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Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history.
Everyone has history to share: whether its sitting in yellowed albums in the attic, collected in piles of crackly tapes, conserved in the 1000s of archives all over the world or passed down in memories and old stories.
Each of these pieces of history finds a home on Historypin, where everyone has the chance to see it, add to it, learn from it, debate it and use it to build up a more complete understanding of the world.
Historypin was created to help people to come together from across different generations, cultures and places, around the history of their families and neighbourhoods, improving personal relations and building stronger communities.
Here's a few:
Historypin was created by We Are What We Do, a not-for-profit company that creates ways for millions of people to do more small, good things, helping address social and environmental issues.
We are based in London with offices in San Francisco and part of our team in Bulgaria.
To see some of our other creations, go to wearewhatwedo.org
Historypin.com was beta-launched in June 2010, which gave us a year to test and improve the project before the global launch in July 2011. In the beta-phase we tested a basic Historypin.com site and developed a full version of the site and app. We piloted our local projects, principally in Reading, UK but also through a series of other test activities in schools and neighborhoods all over the UK. We also partnered with over 100 libraries, archives and museums, adding their content to Historypin. We picked up some nice media coverage and won a Webby Award for the best Charitable Organization/Not-for-profit website.
Currently, Historypin is made up of photographic images, videos, audio clips and descriptive and narrative text.
Photographic images can be pinned directly to the Historypin map by users. These images can be of any location - outdoors or indoors - at any time in the past.
Some of these images, if they are taken outdoors, at street level and at certain angles, will be able to be layered onto Street View (this is a bonus, not a requirement).
Audio and video content can be pinned to the map by users. These should be pinned to the location and date where they were recorded.
Any kind of descriptive or narrative text can be added to images, audio or video.
For tips, see our How To page
If you have any problems, you can please get in touch with rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org.
1. Upload your video clip to YouTube
2. Make sure your video is listed as public
3. Click the "share" button under the video on YouTube. Check the "long link" box and copy the link.
4. Click ‘Pin’ and select ‘Video’ and drop in the link
1. Upload your audio clip to YouTube
2. Make sure your YouTube video is listed as public
3. Click the "share" button under the video on YouTube. Check the "long link" box and copy the link.
4. Click ‘Pin’ and select ‘Audio’ and drop in the link
Anyone can add descriptive or narrative text to photographic, audio or video content that has been "pinned" to the map.
This can be added during the process of pinning your own content or, if you find content on the map that you would like to add text to, click Add Your Voice.
Please note you have to be signed in to add a story.
Once you have pinned a piece of content to Historypin, you can edit everything about it - the title, date, location, Street View overlay and story. To edit a piece of content:
Once you have pinned a piece of content to Historypin, you can edit everything about it - the title, date, location, Street View overlay and story. To edit a piece of content:
We only "pin" things that have a specific date and location as this makes things easy to find and more useful for users. Primary sources, such as photographs, videos and audio recordings are measurable in their date and location (even if they are not currently known and need to be debated, tested and improved), whereas stories and recollections, however much they enrich our understanding, are not necessarily "pinnable" to a specific point in time and space.
Currently, these materials cannot be added to Historypin but we recognise their value and are testing different ways of including them.
You can use our Bulk Uploader. For more information see our Bulk Uploader page.
Absolutely. There is no limit to the amount of content that can be pinned on one location or on one date.
Yes it can. We'll ask you to make an estimate to within 30 years.
Yes, you can add links in the Additional Infobox or within the story text you attach to content.
When you are logged-in to Historypin, you can find content you have pinned under My Channel in the navigation bar at the top right hand side of the site.
Note, only content pinned to a place and date will appear on the main map. Unpinned content will still show up on your Channel though.
The earliest photographic imagery goes back to this date, so this is our current setting.
If, in future, other, earlier types of materials can be pinned to the map, we will widen the timeline to reflect this.
Street View lets you explore places around the world through 360-degree street-level imagery. You can see where in the world it exists here. Google is in the process of Street Viewing other areas and Historypin will update as this information becomes available.
Tours lead you step-by-step through a series of pieces of content via a narrative that links them together, giving users a rich journey through a place, era, theme, event or personal story.
Tours can be created by any user and they can include their own content and other users' content.
Collections are clusters of content around a particular topic or theme or event.
Collections can be created by any user and they can include their own content and other users' content.
Click on "Dispute" underneath the content and send your suggestion to the Historypin Team, which will update the metadata attached to the content.
Click on "Report" underneath the image and send your issue to the Historypin Team, which will respond to you and moderate the content.
The Historypin Team will remove the content if it is considered overtly offensive or does not make a constructive contribution to the project. This will be an objective decision, not subject to opinions of certain historical events or materials.
Click on "Report" underneath the image and send your copyright to the Historypin Team, which will respond to you and moderate the content.
Content is moderated in two ways:
Try using a different browser. Historypin works best in Firefox or Chrome. Also make sure that you have the latest version downloaded.
If you are using Internet Explorer, Historypin requires at least Internet Explorer 8.
Try clearing your cache.
Internet Explorer: Tools > Delete Browsing History > Select Temporary Internet Files
Firefox: Tools > Clear recent history > Clear cache
Chrome (PC): Click on the spanner > Tools > Clear browsing data
Chrome (Mac): Chrome > Clear browsing data
Login to your account. In ‘Channel and Account Settings’ click ‘Channel Info’. Here you can edit your Channel Name.
Visit this page to find out more about how to do a bulk upload:
No, it is free to use the bulk uploader.
No, you can do as many uploads as you wish.
No. However, the number of images and the size of each one; your computer's power and your internet connection will affect how long it takes to upload the images.
Yes. You can edit all the information for each photos. However, edits have to be made to each photo individually - there is not yet functionality to make global changes, or to edit the same data field for several photos.
No, once your content is uploaded you can only edit each photo individually. However, once you have uploaded your photos and CSV to the Bulk Uploader, you do have the opportunity to edit all the fields for all the images before you upload them to your Channel.
No, once your content is uploaded you can only edit each image separately.
Yes, you can delete a whole bulk upload. But all the images that were uploaded in that batch will be deleted - you cannot make a selection within a batch to delete. If you wish to delete whole bulk upload, please email rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org
The minimum data you need is a filename and a title for each photo. However, to appear on the map images must also have a date and latitude & longitude co-ordinates.
If you do not provide latitude and longitude co-ordinates for your images, they will be uploaded to your Channel with all the corresponding meta-data. However, they will appear as unpinned content and will not be visible on the map. You add them to the map by editing each individual image and pinning to the map by searching for their location.
Your browser may have timed out. Try uploading fewer images in one go. If you are still having problems email rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org
First try re-uploading the image. If it fails again, check that your data is format matches that in the CSV template instructions. If you are still having problems email rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org
To appear as 'pinned' images on the map, images must also have a date and latitude & longitude co-ordinates. Add these pieces of data to your images to pin them to the map. If you have entered this data, check that the formatting matches the format listed in the CSV template instructions.
We are always looking for people and organisations to get more involved with the project and making commitments to work together and support us.
Have a look our Community section to find some opportunities and examples of how people are getting involved.
Or get in touch with our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham, at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org to talk about the options.
At the moment, we offer London-based internship opportunities and a small number of other structured opportunities.
To apply for an internship, contact our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham, at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org
Have a look at our Schools section where you will find ideas about how to use Historypin, downloadable resources & activities and some of the best content to explore.
We also have some examples of what Historypin activities have been going on in schools.
For more information get in touch with our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham, at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org to talk about how we can support your aims and plans.
In lots of interesting ways and we'll do everything we can to support you.
We have a full section for local Historypin projects, so have a look at the examples of current projects.
Or get in touch with our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham, at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org to talk about how we can support your aims and plans.
We give talks about Historypin whenever we can, mainly around the UK and California, where our Historypin team are based. Please get in touch at historypin@wearewhatwedo.org if you would like one of the team to talk at your event.
We will also be running a series of workshops and seminars over in the UK and US, which we will announce in our blog.
Yes. Please get in touch at historypin@wearewhatwedo.org if you would like to get more info.
Historypin is a really collaborative project works with loads of partners all over the world.
Some examples include Google, our main technology partner, The Nominet Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund, two of our funding partners, and over 200 library, museum and archive partners.
Google is We Are What We Do's main technology partner on the project and we have been working together from the early stages of development to get the most out of Historypin's use of Google tools, including Google Maps, Picasa, Google App Engine and Android.
Google has also supported the development costs of the project with donations and sponsorship, as well as marketing support and collaboration. Google shares We Are What We Do's commitment to Historypin as a non-commercial, collaborative project that delivers social impact and contributes to digital inclusion.
We work closely with lots of institutions all over the world and do everything we can to support participation. Our partnerships range from opening up large archive Collections onto Historypin to collaborating on a local project to developing new tools and games for users.
For all the information about this, have a look here.
Or get in touch with our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham, at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org
Have a look at our Schools section where you will find ideas about how to use Historypin, downloadable resources & activities and some of the best content to explore.
We also have some examples of what Historypin activities have been going on in schools.
For more information get in touch with our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham, at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org to talk about how we can support your aims and plans.
We are currently working closely with Stanford University's Spatial History Lab to develop a series of new study and research tools and will be looking to collaborate with academic institutions all over the world on this work.
If you would like to talk about working with Historypin, please contact our Executive Director, Nick Stanhope, at nick.stanhope@wearewhatwedo.org
The best way to get started is to create a Channel, start pinning some content and curate some Tours & Collections.
You can also have a look at our Community section to find out more about how you can use Historypin with your organisation and community.
If you have more questions, contact our Content Manager, Rebekkah Abraham on rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org
For general partnership enquiries, please contact historypin@wearewhatwedo.org.
The site is hosted securely on Google App Engine.
No, as we are using Google's infrastructure we have almost unlimited resource available to Historypin.
If you find content that has metadata (i.e. information on the location and date) that you think you can improve, click on "Dispute" underneath the content. You will be able to send your suggestion to the Historypin Team, who will update the metadata attached to the content.
No.
Yes, you can embed the Map View, List View, Collections and Tours of your Historypin Channel on your own site. To do this, login to your Channel, Click “Channel and Account settings” and select “Link with my site”. Choose the parts of your Channel that you want to embed and click ‘generate code’ to create the code to put in your website’s html.
Not yet. Plans for this are in development and we will keep you posted in our blog.
Yes. To find out statistics about your content, login to your Channel and click the “Statistics” tab.
The Terms and Conditions protect your content by preventing public or commercial use. High resolution images are not available to download from the site.
Content will always be attached to your username, which links to your Channel, which can consist of a logo, description and links.
When pinning content, you can add further details in the Additional Info box including info on the photographer/cameraman/recorder, copyright license details, copyright holder and archive information. Individual links can also be added to each piece of content.
Users can pick your content to feature in a Collection or Tour that they make. They can also add their own stories to your content. They can suggest to Historypin that it is in the wrong place or date.
The Historypin Team can remove inappropriate content, edit content by adding keywords and improve the accuracy of location and date information.
For non-commercial, online promotional purposes and presentations. Historypin can also feature your content within our newsletters, via our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ identities and within schools and community presentations.
For more information on this, take a look at our Terms & Conditions.
No, never. You can see our privacy policy here.
Through the app you can:
You can download the free Historypin app for Android, iPhone and Windows Here.
A Google account is required to create a Historypin account. This is needed if you wish to pin content, post a comment or take a modern replica with the app.
Historypin is owned and managed by We Are What We Do, a UK registered not-for-profit (Community Interest Company) and charitable foundation (Charity Number: 1134546).
The project is funded in a range of ways:
If the Historypin project generates surplus income from these funding streams, it would be reinvested in the following year's running and development costs or donated to the We Are What We Do Charitable Foundation's community and education work.
Via our Friends of Historypin Programme. Find out more here.
We'll be working hard to improve Historypin for users and will be adding new features and functions regularly. For up to date news on this, keep an eye on our Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and blog.
We Are What We Do creates a series of new products, tools and services each year, around different issues and themes. For up to date news on this, keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook and sign up to our newsletter.
Check out our press section for a press pack that might be helpful. If you have any questions, get in touch with Rebekkah Abraham at rebekkah.abraham@wearewhatwedo.org.
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