonprofit’s Data for Geographic Analysis

AMT Lab contributors have explored how geographic analysis can help increase programmatic effectiveness, but there are many ways nonprofits may leverage their data with geographic analysis. As with any data-based project, 90% of the work happens before it’s time to analyze. There are important intermediate steps a nonprofit administrator must take in order to leverage the full possibility of their address level data. Outlined below are 5 steps an administrator should take before delving into geographic analysis headfirst.  

New Tech Impacts Ancient Sites

New Tech Impacts Ancient Sites

Last April, contributor Jana Fredricks attended the 2018 Museums and the Web conference in Vancouver. Amidst the chatter of digital collections, online audience engagement, and shiny new tech, she presented research on three technologies that have changed the way cultural heritage sites are understood and documented in the digital age. Her paper, Digital Tools and How We Use Them: The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage in Syria, was presented in a panel entitled Post-Colonial Digital.

Crowdsourced Digital Art Projects: Centralization and Agency

Crowdsourced Digital Art Projects: Centralization and Agency

As digital crowdsourced art continues as a mode of art making, it is necessary to developed an understanding of which features of digital arts programming are crucial in the engagement of digital audiences. The following analysis of four digital art projects focuses on the participatory, rather than the interactive, specifically projects wherein audiences become artists by participating in the creation of  a piece of art by making one or more creative contributions.  Perhaps not surprising, agency and control were identified as significant to participation. 

Big Brother's Sweeter Side

Big Brother's Sweeter Side

There is an emerging opportunity for collaboration in the cultural heritage sector, as archeologists around the globe call for new methodologies to process mass-information about cultural heritage sites. This article unpacks how satellite imagery and geographical information systems are shifting the structure of the cultural heritage sector. 

Interactive - Map of the Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Palmyra

Interactive - Map of the Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Palmyra

This interactive map will take you on the journey of Palmyra's 2,000 year old Arch of Triumph, beginning in 2005, with Bassel al Safadi Khartabil's effort to virtually document the city, and ending in present day. Explore this excerpt of the arch's history, and begin to understand the ways in which digital technologies have impacted it's destruction and it's digital reconstruction. 

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day (Because They Didn't Have 3D Printers)

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day (Because They Didn't Have 3D Printers)

Is digital technology a useful tool or hazardous endeavor?  Jana answers this question and takes us into the world of protection, conservation, and rehabilitation of cultural heritage.