Today from Twitter: trying again

Searching "audio tour" on Twitter today reveals these gems:

• A couple of commercial audio tour producers are advertising their product on Twitter today. One company, UK-based HeartBeat Guides, sells mp3 audio guides of popular tourist cities all over the world. Their product is clearly aimed at tourists and a typical download appears to be around $10. From the site: "HeartBeatguides are a magical mix of atmosphere and vital information for the visitor." The samples offered do appear to have excellent audio production (which, strangely, seems to be a rare in commercial audio tours), full of ambient sound. But I can't tell how well the mp3s actually guide visitors through the city. It appears to present guide-book style general information in audio form without embracing a particular place. So maybe it's better for pre-travel listening or listening to on a bus or in the hotel before a day of adventure. But it's very hard to tell these things from a sample. (via iPod_Travel)
• The other self-tweeting company is called Visual Travel Tours. It also sells tours of spots around the globe, but they are much more multi-media. Customers can download printable text and photos, or audio/video guides to run on your iPhone -- then there's the happy medium which includes text and video, but no audio. The samples indicate the audio production here is more rudimentary with a single narrator reading a script. But the information presented seems to be more directly tied to place, and I think this has to do with the writer. VTT gets experts on a given place to write the scripts, so there is a more personal touch. I want to talk more with the creators about this very interesting placecasting model. (via VTravelTours)
• For the second time in a row, my Twitter search has brought up a mention of Civil War audio tours. In both cases, the tours referenced were by CivilWarTraveler.com, I'm a Civil War buff myself, and I would have LOVED to have placecasts of the battlefields I visited back in high school. These are very good and I'll write more about them tomorrow.
• People have been taking audio tours of Prestongrange since 2004. What is Prestongrange? "Prestongrange is a site of major importance in the story of Scotland's Industrial Revolution." The tour includes stops at a brickworks, a kiln and a cornish beam engine. What is a cornish beam engine? Look it up. The audio tour seems pretty important to the site, given how promanently it's featured on the Prestongrange Web site. The narrator is John Bellany, "one of Scotland's most noted living artists, who was born in nearby Port Seton." So next time we're in Scottland, let's use the digital revolution to help us better understand the industrial one. (via deb_max)
• Finally, it looks like today, 9/10, is the day for audio touring in Istanbul. A creative group called C-U-M-A (which also appears to organize flash mobs, among other pursuits) is handing out MP3 players so people can tour the city at certain times today. The audio tour doesn't seem to be available for download, but it sounds interesting. It "intends to frame Istanbul not just from an artist's point of view but through the insights and voices of designers, urban planners and artisans. Wish I could be there. (via evrenuzervb)

And that's it for today's Twitter hits. I'll try again in a few days. Happy touring. And I'm always looking for more tour recommendations.

Today from Twitter

What happens if I plug a couple placecasting terms into the Twitter search box to see what people are talking about today?

• I learn that the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia has made a nice audio tour of their museum for kids.  You can rent an iPod when you're there or download the tracks as MP3 for free before you go.  You can also hear the tracks easily on their Web site while you look at the images you'd see in the museum.  Each audio stop is brief and open-ended.  Most end with a question like "What do you think will happen next?"  (via ArtGalleryofNSW, image from their Web site)
• I see that both Cantigny Park and Museum in Illinois and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development are apparently considering creating cell phone tours.  Today they asked Twitter followers for feedback.  Hey, Tennessee, I think audio touring would be a great way to develop your tourists!  (via McCormickMuseum and TNVacation)
• It seems Plan2Go -- which appears to be a travel agency in Cyprus -- has discovered that the Grand Canyon offers cell phone placecasts along the South Rim.  The tweet reads "Grand Canyon cell phone audio tour implented (sic)".  I can't tell how new the tours actually are, though the LA Times was excited about the first ones in 2008.  At any rate, it's all news to me and I'll make a point to dial up and review the tour someday soon.  Cyprus and the Grand Canyon are 7,070 miles apart.  Roughly. (via plan2go)
• Finally, I learn there is a company in Belgium that sells audio tours of Antwerp, Brugges and Maastricht for 6 euros.  It's called Head to Foot and its tweets lead me to believe the team spends a lot of time out of the office. There are lots of companies like this in Europe, which works out well because there are so many walkable cities there!  But I question how many are very well done...  What's your experience? (via headtofoot)

Those are my discoveries from the last few hours of tweets.  It just proves that, indeed, people all over the world are thinking about placecasting.