Glimpses Into History

In early 2013, a new version of the Clovis Veterans Memorial District's Glimpses Into History project was launched, giving users the ability to sign into the site and create their own interactive memorial -- complete with a Webcam testimonial section.

Glimpses Into History is a project that was designed for a Veterans Memorial District to showcase the stories of veterans of American wars -- and not just by uploading static video, pictures, and text. This was a major undertaking for Anchored Web, but we developed a Website that is truly an impressive case study as a result.

Instead, the order was to allow veterans to upload their own content and write their own story -- and still display their oral histories in an interactive video format. The Website would, therefore, have to contain a listing of all the battles America have fought in since World War II, their location, and all of the medals that are given to veterans. The reason for this is because the site allows veterans to point and click on their medals and battles, and a pre-populated bank of images and mapping data is ready to be displayed.

When the story has been entered -- that's when the magic happens. The veteran's story is displayed in a narrative format, with music that Anchored Web had composed for the project, and a viewer on the site is shown all of the pieces that make up that veteran's military career. The display also includes a video-within-the-video effect, wherein the veteran has a chance to record their testimony directly to the Website via a Webcam.

Formal and informal partnerships will be developed with other veteran organizations, whose memberships were invited to participate in an easy to use Website that enabled their storytelling. The new technical functionality of Glimpses let people easily upload information, including audio, video, and images to the site. Even more innovatively, the new licensable technology was programming that automatically generates a highly responsive and interactive Popcorn-style veteran story like the ones that have proven so successful on the current site.

Drop down menus guided participants through the different details they wanted to include in their story. Simplified tutorials were one click away.

This project truly has taken on historic proportions, as many of these veterans' stories will never be told in any other format.