Cross Boarder Project Evaluation

- Overall - what worked/what was a challenge

I think that the biggest difficulty was matching up our schedules with our Canadian counterparts. Since we didn't have a designated time to meet and discuss things, as if we were in the same class, it made it difficult to share more ideas. Also Google Earth is one of the worst programs I have ever had to use. It is a brilliant concept but the technology isn't there yet. We had several technical difficulties. 

- how your group managed the "cross-border logistics" of communication, exchange of ideas, coming up with an idea, coordinating project parts?

It was fairly smooth. We devised a plan for them to complete and then they sent us a plan. KMZ files were exchanged and not much communication was exchanged. We had one Skype session between Erim, Phil, and myself, but that was spent putting together the final pieces for the preliminary maps.

- Suggestions on how to address some of the challenges and ways to strengthen the collaboration

Convince Google to work on their software! But other than that I woud say that the assignment needed more explanation before the undertaking. It seemed like on both sides of the border, that no one really knew what the project needed to be. We scraped together what we thought was the idea behind the project and ran with it. Maybe more examples of previous students works. 

- What you gained?

I learned about the topography and location of things in Vancouver as well as places I have never been to in SF. It was a great experience seeing things that the Canadians and ourselves have never seen before. 

-If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?

I would spend more time conceptualizing the piece and making it more cohesive as an idea instead of a sightseeing trip. Since we spent most of our time trying to figure out what we needed to do and dealing with technical issues, we had little time to come up with an idea to push the project even further. Most of our time was spent doing research on a city we knew nothing about. Overall it was a great project and fun to do, despite the technical difficulties.