Easier ways to collect sastories (Part 1)

January 21st, 2009 · 7 Comments
education · sastories

I’m loving the stories that are starting to appear at sastories.com but think we need to make it even easier to collect em if we are going to reach our target on one million. Here’s a bit of thinking out loud around the idea of collecting images from mobile phones with cameras and bluetooth.

AIM:

Make it easy (and cheap/free) for people to get pictures (and movies) from their phone (or other bluetooth device) to the internet.

METHOD:

Thinkers team take some equipment, instructions and inspiration to their regional pubic events. Equipment would include a bluetooth laptop and a shareable internet connection (like a nextg/wifi router). People at the event can send files via bluetooth to the laptop. Suitable images would be uploaded to the sathinker flickr account and tagged with sastories.

It might even be possible to take some trainers along to some events to help people figure out even more ways to get stuff to the internet for free and leave behind some capability at the local library. That capability might include a similar bluetooth service from a desktop computer in the library and even things like multi function memory card readers and free public wifi.

Would love to hear your suggestions on ways we can collect more stories and leave people in remote areas more connected

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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7 responses so far ↓

1 Taryn // Jan 21, 2009 at 9:18 pm

Is there an SAstories Flickr Group? I’d like to join and submit my photos to it, that would be nice and easy :D
2 Robbyc // Jan 21, 2009 at 9:58 pm

I think this is a great idea Dr F, and it kicks off a good discuusion, I think we need to be more inclusive of all people in gathering the stories using sms and possibly even some of the collecting techniques of the oral history project , it can even use the existing resorces setup in the library system throughout schools and public librarys – in the states they use a dial in – leave a comment service and I will follow with interest others comments on this site – cmon all where is the brains trust when called upon…
3 jerry // Jan 22, 2009 at 7:38 am

Hi Mike,
Have you tried using podmo? The range on the bluetooth adapter may be a bit of an issue – depends on what sort of area you are thinking of covering. I haven’t used podmo for a while but had it installed on my laptop in the office. They supported a number of mobile phones (apparently there’s bluetooth and then there’s bluetooth! – not all bluetooths are the same.) When I first installed it I had an LG phone which, while it was bluetooth enabled, wasn’t supported. It must be a horrendous job trying to cover all the different mobile devices coming out if they are all doing ’standard’ things differently.
—
update – I just had a look on the podmo site and I can’t see where you can download the software. It used to be available for free but I can’t see that this is still the case.

Cheers,
Jerry
4 Leo // Jan 22, 2009 at 9:17 am

Hey Mike,

Problem with Bluetooth is that it’s always been designed as a Personal Area Networking technology rather than for true IP connectivity. There are some bluetooth sub-specs that deal with IP over Bluetooth, but none have had support of the major manufacturers (some conspiracy theorists think that’s because the phone carriers don’t want to make external internet access to easy – eats into their profits).

As for public WIFI – it’s a shame this is not more popular in SA. http://www.air-stream.org.au/

As for the cost of Wireless data down under – don’t get me started on that one. My mates in Austria & UK have been enjoying ‘all you can eat’ monthly data plans for years now.

Cheers,
Leo
5 Stuart // Jan 22, 2009 at 9:43 am

If you’re using something like the nextg “home network gateway”, you just need to plug it in and you’ve got your free public wifi hotspot. Anyone with a wifi device can upload.

The bluetooth idea is a great one. There would definitely be more people around with phones that could do this than anything else. Although some people may have never used the bluetooth on their phones, you would definitely need trainers who can help them out.

With a couple of laptops, a couple for typing up a story, card readers attached for popping photos online, and your bluetooth… you’ve got your one-stop-shop right there.
6 mseyfang // Jan 22, 2009 at 10:14 am

Thanks all for your thoughtful and interesting help & suggestions. I will make sure a summary gets to Dr Bell and team. One of the tensions I see on the horizon is balancing a large number of collection mechanisms agianst keeping track of the stories. For example the flickr group is a great idea but how do we keep hold of the convenience of tags (tag:sastories currently works for flickr, blogs, twitter, youtube etc…).

Good stuff to wrestle with – thanks again and nag yer mates to keep them suggestions coming. At the end of the day I think it will be the power of our social networks that drives us to one million stories.

Fang – Mike Seyfang
7 Dave - Lifekludger // Jan 23, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Mike, could give the email to flickr and / or email to flickr/blog address out and make sure default uploads of images are set to unseen until someone can vet them on flickr. And similarly, set incoming posts on blog to drafts which then get published.

Dave