Storymap App

description

Storymap is a fresh and original project that captures the personality of Dublin through its stories and storytellers. The idea is simple. We find interesting stories about the city, film them being told in the relevant spot, and then upload and integrate the stories on an online map (www.storymap.ie). The stories range widely - from personal to historical, funny to tragic, drunken misadventure to romantic encounter - and all illuminate a different facet of Dublin life. The result is a website which gives a vision of Dublin by Dubliners, and highlights the remarkable stories that lie beneath every Dublin street - across centuries, generations, nationalities.

We launched the website in February and have expanded steadily to 40 stories, with a new story each week. The project has gotten great feedback, with articles in the Irish Independent, Irish Times, and features on Newstalk with Tom Dunne & RTE . Storymap was conceived and is run by two young filmmakers - Andy Flaherty and Tom Rowley - who, without any funding or support, have brought the project forward with great energy and dedication.

What we want?

We want to use our site as a foundation to make a smartphone app (android and iphone) that will give Dubliners and visitors a totally new way to experience the city.

The app will have 3 functions -

1. Storyalerts: which will alert you to a nearby story in the area, which you can then see being told to you.

2. Story Rambles: A host of entertaining routes across the city which link stories in a common theme (romantic dublin, gay dublin, theatrical...). You'll be able to follow a route, but unlike other tour apps be able to hop between routes as you go. For Dubliners it’s a fun way to walk around the city and see it with fresh eyes. For visitors from abroad it’s like having a load of walking tours in your pocket, but where the visitor is in control, and the stories are authentically local.

3. Make Ramble: Tell the app your destination and it will generate a 'ramble' by linking stories along that route. A simple walk across Dublin becomes entertaining and engaging.

Once funded, the app will be developed by February 2012. Our tech advisor, Bryan Duggan, will be overseeing the production. Bryan is a lecturer at DIT, and author of Tunepal app

Developing the app will help us a lot. This is a project that can spread nationally - articulating and preserving the character of Irish cities through their stories and personalities, in a way no-one has ever done before. The app is a vital stepping stone for us to realise the potential of the Storymap project.

Hope you can help us make this exciting new idea a reality,

Thanks,

Tom, Andrew, and Bryan

Some praise for Storymap:

‘A brilliant interactive, storytelling archive.... and they have sourced a crew of fascinating characters from all walks of life’
Irish Times

‘Storymap.ie brings Dublin absolutely alive... a brilliant idea’
Tom Dunne, Newstalk FM