Get to know your neighbors in rural America. A new app created by the Museum on Main Street within the Smithsonian Institution Travel Exhibition Service builds a dialogue with interactive oral history.
Name: Stories From Main Street
Available for: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
What it does: Shares the voices and stories of small-town America.
Cost: Free
What’s hot: Oral histories are underrated and a valuable tool for connecting generations. This app lets you record and share traditions and history from your town using the themes of sport, hard times, recipes, music and more.
What’s not: Navigation seems to be overlooked in the app’s design. Yes, you can filter for voices — man, woman, boy or girl — and six types of stories, but other than that you have little choice in what you hear or where the historians are from. Where’s the map? Where are the photos of the towns we’re listening to or, better yet, the people? Visit the website . Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times
