I have researched for a while to find a digital public history site that depicts Missouri History. There is an app entitled Historic Missouri which is currently in development. Therefore, I decided to review the Clio app as a digital public history application. Clio is very useful to find museums and historic sites in Missouri such as the Jesse James Bank in Liberty, MO, and the Jesse James Farm in Kearney, MO. The app and website are easy to use and informative for a general audience. The app is free to the public for iPhones, Android phones, and computers. Therefore, they rely on donations from the public to maintain their site. Professional historians and local history experts vet the site for accuracy. The app functions best when you type in a specific location or use location services. For example, typing in Kansas City, Missouri will allow you to learn more about the National World War I Museum as well as sites in Kansas City. The viewer can access information specific to areas they want to search. The National World War I museum in Kansas City includes place-based techniques of a google street view map and background context of the museum with citations where to locate more information. The background information and pictures can entice viewers to visit their website and travel to the physical location as well as increase audience engagement with the app.
Clio encourages collaboration and discussion as the website relies on crowdsourcing from volunteers as well as historical scholars to immerse the general public in history and culture. They connect the public with the past to obtain a better sense of where they live. The site subsequently allows scholars and students to publish digital humanities scholarship on the website.
Clio functions as an open-source group collaboration app and website to immerse the viewer in their local history and culture.
https://www.theclio.com.
