Exploring and creating stories, speakers, and places
Adding and editing Terrastories data requires
admin or editor access. If you are logged in as a member, you will only be able to explore stories, speakers, and places. As a viewer member, you can not access these views.Upon entering the Stories view, you will first see a list of all of the stories that have been added to your community.
Story cards display the title, topic, language, permission level, description, location, and speakers for each story.
Click or press on one of the story cards to view more details for the story, including any media attachments (such as videos, audios or photos) and an inset map showing the location of the place associated with the story.
If you are an
admin or editor user, you can also edit stories or create them.
For stories, the Topic and Language fields are made available as filter dropdowns on the Terrastories main interface.
For each story, you can set the Speakers and Places associated with that story. This is how you can create linkages between Speaker, Place, and Story data. You can also set the Permission Level to define which user role has access to the story.
A Story must have at least one Speaker and at least one Place selected to appear on the Terrastories main interface.
Upon entering the Speakers view, you will first see a list of all of the speakers that have been added to your community.
Speaker cards display the name, photo, and speaker's community for each speaker.
Click or press on one of the speaker cards to view more details for the speaker, including any stories associated with them.
If you are an
admin or editor user, you can also edit speakers or create them.For speakers, the Speaker's Community field is made available as a filter dropdown on the Terrastories main interface.
A Speaker must have at least one Story associated with them to appear on the Terrastories main interface.
Upon entering the Places view, you will first see a list of all of the places that have been added to your community.
Place cards display a photo, the location, the name, and a description for each place.
Click or press on one of the place cards to view more details for the place, including any stories associated with them, as well as an inset map showing the location of the place.
If you have any place name pronunciation audio recordings added for the place, a 🔊 icon will appear next to the name of the place. Clicking on this icon will play the audio.
If you are an
admin or editor user, you can also edit places or create them.For places, the Type of Place and Region fields are made available as filter dropdowns on the Terrastories main interface.
Places require latitude and longitude coordinates (in decimal degrees) to be added to the Terrastories map. Currently, these have to be added manually. In the future, we will make it possible to select places directly using a map, so you don't have to enter any coordinates.
To get coordinates in Decimal Degrees for Terrastories places, there are couple of different ways:
- You can use Bing Maps. Right-click on a location on the map, and at the bottom of the popup you will be able to copy & paste the coordinates in decimal degrees. (You can use Google Maps as well, but you have to left-click twice on the map and manually copy & paste the coordinates, which is not as easy.)
- You can get coordinates from GIS data, if you or someone working with you is using GIS software like QGIS, ArcGIS, or Google Earth Pro.
- You can get coordinates from a hand-held GPS device, or a smartphone mapping application such as Mapeo Mobile.
A Place must have at least one Story associated with it to appear on the Terrastories main interface.