BY Aline Reynolds
A new tech application launching next month will allow people worldwide to listen to first-hand accounts of 9/11 survivors and to record their own stories recalling the events of the day.
The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum has partnered with Broadcastr, a Brooklyn-based start-up, to create a digital map interface of oral accounts that will be available as an app for Smartphones.
The recordings include memories, testimonies and tributes from first responders, nearby residents and anyone else who wishes to retell their experiences from 9/11.
The application will categorize the audio entries according to location and a map will be displayed with icons identifying each recording. A recording of a victim’s account of what it was like visiting the 9/11 family assistance center at Pier 94, for example, will be tagged at the pier, where the center was once located.
The recordings are being provided to Broadcastr by the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, who has been amassing a collection that will ultimately be an exhibit at the museum. Currently visitors to the museum’s preview site can sit in an audio booth and listen to the recordings or record their own stories.
“You slowly start to see that it’s not just a Lower Manhattan story — it’s a New York story, it’s all over,” said Jenny Pachucki, an oral historian at the 9/11 Memorial who is part of a team that selects and approves the audio entries.
The application is slated to launch on Tuesday, February 8, with approximately 30 9/11 entries. It will be available on iPhones and Androids, but not on Blackberries. iPads and Android tablets will also offer the application in a few months’ time. Registering on Broadcastr.com to file an audio entry is free of charge.
Home recordings are meant to be user-friendly, according to Broadcastr founder and president Scott Lindenbaum, and can be done using standard computer or Smartphone microphones.
The Broadcastr audio files will also be organized by subject, and can be accompanied by photographs. Someone reflecting on a family member’s 9/11 experience escaping the falling Twin Towers, for example, might file the clip under keywords and phrases such as “family” and “9/11 survivor.” The contributor might also snap a photo of the family member in front of the World Trade Center site, and upload it onto the application along with the audio.
The goal, Lindenbaum explained, is to show how social media can be used to document history, and how it isn’t merely an ephemeral means of communication dominated by Twitter. He hopes to turn the service into a tool that “create[s] meaningful interactions between people across great distances.”
Like Twitter and Facebook, Lindenbaum hopes that Broadcastr will eventually become popular enough to appear as auxiliary features on companies’ and media outlets’ websites.
The program, Lindenbaum said, won’t single out the tech-savvy, film buffs, or “YouTube” gurus. Instead, it will be meant for everyone.
“We’re really excited to get our content out there, and to be able to tell some of the stories in the meantime before the museum is actually open [in 2012],” said Pachucki.
Broadcastr only collects and disseminates the stories in audio format – recording oral accounts, Lindenbaum explained, is less intimidating than video or blogging for those who are timid to tell their stories to begin with.
The memorial’s oral historians invite some participants to their offices and visit others at their homes to perform the recordings. Some participants break down as they recall the day, and others decline to do the interviews altogether, fearing the emotional impact. Some of the toughest recordings, Pachucki said, are those in which the person reflects upon loved ones they lost on 9/11.
“It’s really hard for a lot of people,” said Pachucki. “It’s surprising how raw the emotion still is for them.”
Joe Daniels, the memorial’s president, expressed his support of the project in a statement, saying that the Broadcastr application “allows people around the world to connect to a place that will continue to inspire thousands of stories of hope and compassion.”
The memorial’s mission, in part, he said, is to educate future generations about the 9/11 events that forever changed the world. “By sharing our collection of stories, we are supporting our educational mission and shaping history through memory,” he said.
Pachucki and her colleagues are confident that Broadcastr will serve as a supplement, rather than a substitute, to the services provided by the future museum.
“It’s not replacing the authentic site, [which involves] seeing the artifacts, and delving in some of the visual aspects of the story,” she said.
The service, she noted, will allow those who don’t have the time or means to visit the museum to “experience it in some way.”
Broadcastr and the memorial team plan to co-host panel discussions and other events at the W.T.C. site and nationwide, which would perhaps involve “collecting stories as we go,” Lindenbaum said.
The Broadcastr team is also visiting the construction zone to record workers’ perspectives on what it’s like to rebuild the W.T.C. “It’ll give a little behind-the-scenes feel of, how did this thing get there and who put it there,” said Lindenbaum.
Currently, there are a dozen audio posts on the private beta version of the application, located at Broadcastr.com. The site is accepting 100 new users per day between now and its launch. The company’s goal, Lindenbaum said, is to edit and upload 20 new items every month prior to the ten-year anniversary of 9/11.
