THE INTERNET

​RED TRUNK PROJECT® WEBSITE

(INTERACTIVE SITE FOR KIDS LAUNCHING LATE 2020)

The Red Trunk Project website’s homepage will feature a slowly rotating blue globe, dotted with red pins both large and small. The small pins represent miniature, personal MyTrunks (described in the App section below), while the large pins represent the Official Trunks, produced by Red Trunk Project. Other pins represent the Red Trunk Project activities described in the Expansions section

When a child clicks on a large red pin, that child will be able to access all of the material contained in that location’s Trunk; all the videos, the Kids In (that locations) booklet, all hundreds of photos, music, recipes, language tutorials, interactive maps, all of the study guides and activities, further education links, and 3D representations of the artifacts, along with a wealth of information giving the object’s context.

When a child clicks on a small red pin, they will have access to one of the MyTrunks, introducing them to a child a world away. They will be encouraged to reach out and make contact with the children they find common ground with. Or perhaps make contact with children they have little in common with, but want to learn more about. To bond with. To turn ‘the other’ into a friend.

Through the website and app, the Red Trunk Project experience will be available to all children, whether or not they’ve had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a physical trunk. Any child will be able to explore any other child’s culture, and to join in and begin sharing their own lives and experiences.

Red Trunk Project hopes to connect 100 million children through the Red Trunk website and app by 2028.

After giving consent, parents will oversee every aspect of their children’s contact with the app and the website. Parents and children will be advised to never share their full names, and to avoid sharing any identifying information, including their home addresses. The site will be monitored for any inappropriate content being uploaded. Any person caught engaging in such behavior will be banned. The Red Trunk Project team takes privacy and security issues very, very seriously. Any and all regional laws regarding privacy will be strictly adhered to. The website and app will both be COPPA compliant.

​RED TRUNK PROJECT® APP

The app will have the same homepage as the website; a slowly turning blue globe. On a smart phone, a swipe of the finger rotates the globe. Pinching the globe can expand or contract it. As a child zooms in, what looked like a red blob suddenly expands into a cluster of small red pins; MyTrunks.

After a parent or guardian gives permission, the Red Trunk Project app will have step-by-step instructions on how a child can explore the existing MyTrunks, and produce their own MyTrunk. The production begins with the app detecting the child’s native language, using their location. (For this example, let’s say the child is a girl.) The girl will be asked if she wants to build her MyTrunk with photographs or with video. If she picks video, the girl will be asked to type in her first name, then video herself saying her name, age, and the town and country she lives in. Next, she’ll find her town on a map. Then she’ll be asked to take short video clips (four to ten seconds each) of her house, parents, pets, yard, etc. (Many of the same questions Red Trunk Project asks in the interviews with children, when making the official trunks.) The app stitches together the clips, inserting ‘name cards’ at the bottom of each clip, describing what the clip is. She can save the Indie video on her phone, for her friends and family to see. But more importantly, the video will be uploaded on the Red Trunk Project website and app, so any user anywhere can watch the video and learn about the girl’s life.

If the girl chooses photographs instead of video, the app will ask for pictures of all the same things, with the introduction being a selfie with the subject’s name, age, and general location written on the screen.

The website and app will translate the ‘name cards’ into the language of the person viewing the Indie Trunk.

As part of the registration process each child will be asked to fill out a simple questionnaire, asking about their likes and dislikes; food, books, music, TV, movies, games, pastimes, sports, hobbies, etc. This will allow kids around the world to find other kids with similar interests. You can find other kids who like to draw. Other kids who like to draw cats. And maybe even that handful of kids around the world who like to draw cats with funny mustaches. Red Trunk Project will give that group of kids a virtual space to form their own ‘club’; known as a MyGroup. They can share pictures, videos, and links, all having to do with cats with funny mustaches.