I have been struggling with my method of obtaining stories. I initially wanted users to be able to use the app to actually record stories from users. However, I’m having a difficult time getting this to work in the browser on a smart phone. Unfortunately, it seems that one is only able to access the camera (both still and video) of the smart phone through the browser.
To work around this, I’ve set up a phone number through Skype that users can call and leave their story through. This is working pretty well and people seem willing to participate in the project by phoning in their responses. I’ve had to set up a method of capturing the video files that Skype gathers (for some reason skype only records .mov files – even if they are only audio) and converting them to Mp3 files.
The main drawback with this approach is that the audio quality isn’t great. You can hear the audio for the most part, but there are times that it becomes difficult to hear what the speaker is saying. And, when considering the fact that users will be listening to these audio files in loud, busy places, it might become even harder for them to hear what’s being said.
So, I think I need to work on a few other methods for collecting sounds. Next, I will experiment with Google Voice. I had a lot of technical problems setting it up, but it seems to be working now.
The *new* number to call and leave a story is (347) 620-1249.
NOTE: If you leave me a story, please be sure to include the location that the story took place at the beginning of your message. An address, like “25 East 13th Street in Manhattan” or cross streets, like “Broadway and 59th Street” are perfect!