Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS)

by

I came across this by quite the circuitous route, but it’s very cool and I think exactly fits the bill of what I was looking for as a way to index—and increase discoverability of—and present audio and video content like interviews and first-person narratives—whether “oral histories” or not.

OHMS is a two-piece system for, first (free web account required), creating a timecoded index (and) or transcript from an audio video source and then, second, an open-source way of presenting that audio or video on the web so that it is searchable and allows for easy navigation to specific points of interest from the index.

Reading up on OHMS in turn led me to Omeka, a new-to-me open source CMS and web platform—or rather “platforms for sharing digital collections and creating media-rich online exhibits.” I could see this being useful not just for sites for libraries, museums, exhibits, and the humanities, but also for news and journalism projects—thinking deep-dive sorts of treatments and “microsites.”

Links:

Finally, how great is this 2013 Leonard Nimoy oral history from the Yiddish Book Center? It’s a great demostration of OHMS, but also a great unusual narrative from Nimoy, who is at least trying to speak Yiddish throughout. Fascinating!