One side effect of social distancing is the loss of human connection. Technologies like videoconferences and telephone calls can help people interact at the same time, but in different places. It is generally limited to interactions with people that you already know. This project seeks to develop strong citizens and communities by encouraging people to go outside and to interact with others in their neighborhood, separated by time rather than space.
Users can select a short, medium or long walk from their location. Social Signal identifies a path and places Talk Points along the way on an embedded map. When users reach the Talk Point, they are given a prompt from a list of get-to-know-you questions assigned to that point. They answer and can then see how others who passed that Talk Point answered the same question.
In this way, users are encouraged to get out of their homes and walk, which is good for physical and mental health. They learn things about others who walk the same path, reinforcing the idea that they are not alone, even if they are not co-present with others.
We wanted a project the whole family, including children, could feel invested in. We didn't have time to use the dataset to create the maps as we originally imagined, and used an interaction with Open Street Maps instead to generate the maps and talk points. The youngest child created the site banner and art for the demonstration video. The college student created a web site delivers instructions and the questions and is created in a combination of HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Dad worked with the map API. Mom was project manager, created content and the video. Everyone helped come up with and refine the idea.
https://youtu.be/PUiUWkYpcXE
We used Open Street Maps and were inspired by https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/groads-global-roads-open-access-v1
We know that probably doesn't count, but we still had fun.