Come See the Cleveland History iPhone App at Ingenuity Fest!

This weekend at Ingenuity Fest in Cleveland, we will be unveiling our latest project, Cleveland Historical, a mobile application debuting for iPhone this Fall. Below we’ve included some teaser images to whet your appetite, but be sure to drop by our booth at Ingenuity for some hands-on mobile history.

These screenshots are from the beta application, which means the app may change a bit by the time you get your hands on it. Planned features at launch include a GPS-enabled map showing nearby points of interest linked to historical text, archival images, oral history audio with Cleveland residents and scholars, and original documentary videos; user-created and curated Cleveland History tours; and search and browse functionality. With version 2.0, we hope to add integration with social media sharing services (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.), user contributions, desktop and mobile browser access, support for Android devices, and more.

For those of you interested in the background and technology, we can tell you a tiny bit more. For one, while the Center provides guidance on development and design, as well as produces all of the content, the software behind the app is developed by DXY Solutions, with visual and interface design by Epstein Design Partners. Both firms are located here in Cleveland and staffed by some of the most talented and professional designers and developers in the city. The “back end” of the app runs on Omeka, an open source archival collection and exhibition platform designed for museums, libraries, and humanities projects. For a great primer on Omeka, read “Omeka and its Peers.” If you’ve followed our recent work, you know that we use Omeka in several of our public history projects.

Keep an eye on mobilehistorycleveland.org, where we will be adding a download link (it’s there now but not active yet), an email update subscription form (so you’ll know when the app is released, and when new features, content, and partners are announced), and a donation link (so we can keep this project going and growing). For more information or to get involved, send us a note at csudigitalhumanities@gmail.com

UPDATE: The app is now available at http://clevelandhistorical.org/.

Erin Bell (M.L.I.S.) is Project Coordinator and Technology Director at the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University and lead developer for Curatescape, a web and mobile app framework for publishing location-based humanities content. In addition to managing a variety of oral history, digital humanities and educational technology initiatives, he has spoken to audiences of librarians, scholars, and technologists on best practices in web development and publishing.

One comment

Comments are closed.