Apply to be a PLACECLOUD Expert

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Are you an historian, biographer, architectural historian or archaeologist? A researcher at a museum, heritage organisation or local history society? Use Placecloud to grow and diversify your audience by publishing viewpoints.

Viewpoints are short (2-10 mins) podcasts anchored to the built environment. They tell the stories of places at the places themselves, and are the ideal format for the communication of history.

Our users use viewpoints to explore cities, towns and villages in person, and also to explore them remotely via Google Street View. Viewpoints are easily consumable and highly shareable via social media and email newsletters.

For those with larger audiences, Placecloud’s live online street view tours also allow you to generate income from your audience in a format that has been specifically designed for the communication of the history of the built environment.

To start running street view tours on Placecloud, apply to become a Placecloud guide by filling in the form below. We’ll get back to you within a day.

To fill in the form, you need to register and login first.
Tell us about yourself and your work.
If you have a social media account, add it here. This helps us to see what you do.
If you've published one or more book, add a link to one here. This helps us to evaluate your research interests.

BENEFITS

Viewpoints

A viewpoint presents the history of a place in its most experiential format. The user listens to a short audio recording either standing at the place itself, or if not present, then looking at images and (where available) Google Street View.

Whilst text-based communication certainly has an important function, the viewpoint format renders location-specific knowledge uniquely consumable and shareable – ideal for Twitter, Facebook and email newsletters. In short, viewpoints grow and diversify audiences, attracting younger demographics to your

Viewpoints

By converting your place-specific knowledge into viewpoints and sharing them widely you will:

  • Grow your audience (and if you’re an organisation, your membership)
  • Attract a younger and more diverse demographic
  • Make the knowledge you hold more widely accessible
  • Draw attention to underlying books, subscriptions, memberships, websites, blogs
  • Contribute to the enrichment of our common public spaces

Street View Tours

Street view tours are live online tours that combine Google Street View with a live video stream and a chatbox for audience Q&A. They are a virtual version of a group cultural city tour, with the added benefit that there are no geographical limitations.

For historians and organisations with a larger audience – published authors, museums, Heritage NGOs, Archives – street view tours offer a way to generate income with a platform that is highly specific to the built environment.

Street View Tours

Use Placecloud’s street view tours platform to:

  • Generate a new income stream
  • Grow your audience by diversifying your offering
  • Make the knowledge you hold more accessible
  • Continue to earn income during lockdowns

We encourage applications from across the whole spectrum of history and geographical study. No matter how niche your area, apply below and we’ll get back to you within a day.

FAQs

Who can apply to be a Placecloud expert?

To be a Placecloud expert you must be one of the following:

  • A local historian associated with a local history organisation
  • A published author – an historian, biographer or other cultural specialist
  • A researcher associated with a cultural organisation – e.g. museums, archives, Historical Memory Organisations, Heritage NGOs, literary societies, etc.
  • An academic researcher interested in place – e.g. an archaeologist, ethnographer, geographer, etc.

Having registered, you can apply by filling in the application form at the top of this page.

We will respond within a day. Once approved, you can publish viewpoints and run street view tours immediately.

Absolutely not. We built Placecloud to be simple to use for anyone, regardless of their level of technology know-how. Everything is done inside Placecloud – you don’t need anything except a computer.

Viewpoints are windows into the lives of places. They are short (2-5 minutes) narratives about the history or cultural value of a place.

A ‘place’ may be a building, a tree, a park bench, the corner of a field, the turn in a lane, a street corner. No place is out of bounds on Placecloud.

From a technical point of view, viewpoints are audio recordings combined with GPS co-ordinates, images and (where available) Google Street View imagery.

As a Placecloud expert, you can make viewpoints and share them with your audience via social media, blogs, email newsletters, or anywhere you can paste a link. Viewpoints grow your audiences, make your research more publicly accessible and enrich our common spaces.

Placecloud’s street view tours platform combines Google’s Street View technology with a live video stream and chatbox to create a crystal-clear virtual city tour experience. Participants can join from anywhere in the world.

As a Placecloud expert, you set the ticket price. You keep 70% of net income from ticket sales (after VAT and a £0.50 per ticket service fee)