The Austin Historical Survey Web Tool is intended to improve the comprehensive, community-wide survey of historic properties in Austin, Texas by encouraging public involvement while providing for official vetting of information. This web-based application will pool the efforts of citizen volunteers, preservation consultants, local history and preservation organizations, the historic preservation office, and other city departments within a single interface, providing both convenient access to public information and an efficient means to collect and amend high quality data. We believe this innovative system will improve the transparency, accuracy, and timeliness of historical survey information while accelerating the identification of a diverse range of historic buildings, sites, districts, and cultural landscapes.
Upon completion, our application will offer features such as: Public access to survey information using interactive maps and query tools; a three-level user authority system to encourage public involvement while providing for efficient vetting of information; wiki-like revision tracking of all edits to survey records; and tools to share stories, images, and documents about properties and neighborhoods.
We're also planning to integrate user-friendly reference materials, such as a visual dictionary of common architectural styles and glossary of preservation terms to assist community surveyors, and to offer a version of the site optimized for field use with mobile devices.
When complete, this application will be managed by the City of Austin and serve as the primary means for the collection and dissemination of historical survey information in the city. While we are presently developing the web tool for the City of Austin, we also intend for the project to produce a replicable model that can be used in other communities.
