Now this is what I call exciting opportunity for publishers! The Museum of London has been going through a £20 Million pound revamp and as part of this major modernization they have released an app called Streetmuseum.

The free Streetmuseum app <http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/streetmuseum>  allows 3GS iPhone users to see archived photographs and paintings of street scenes spliced with the same view today. Your phone uses GPS to locate where you are and shows you a copy of Google maps with locations nearby that have archived pictures loaded on them. If you click on the pin you get to see pictures of your location from a point in history. Touch the screen again and you get a small snippet of information explaining the picture.  Phones equipped with sat-nav will alert owners when the buildings are near.

Pictured here there is a photo of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst being arrested outside Buckingham Palace in 1914.

I tried it yesterday in Borough on my way to a meeting and was very impressed. It really did bring the history of the streets to life. The museums director, Prof Jack Lohman said ‘The Streetmuseum app is an exciting departure for the Museum of London, opening our unique collections to new audiences in a thought-provoking and creative manner. London’s stories are varied and many-voiced and this app allows the present and the past to overlap and share their secrets.’

My only gripe is that I wanted more than just a picture and a snippet. I wanted deeper content on the history of the photograph and relevant information. Nevertheless this is an interesting innovation that should be food for thought for book publishers around the world.

Jane Tappuni, Business Development Director Publishing Technology plc

Jane.tappuni@publishingtechnology.com