Signposts – a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Webstock 2011

It’s only 10 days since Webstock, New Zealand’s biggest web conference, but it feels like longer. My post-conference excitement faded into the background last week as, like many, I became glued to the internet for information and updates about the earthquake in Christchurch.

Social media wasn’t such a star at Webstock this year as it has been in some previous years, but last week, in the aftermath of the quake, it certainly was in ascendency. Twitter was how, in our office, we found out about the quake, and where we came across the first pictures of damage and devastation, even before there was anything on news sites. Twitter and Facebook were how many people found out their friends and family were ok. Last week a friend (in Wellington) asked on Twitter if anyone in a particular isolated Christchurch suburb could help an elderly man there. A few minutes and many retweets later, she’d had several offers of help from total strangers.

Many people have used the internet to raise money for organisations helping with quake relief. In just one example of this, some people I know have put together a bundle of role-playing game pdfs, which they’re selling for US$20 instead of the $338 they would cost separately. By this morning, after only a few days, they’d already raised US$34,680 for the Red Cross.

It’s this kind of thing – genuine, meaningful connections – that I love about the internet, and at Webstock the talks that dealt with the internet as a place of meaning were the ones that got me the most excited.

Webstock began on Thursday morning with one of those, with Frank Chimero talking about the importance of story on the web. He said that content can be warm or cold, and that the way to warm content up is to use story. Using the story of WALL-E, Chimero suggested that robot plus story = human, while human minus story = robot – essentially, that we relate to and empathise with people because of their stories. Encyclopedias are not traditionally warm-content publications – though I hope we manage to make Te Ara warmish with our images and media, topic boxes, contributed stories and plain-language approach – but it got me thinking about how else we might warm up our content, while still being authoritative.

One way we try to make information on Te Ara more accessible is by using graphs, charts and diagrams, which are created by our design team. The ‘it’ word for these things are infographics, and the infographic king, David McCandless, of Information is Beautiful fame, was a definite highlight of Webstock for me. His talk– which was very entertaining, especially considering a great deal of it involved showing us graphs – really brought home to me how powerful and meaningful it can be to show information visually. A particularly stunning example is his animation Debtris, which simply shows the relative amounts of various things such as the cost of the Iraq war and US credit card debt (there is a US and a UK version – he said he’d get on to doing a NZ version ASAP). He also showed how our fears seem to be seasonal, a lot of Facebook users break up on Mondays, and that US adults spend a lot more time watching TV in one year than was needed to create Wikipedia.

This year’s Webstock seemed to have a little bit more about website content than other years, which, as a content-focused person, I was happy about. Sometimes, when all you hear about is design and coding, you’d start to think that a website didn’t need to have any content at all. And, according to content strategist Kristina Halvorson, leaving content to the last minute is a common problem when websites are developed. I’d also suggest that having a content strategy still doesn’t mean you actually have content, but I suppose it’s a start.

Other highlights for me were:

• Jason Santa Maria on typography. Turns out you can make websites typographically beautiful.
• Peter Sunde on the benefits of internet piracy, and his site Flattr, through which you can directly financially reward people whose work you like on the net
• Tom Coates on all kinds of things – I can’t entirely remember what his point was now, it was fun getting there. On the way we took in ancient Persian roads, his bathroom scales that tweet his weight, and networked cities
• cartoonist Scott McCloud, who didn’t just talk about comics on the web, but on visual communication and how the human brain will always want to make a story or connection out of two, possibly unrelated, images
• and Amanda Palmer, of whose music I am a big fan, both for her talk/Q&A on how musicians can survive and thrive without a record label in the new world of the music industry, but even more for her special after-conference concert with Jason Webley on Friday night.

It seems to me that Webstock is well named – it’s like a soup: you throw a lot into it, some things give it flavour, some things rise to the top, some things are a bit meatier, other things seem a bit unnecessary. But each year this soup has shown me some visions of where the web is heading, and what we need to think about for Te Ara, to keep it relevant in the future.

What were your highlights or lowlights? What did you take away from the conference that you’ll be able to use in your work?

New Zealand regions with greatest likelihood of ground shaking

Following the devastating magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, many will be assessing the risk of where they live. Over a long enough time frame pretty much anywhere in New Zealand, apart from Northland, is vulnerable to a large earthquake.

On the map above it is evident that Christchurch is among the lower ground-shaking hazard areas. These predictions were based on the distribution of active faults, how frequently faults have moved in the past, and the location of historic earthquakes. This illustrates that even lower-hazard areas are vulnerable – as previous ruptures on the Greendale Fault (the location of the 4 September 2010 magnitude 7.1 Darfield earthquake) do not seem to have occurred in the last 2,000 years.

Yet, hazard is not the same as risk. The highest-hazard area on this map is in the Southern Alps, where few people live. The highest-risk areas are where hazard intersects with population – our second and third largest cities: Christchurch and Wellington

There are three major known earthquake threat sources to Christchurch – and although all differ in their magnitude and distance from the city, all are expected to result in around the same amount of ground shaking. The rarest is from a major rupture of the Alpine Fault – around a magnitude 8 event. The return period is 1 in 100-300 years – the last was in 1717. Even though the fault is well over 100 kilometres away, the ground shaking from such a massive release of energy would still be considerable in Christchurch.

More frequent moderate-to-large earthquakes (6–7.5 magnitude) were expected from faults in the foothills of the mountains next to the Canterbury Plains, and in North Canterbury. Less frequent moderate earthquakes (5–6.5 magnitude) were expected from faults under the Canterbury Plains and Christchurch itself. The 4 September 2010 magnitude 7.1 Darfield earthquake and the 22 February 2011 magnitude 6.3 Lyttelton earthquake (thought by scientists to be an aftershock of the earlier earthquake) were in this later category. The strength and location of the Darfield earthquake surprised scientists and illustrates that our knowledge of the hazards we face is evolving.

One way that scientists use to estimate a locality’s future earthquake pattern is to look at its past. Since 1869, 11 strong earthquakes felt in Christchurch have resulted in Modified Mercalli scale ground shaking of 5 or more in the city:

• 1869, Christchurch, magnitude 5, ground shaking intensity 7–8

• 1870, Lake Ellesmere, magnitude 5.5, ground shaking intensity 6–7

• 1881, Castle Hill, magnitude 6.0, ground shaking intensity 5–6

• 1888, Hope Fault, North Canterbury, magnitude 7–7.3, ground shaking intensity 5–7

•  1901, Cheviot, magnitude 6.9, ground shaking intensity 6

• 1922, Motunau, North Canterbury, magnitude 6.4, ground shaking intensity 6–7

• 1929, Arthur’s Pass, magnitude 7.01, ground shaking intensity 6

• 1929, Buller, magnitude 7.8, ground shaking intensity 5–6

• 1994, Arthur’s Pass, magnitude  6.7, ground shaking intensity 3–6

• 2010, Darfield, magnitude 7.1, ground shaking intensity 5

• 2011, Lyttelton, magnitude 6.3, ground shaking intensity 8.

The 1869 and 1870 quakes were in the category of quakes beneath the Canterbury Plains and Christchurch itself. The largest of the above quakes in terms of ground shaking in the past century, prior to the 2011 Lyttelton quake, was the 1922 Motunau magnitude 6.4 earthquake in North Canterbury, which caused ground shaking of 6–7 in the city, as measured on the modified Mercalli scale. The 2010 Darfield magnitude 7.1 quake caused ground shaking of 5 in the city, while the magnitude 6.3 Lyttelton quake caused ground shaking of 8, because it was both closer to the city and shallower. Only the 1869 quake (believed to have been centred beneath New Brighton) caused ground shaking approaching this at 7–8.

While Christchurch is considered to have a lower earthquake hazard than Wellington, the risk it faces from medium-sized quakes is similar – which, prior to the recent quakes, would have surprised many people. This is due in part to the underlying geology of unconsolidated silts and sands that Christchurch is built upon. While hazard maps of areas prone to liquefaction exist, they largely join the dots of information gained from drill cores, while underlying geology in these types of deposits can vary from metre to metre. The predicted areas of liquefaction in existing hazard maps proved to be poor predictors of liquefaction in the September 2010 earthquake. As the water table is quite near the surface, many of these sands are water-saturated and when shaken turn to a jelly-like consistency. Not only does this lead to water and silt bursting through the surface, the ground shaking intensity is much worse than for areas built on bedrock, and the ground can also subside unevenly – with subsequent building collapse. This underlying geology is what brings Christchurch’s earthquake risk close to that of Wellington’s – for medium-size ground shaking events that is. Wellington’s risk from a very large catastrophic earthquake is higher than Christchurch’s.

Wellington is built on a faultline. You only have to fly into the city to experience the city’s earthquake history, as the airport is built on land upraised in the Haowhenua earthquake, which probably occurred in the 15th century. New Zealand’s largest ever recorded earthquake (magnitude 8.2) occurred on the Wairarapa Fault in 1855. The main threats to Wellington are from earthquakes on the Wellington Fault or the Wairarapa Fault, along with faults under Cook Strait which would likely cause a tsunami. Reclaimed areas such as the CBD, Miramar and Petone are at high risk from liquefaction, higher ground shaking intensity and tsunami, while areas with steep slopes risk landslides.

A large, shallow daytime earthquake of around magnitude 7.4 along the Wellington fault would probably result in around 500 deaths, 4,000 injuries, and perhaps 1,800 people trapped and over 100,000 buildings damaged. The return period is 1 in 700 years, and for a larger event (magnitude 8.2) on the Wairarapa Fault, 1 in 1,000 years. Yet, due to the multitude of faults, the return period for a very strong quake causing extreme ground shaking in Wellington is just 150 years.

Our recent earthquake history has not been an accurate gauge for our risk and hazard, and in that respect we have been lucky. Up until 22 February 2011 there had not been a large on-land earthquake close enough to a major city to cause very strong ground shaking since Napier in 1931. It is unlikely that it will be another 80 years before another large quake occurs close to one of our cities or towns. So get ready.

Our hearts and thoughts today are with the people of Christchurch, and their families and friends, especially those who have lost people they loved in yesterday’s earthquake, and those who are still trapped.

It seemed miraculous that no one died in last September’s 7.1 quake. That quake had several factors on its side, including timing – it was at 4.35 a.m. on a Saturday morning, when most people were tucked up in bed – and that its epicentre was in Darfield, 40 kilometres away from the Christchurch CBD. Not so yesterday’s quake which, though lower in magnitude (6.3), was shallower (a depth of 5 kilometres, as opposed to September’s 10-kilometre depth), was centred on Lyttelton – only 10 kilometres from the CBD – and struck at 12.51 p.m., during a busy weekday lunchtime.

Scientists are saying that, while this earthquake may have occurred on a different faultline, it is still technically an aftershock of the September quake.

Given what Christchurch has suffered since September, this latest quake seems too cruel a blow.

The Stuff website has compiled a page ‘What you need to know‘, including how to report missing people, updates on infrastructure such as roads and post. Importantly, at the bottom you’ll find details of some organisations you can donate money to. The Public Address site has a list of useful weblinks, also including places to which you can make donations.

The fruits of their labours

Last Saturday my son and I enjoyed the simple summer pleasure that is eating warm, ripe blackberries straight off the canes. We were rambling around the Berhampore side of Wellington’s municipal golf course on a sunny afternoon when we spied the shiny berries. We were joined by an intrepid golfer, who abandoned his clubs to climb halfway up the bramble-covered slopes (I hope he was wearing trousers), two dog walkers and two boys, who leaped off their bikes and joined in when they realised what we were up to.

The blackberry is an exotic plant and widely considered a pest. It has very weedy tendencies, spreading its roots in all directions. On Te Ara it mainly features as a pest. The Weeds of the bush entry tells us that it was considered the most harmful weed in New Zealand by 19th-century farmers. It was impossible to manage until hormone sprays were introduced in the 1940s.

I’ve noticed blackberry growing in other parts of the town belt, and I suppose the Wellington City Council has decided to manage and tame, rather than eradicate. The bushes on the golf course are on the slopes only and have not been allowed to invade the greens.

They are mingled with gorse, another pest. Gorse does act as a shelter for regenerating native seedlings though, and for this reason is not despised by environmentalists as we may imagine. As for blackberries, I don’t know whether they have similar useful properties. The dog walkers informed me that they do indeed create shelter, but for rabbits, yet another pest.

For all their pesky properties, I have to confess a fondness for my local blackberry wilderness. Plucking fruit and eating it straight from the source is not something many urban-dwellers get to do that often. There is a community-driven movement towards planting food-bearing species on urban public land. The Island Bay and Berhampore Community Orchard Trust has started to plant fruit trees just below the golf course for all to enjoy. I guess the blackberry was already doing this without any help from us.

A waka prow, also from the Nelson region

The Prow (www.theprow.org.nz) one of New Zealand’s most dynamic regional history websites, celebrated its second anniversary this week. The Prow is a history site for the top of the South Island, in Māori Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Maui, the prow of the waka (canoe) of Maui, and hence the site’s name.

A joint enterprise of Nelson city, Marlborough and Tasman district councils, the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) and the Nelson provincial museum, the site has now loaded no less than 226 historical stories from the region, 70 of which have been contributed by interested locals.

As the choice of name might suggest, the site is alert to the Māori prehistory and history of the region. One of the most recently loaded stories, about Nelson’s former Paruparu estuary, known to early settlers as ‘the Tideway’, recounts the Māori and colonial history of what is now the western margin of Nelson’s CBD.

A menu of ‘events,’ ‘places,’ and ‘people’ provides multiple visitor-friendly routes into the rich trove of material found on the site. For those of us working on Te Ara, this guide to facets of Nelson and Marlborough history has proved invaluable, not least as we have worked on our entries for the Nelson region (now online) and Marlborough region (only weeks away).

Events, places and people are complemented by the less common but equally useful ‘enterprise,’ ‘society,’ ‘arts and creativity,’ ‘Māori’ and ‘your story’. As this last suggests, The Prow seeks contributions from amongst its community and further afield. All stories are supplemented by web links and guides to further reading and study. The Prow also suggests ways in which its material can be used in the school curriculum, in particular in English, the visual arts and social studies.

The Prow has set a high standard for regional history websites. When a site is so good, it is tempting to think of ways in which it could be even better. A wish list could include:

• links to relevant stories from the (digitised) pages of the Nelson Evening Mail and Marlborough Express from Papers Past
• an inventory of images and maps on The Prow itself.

Yes, those are challenges but they are also compliments to a site which has accomplished so much in such a short time. Roll on third, fifth and 10th birthdays, when The Prow will doubtless have forged even further ahead.