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"Drama of historical proportions, an awesome guide, and games and challenges, what more could a teen on vacation ask for?"

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"The City of Lights was once made bright by the flash of a revolution’s guillotine, and this app provides a glimpse into one of Paris' pivotal backstories... through the eyes of one if its key players, satisfying both historian and eager tourist."

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Time Traveler Tours

Now Open for Submissions!

Julie Hedlund reveals all...

 

 

Entries in Quicksand (1)

Saturday
Feb022013

Meet Time Traveler Tours Tech Guru, The Brains Behind the Interactive Book

Under its new imprint, Time Traveler Tales, the 1st interactive book published by Time Traveler Tours will hit iBookstores worldwide on 6 February 2013. Simultaneously, our resident tech guru has just launched his own Mac App, a handy tool for syncing your recently opened files with the cloud called Quicksand.

 

To mark this auspicious double occasion, we felt it the perfect time to introduce TTT Tech Guru, Sebastian Hallum Clarke: the young man behind all things tech at Time Traveler Tours and Tales.

 

Hi Sebastian! Why don't you start by telling us a bit about yourself.

Sure! My name is Sebastian Hallum Clarke, I’m 15 years old, and I live in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. I’ve always had a strong interest in technology, and it’s been great to put this in practice though my work with Time Traveler Tours. I’ve moved around a lot, having lived in New York, London, and most recently Paris, where I met Sarah. I love traveling. I speak English, French and a small amount of Spanish. I joined the TTT team in May 2012.

 

Tell us about the projects you've worked on during your time with Time Traveler Tours?

When I started at TTT, my first big project was revamping the company’s social media pages. Facebook had just introduced their new timeline design, so I worked with Sarah to reorganise the content, and to help position TTT’s social media strategy to better engage with users.

 

(In fact, we're putting together a Facebook launch right now to promote the interactive book. The fun starts on Sunday, 3 Feb, with a Book Giveaway and continues on Wednesday -- release day -- with an FB event. Head on over there now and like our page to be eligible for a free giveaway of the book.)


My next, still ongoing project was working on helping prepare the TTT for its next big step in mobile app offerings. I can’t say much about this at the moment, but I can tell you that it involved a lot of wireframes, and when it’s released, it will completely revolutionise the way you think about visiting historical locations.

 

Most recently, I’ve been working on our new interactive iPad book, Beware Madame La Guillotine, the new, book version of Time Traveler Tours’ critically acclaimed iOS app.

 

What prompted development of an interactive book?

We knew that our iOS app was a fantastic way for people visiting Paris to learn about the frightening time in history that was the French Revolution, but we also knew that there were many people all around the world who can’t make it to Paris who would still like to learn about Charlotte’s adventures.

 

In early 2012, when Apple announced that a new format of interactive books for the iPad would debut in its iBookstore, we instantly knew that it would be a fantastic way for people all over the world to immerse themselves in the captivating story of Beware Madame La Guillotine. We saw that through the exciting usage of interactive media, like audio-visual content and games, we could bring the magic of the city of lights to history students and armchair travelers at home.

 

What was your role in the production of the interactive book?

My main job was dealing with the technical end of the publication. Every week, Sarah would send me a couple of chapters which she had adapted from the iOS app. I would then go into iBooks Author, Apple’s tool for creating interactive books, and paste the text into the book. I’d drop in the images connected to that chapter, and then add in the interactive content that Sarah had written to go along with the story. Then it would be back to Sarah to sort out the layout for each page, and make sure that all of the design elements were correctly presented.

 

How did you find the experience of creating a book destined for the iBookstore?

Getting a grip on how the whole iBooks publishing system works certainly took a while. It’s immensely powerful, but not for the faint of heart. We had several hiccups along the way, but that’ll be for another blog post!

 

Thanks Sebastian!

 

Indeed, stay tuned for more about this remarkable technical wizard who the TTT could not currently do without. There's much more to learn about this fascinating young man. Don't for get to check out his website.

 

Now, go forth and like the TTT so you can be eligible to win a free copy of the interactive book!