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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What's the Our Stories story? Our Stories™ is a new project that encourages people to interview friends and loved ones, and to share these oral histories with others. Our three founding partners, UNICEF (www.unicef.org), One Laptop per Child (OLPC) (www.laptop.org), and Google (www.google.com), have come together to help create, share, and grow a global collection of personal stories collected through recorded audio interviews. Students with access to OLPC computers will soon be able to conduct interviews and share them with others through Our Stories. We aim to gather stories from around the world because we believe that everyone will discover joy and inspiration in these many and varied voices, words, and lives. Our Stories is about your stories. 2. Can I upload my own stories directly to the Our Stories site? Not currently. However, we plan to have systems in place in the future to allow all people to upload their own audio interviews to share. In the meantime, join our community now by listening to our current collection of stories found on the Find a Story page. And take advantage of our interview guides to start capturing the stories and lives of those around you. 3. When will the OLPC student stories be available on this site? Soon, we hope! We're working with schools, engineers, and partnership teams to allow the students to record their interviews on their laptops and then add them to the Our Stories collection. Look for an announcement in our Press Center and on the Our Stories homepage when student stories become available for listening. 4. Why is the Our Stories Children's site made up of symbols? The Our Stories Children's site was specially designed to mirror
the experience of using a One Laptop per Child (OLPC) laptop. Those computers
use symbols rather than letters and words to make it easier for children
everywhere (including those too young to read) to do things like take
photos and play music using the laptops. Children using these laptops
will often visit the Our Stories Children's site to share and hear stories
created by other students, so we wanted to make them feel at home on
our site. The graphical design also reinforces our message encouraging
people of all ages, languages, education, and technical ability to share
their personal stories. 5. Can my school participate? Can we get OLPC laptops? The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program is devoted to bringing laptops to student populations in developing countries. You can learn more about how some of the initial OLPC schools are using these laptops by visiting: http://www.laptop.org/children/learning/. Any school is welcome to use the free Our Stories Student Guide; though this was written with OLPC students in mind, we encourage teachers and students everywhere to explore the joys of personal storytelling through interviews. Eventually, non-OLPC schools may also be able to add their recordings to the Our Stories collection directly (as will other organizations and individuals). We'll announce this functionality on our site when it becomes available. In the meantime, we encourage students and teachers to hear the stories now available on Our Stories through the Find a Story page. 6. Can my local museum, library, or history center add its oral histories to Our Stories? Not right now, but soon we'll have a way for organizations as well as individuals to add their stories to our site. When that functionality becomes available, we'll announce it through our Press Center and homepage. We also provide a collection of links to relevant oral history projects around the world, and encourage you to discuss your favorite collections and share your experiences with others at the Our Stories Google Group. 7. Can I use the audio stories on Our Stories for my own purposes or projects? Please read our Terms of Service to learn more about what you may and may not do with the content streamed through the Our Stories site. These usage terms are adapted from the YouTube Terms of Use because we are streaming audio using the YouTube player. 8. Are stories available for listening in multiple languages? The storytellers speak in their native languages, so an interview will only be available in the language in which it was recorded. That means, for example, that the stories from the Museum of the Person in Brazil are mainly available in Brazilian Portuguese. We don't transcribe or dub audio stories for other languages, but we hope to have many voices in many languages available soon so that everyone will be able to hear stories in their own language. 9. Does Our Stories have recording equipment I can use? Sorry, we don't have recording equipment available for our users. Students using One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computers have a built-in recording and sharing feature on their laptops that are designed to work with this project. But anyone can easily record an interview for a story with a basic audio recording device such as a tape recorder. Most computers also have recording capabilities. The Adult Interview Guide includes suggestions for recording interviews using these devices. In addition, if you live in the United States, you may be able to record a story with the help of StoryCorps® (an inspiration for the Our Stories project). 10. What's next for Our Stories? The site you see now is just the first step on a long, exciting journey. Soon, students with One Laptop per Child computers will be able to add their stories to our site. Eventually, other schools, organizations, and individuals will be able to share their stories through Our Stories. We hope you'll visit our site often to watch and listen as we grow our shared collection of global voices and stories. |
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