A place-based wiki-history: The 1ATF in Vietnam Webmap — ASN Events

A place-based wiki-history: The 1ATF in Vietnam Webmap (17092)

Amy L Griffin 1 , Bob Hall 1 , Andrew T Ross 1
  1. UNSW Canberra, Canberra BC, ACT, Australia

The fiftieth anniversary of the deployment of military troops from Australia and New Zealand into Vietnam is fast approaching. Our research on the spatiotemporal organization of this conflict provides a comprehensive analysis that illuminates the many differences apparent in the shift in warfare from the large-scale battles typical of the World Wars to the low-intensity conflict that occurred during the Vietnam War, and that is more commonly found in contemporary armed conflicts. As a part of this research, we have developed an interactive webmap that allows researchers and other interested individuals to access detailed, spatiotemporally referenced information about the approximately 4,500 contacts between 1ATF and the Vietnamese forces. Moreover, because many of those who participated in this conflict, both in Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam, are still alive today, we are also developing a wiki-history functionality where participants can share their recollections and artifacts related to particular events that happened at particular locations. This presentation will demonstrate the capability of this webmap, whose first phase will be launched in August 2014.