National September 11 Memorial & Museum and social-media platform Broadcastr announce partnership
Broadcastr users will be able to hear September 11 stories from the permanent collection of the 9/11 Memorial Museum and contribute their own voices through Broadcastr, a location-based social media platform
The organizations will continue to collaborate in preparation for this year’s opening of the 9/11 Memorial in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of September 11
For Immediate Release:
January 18, 2011
New York, NY – Representatives of Broadcastr and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum today announced an innovative partnership between the two organizations that will make an important archive of oral history available on the social media site’s growing network.
A location-based audio platform, Broadcastr lets users share audio recordings on a map interface. Through Broadcastr’s partnership with the 9/11 Memorial, the app features September 11 stories from first responders, rescue workers, volunteers and lower Manhattan residents.
When Broadcastr is launched to the public in early February, visitors to the World Trade Center site will be able to hear these stories streaming through the Geoplay (GPS-based) feature of the mobile apps, available on both iPhone and Android. Visitors will also be able to use the app to easily record their own stories, memories and tributes, and pin them to the site.
“At the heart of the 9/11 Memorial is a commitment to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks and educate future generations about these events that forever changed our world. By sharing our collection of stories, we are supporting our educational mission, shaping history through memory,” 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said. “Our partnership with Broadcastr allows people around the world to connect to a place that will continue to inspire thousands of stories of hope and compassion.”
“Just like in human memory, every story on Broadcastr is tied to a physical location,” says Andy Hunter, co-founder of Broadcastr. “Ground Zero is one of the locations most packed with memory, emotion and testimony, and Broadcastr will complement the Memorial and Museum’s efforts in documenting and honoring every voice.”
The 9/11 Memorial has long been an early adopter of social media as a way to expand its reach. Last year, the organization released the “Explore 9/11” app, which displays pictures tagged by users to specific locations around the World Trade Center site; it has also invited friends, family, and those who experienced 9/11 firsthand to post their voices, photos, and artifacts through the MakeHistory.org website.
The 9/11 Memorial’s partnership with Broadcastr complements this outreach by connecting an existing audio archive to a worldwide network of voices, attracting new visitors and contributors and encouraging further interactions. As the first social network to exist both as an up-to-the-minute stream of information and an archive of important history, Broadcastr allows its visitors to enrich the history of 9/11 with their voices. “The work we do together will set the precedent for how people share their stories at the Memorial and Museum,” says Scott Lindenbaum, co-founder of Broadcastr.
Over the coming months, in preparation for the opening of the 9/11 Memorial on the 10th anniversary of September 11, the two organizations will create more innovative, collaborative audio projects to allow more people around the world to interact with the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
About the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the not-for-profit corporation created to oversee the design, raise the funds, and program and operate the Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center site. The Memorial and Museum will be located on eight of the 16 acres of the site.
The Memorial will remember and honor the nearly 3,000 people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The design, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two pools formed in the footprints of the original Twin Towers and a plaza of trees. The Museum will display monumental artifacts linked to the events of September 11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of the 2001 attacks and the aftermath. It will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individual lives, as well as on local, national, and international communities; and explore the continuing significance of these events for our global community.
For more information and to make a donation, visit the 9/11 Memorial’s Web site, www.national911memorial.org.
Follow the 9/11 Memorial on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sept11Memorial
About Broadcastr
Launching a public beta in February of 2011, Broadcastr is a social media platform for location-based audio. It’s a free application, available on the Web and on Android/iPhone, which enables users to record and share audio through a map interface.
Users can record their own content, create playlists, follow their friends and favorite Broadcastrs, and share or embed any broadcast or playlist on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Web sites, and email.
Mobile app users can take a GPS-enabled walk while stories about their surroundings stream into their headphones. Like a museum tour of the entire world, Broadcastr allows users access to the rich layers of narrative and memory surrounding them.
Broadcastr is currently in private beta. Members of the media may contact press@broadcastr.com for earlier access.
On Twitter: @broadcastr
On the Web: www.broadcastr.com
Kate Petty
Broadcastr
press@broadcastr.com
202-306-7979
Michael Frazier
9/11 Memorial
mfrazier@sept11mm.org
212-312-8808
