ManyEars — A Listening Platform for Every Story

ManyEars — A Listening Platform for Every Story

ManyEars is a platform designed to capture, curate, and amplify personal stories from diverse communities, focusing on active listening, inclusive representation, and actionable insight.

Purpose

• Collect voices: Provide easy ways for people to submit audio, text, or video stories.
• Preserve context: Keep stories linked to contextual tags (location, topic, sentiment) to surface patterns without erasing nuance.
• Amplify equity: Prioritize underrepresented voices and ensure community ownership of narratives.

Core features

• Multiformat submissions: Record or upload audio, video, or text from web and mobile.
• Guided prompts: Short, culturally sensitive prompts to help contributors share safely and meaningfully.
• Moderation & consent controls: Granular permissions (public, community-only, private) and clear consent recording.
• Tagging & search: Topic, location, demographic, and sentiment tags for discoverability.
• Curated highlights: Editorially and algorithmically surfaced compilations, playlists, and story maps.
• Anonymity options: Allow contributors to share anonymously while preserving story integrity.
• Community hubs: Dedicated spaces for organizations, neighborhoods, or interest groups to collect related stories.
• Analytics dashboard: Aggregate trends, word clouds, and sentiment overviews for researchers and organizers.
• Export & archiving: Downloadable transcripts, metadata, and export formats for long-term preservation.

User flows

1. Contributor records/uploads a story → selects consent/privacy level → adds tags and optional demographic/context fields → submits.
2. Moderator reviews for safety and consent → approves, requests edits, or schedules publishing.
3. Stories appear in hubs and search; curators create themed compilations; researchers access anonymized analytics exports.

Governance & ethics

• Community advisory board: Representatives guide platform policies and featured collections.
• Transparent moderation: Publish moderation criteria and appeals process.
• Data minimization: Store only necessary metadata; offer deletion requests and clear retention policies.
• Compensation models: Options to remunerate storytellers for featured content.

Use cases

• Oral-history projects for schools and museums
• Community journalism and local reporting
• Research on lived experience (public health, urban planning)
• Campaigns amplifying marginalized voices
• Corporate listening for employee feedback and inclusion efforts

Technical considerations

• Scalable storage for media with chunked uploads
• Speech-to-text with speaker diarization and manual correction workflow
• End-to-end encryption for private submissions
• Accessibility: captions, transcripts, and screen-reader support

Quick roadmap (6–12 months)

1. MVP: web/mobile recording, tagging, basic moderation, public/private controls.
2. Add: transcripts, search, community hubs.
3. Add: analytics dashboard, export tools, editorial curation features.
4. Governance: form advisory board, publish policies.