CAP: Android App: Body Text

The Challenge

Smallbean operates the Citizen Archivist Project in locations like Kenya where community volunteers learn computer and technology skills while documenting and preserving local languages and cultures. Currently, these community volunteers are trained to use cameras, digital audio recorders, and video equipment, all of which are often powered exclusively by solar power. Data is then uploaded at Smallbean computer labs in a variety of different formats and often to a variety of different file locations on the computer before being transferred to the Smallbean Digital Archive either via the Internet or more traditional means (think external hard drives shuttled from site to site by volunteers). With oral history interviews being collected in multiple languages, and at multiple Smallbean sites, the result is sometimes a confusing jumble of wonderful community data that is exceedingly difficult to organize after the fact by Smallbean volunteers in Boston and Smallbean Citizen Archivists on the ground around the world.

The Android Solution

The mass proliferation of the cell phone to all regions of the developed and developing world presents a solution to this problem. The standard functionality of a 2011 “smartphone” includes the ability to capture photographic, video, and audio content. Smartphone use in the developed world has spread exponentially over the last five years and trends indicate that this same proliferation of the smartphone within the developing world has begun and will expand rapidly over the coming years. Smallbean has assembled an awesome volunteer coding team to create an Android smartphone application that combines the audio, video, and camera capabilities of the standard smartphone into a simple and efficient to power archiving device. The use of preexisting smartphone units in both the developed and developing world reduces costs and substantially increases the potential number of individuals with the documentation tools required to collect data as part of the Smallbean Citizen Archivist Project.

How the Android App Works

The Smallbean Android app functions with an external microphone attached to the interview subject's collar at the start of the interview. This leaves the interviewer free to use the phone as a camera, video recorder, or for other uses during the interview. The app then organizes data collected during an interview or other event into a single uploadable packet of data (audio, video, photos, and any applicable tags and metadata) which is then uploaded to the computers inside the Smallbean Citizen Archivist Project technology lab. A major feature of the Android app is organization, in that all data collected during a particular oral history interview or event is unified from the outset and transferred in a single packet of data during the upload process.

Current Status of the Development Process

The Smallbean Android App team is led by Mr. William Johnson, a Smallbean volunteer and app developer in Washington, DC. William has assembled a team of four volunteer coders working to build the application. Smallbean has also partnered with Washington State University to design the app so that data outputted from our Android app can be directly inputted into the Mukurtu open source digital archive (on which the Smallbean Digital Archive 2.0 will be based). The GUI (graphical user interface) for the App is being developed by Smallbean volunteer Ms. Miriam Hiersteiner.

If there are any interested Android coders out there, please let us know if you’d like to get involved with the project.