What is shoMe?
shoMe is a platform that enables you to tell place-based stories by delivering your stories to people through their mobile devices when they reach specific locations. It consists of two components: a mobile app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shome/id1063175106?mt=8), and a web-based platform (https://www.shomediscovery.com) for creating and configuring your stories. shoMe allows you to build stories with friends, and to develop dynamic stories that change as people experiencing your stories learn more.
Do I need a mobile device to enjoy shoMe Journeys?
shoMe was developed to augment people’s experience in the real world, but we also realized that not everyone could get to Places where storytellers might want to tell their Stories. So, we built a “simulator”, which provides virtualized experiences so that people can enjoy shoMe stories through their web browser (go to https://api.shomediscovery.com/webapp/journeys to access the simulator). We use Google Street View to do this, which can be configured by storytellers to show the features that you want people experiencing your story to see.
Who can build shoMe Journeys?
shoMe is an open-access platform available to anyone through self-subscription on our website. This means that people can both experience other people’s stories, as well as share their own using the service.
Do I have to pay to use shoMe?
shoMe was developed by Stanford’s Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning (VPTL) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a free, open-access platform. You can help keep it free and open in the future by letting us know how much you love shoMe using our contact form (at https://www.shomediscovery.com) or by rating us on Apple’s app store.
Do you have a native Android shoMe app?
Not yet. But, the simulator runs in mobile mode that allows most of the features of shoMe to be accessed through an Android device. Just point your browser to https://api.shomediscovery.com/webapp/journeys and your Android device will start using your location to guide you through the Journey of your choice.
What types of media can I use to tell my Stories?
shoMe lets you tell your Stories with a wide variety of media, ranging from simple images to audio/video clips to animated images whose motions are cued to an audio track. It’s up to you as to how you tell your Stories.
What are “dynamic stories”, and how does shoMe enable their creation?
Dynamic stories evolve as people learn more along their Journey. This is accomplished in shoMe by keeping track of what people have learned as they have experienced your (and other Journeys), and by allowing you to specify what elements of Stories, Places, or even entire Journeys should be shown based on this prior experience. For example, you can create videos that consist of scenes and add, remove, and change scenes based on what people have learned before. The same can be done for any of shoMe’s content. Thus, the content at individual locations, or even the locations themselves can change as people move through your Journey and experience more. This allows people to move through the locations of your Journey and experience your Stories in the way that they choose. It also allows for a wide variety of different uses, such as educational or recreational games that can be played in physical spaces.
Where can I learn how to create Journeys with shoMe?
Stanford offers an online course in “Place-based Storytelling,” which uses shoMe as the platform of choice. Additionally, we have provided screencasts that show you how to tell your stories with shoMe. To access these, sign up for an account at https://www.shomediscovery.com and click on the “Learn” tab. This will take you to the videos, which will teach you how to build and publish your Journeys.
My Stories are located in a remote area without cell coverage. Will this be a problem?
If you are experiencing a Journey through the iPhone mobile app, this will not be a problem. You just need to select the Journey within a point of cell coverage, and then the mobile app will download all of the necessary, out-of-range material in the background for later use. The web-based simulator does not have this caching built in, and so this functionality will be coming to Android when we release the Android native app.
What if my Places are indoors where my phone is not able to pinpoint my location very well?
The shoMe iPhone app and platform machinery supports scanning a QR code for cases in which locations are expected to be poor. If you are interested in using this feature for your application, let us know via the contact form at https://www.shomediscovery.com and we will provide an option for configuring the QR Code in the story creation app.
What if there are things that I would like to see in shoMe that are not already there?
We’re constantly working to improve shoMe, and so you should feel free to let us know of your unmet needs and requests for things that would be helpful. Just use the contact form at https://www.shomediscovery.com and we’ll get on it.
What if I find a Story that is offensive or inappropriate?
Because shoMe is a user-contribution platform, we do not police it for inappropriate content. Nonetheless, we do have Terms of Service (https://api.shomediscovery.com/terms/view/terms/) that guide behaviors on the system. We reserve the right to take down material that is deemed to be offensive, or otherwise is inconsistent with Stanford University’s values (as noted in the Terms of Service). However, we rely on you, the shoMe community, to let us know of potentially inappropriate or offensive materials. Just use the contact form at https://www.shomediscovery.com to let us know of anything that seems to fit these criteria.
How can I help out?
The two ways you can help us continue to provide the service is to let us know how much you value the service (via the contact form at https://www.shomediscovery.com), tell your friends about it (point them to our website: https://www.shomediscovery.com or to the Journeys directly through this link: https://www.shomediscovery.com/webapp/journeys), and to share your Journeys with others via your social networks. This will help us get the word out about this service, and will help us to make sure that it can be offered to you free-of-charge into the future.
