Emory University announced on May 5 the launch of the OpenWorld Atlanta Research and Learning Hub, a new digital platform designed to help users explore the historical development of Atlanta through interactive maps and archival resources.
The initiative aims to make Atlanta’s complex past more accessible by allowing users to visualize how city planning, transportation, and social factors have shaped its neighborhoods over time. The hub brings together researchers, historians, geographers, and community members in one online space.
Alexander Cors of Emory Center for Digital Scholarship said that “Narratives that are sometimes hidden in documents or letters are so much easier to visualize on a map. You can communicate research or arguments to an audience that might not sit down and read your whole book.” The redesigned OpenWorld Atlanta site debuted at the ATL Studies Symposium last May. Built by Bailey Betik and the Emory team, it organizes content by people, places, and themes while supporting video, audio, interactive media, and community-submitted projects.
Cors explained that prior research about Atlanta was scattered across various sources without a central directory. “We have researchers doing amazing work, but no central directory,” Cors said. By layering maps with census records and streetcar routes—and thanks to contributors like Michael Page (geographer), Ian Burr (digital visualization specialist), and Jay Varner (lead software engineer)—users can now see how neighborhoods changed over time. “We have city directories and old yellow pages indicating where people lived, where businesses were located,” Cors said. He added: “How can we bring all of these different data types together into one map? This is how OpenWorld Atlanta started.”
International partnerships funded by the Halle Institute for Global Research and Learning played a significant role in developing the project. Collaborations with Germany’s University of Bonn led to virtual field trips for students abroad using immersive technologies such as 3D models. Tobit Nauheim from Bonn said: “It was a pleasure to turn shared ideas into practice with our American partners.”
The hub also incorporates artificial intelligence tools developed by Professor Xiao Huang along with students Shoibolina Kaushik and Safia Read; their GeoAI system drastically reduced manual labor needed for digitizing historical road networks—from hundreds of hours down to minutes. According to Cors: “You can ask questions about health care access and equity… When you have data that can talk to each other… you can ask questions about environmental justice [and] ongoing discrimination based on location.”
Shoibolina Kaushik reflected on her experience: “Working with historical map data sparked a lasting interest in geospatial data and showed me its real-world impact.”
As it continues developing new features—including layers focused on medical access—the OpenWorld Atlanta platform serves as both an educational resource for local communities as well as an example for other cities interested in public scholarship.
