OralHistory.app
Every Voice. Every Era. Every Story.
A universal platform for capturing, preserving, and publishing oral histories across any domain — in person or via remote video and audio interviews. Nine qualitative research methodologies with 45+ structured analysis tools. Built for scholars, archivists, and institutions.
"Every year, another generation's stories go unrecorded. Every year, an institutional archive loses a decade of oral histories to hard drive failure or format obsolescence."— The gap this platform was built to close
Existing tools were built for content creators, not researchers. They lack formal consent chain-of-custody, IRB protocol integration, and trauma-informed design principles required for ethical oral history work.
Spreadsheets, shared drives, and consumer recording apps cannot meet the institutional and ethical standards of scholarly oral history — whether you're documenting Civil Rights activism, Holocaust survivor testimony, corporate mentorship, or military service. And when narrators live across the country, you need remote video and audio interviews with the same research-grade rigor as in-person sessions.
OralHistory.app was built from the ground up for the methodological rigor oral history demands, with nine formal research methodologies, 45+ structured analysis tools, and a Projects system that lets each research domain have its own branding, prompts, timeline, and codebook.
A structured five-stage workflow designed around oral history methodology — not adapted from an unrelated tool.
Record in person or conduct remote video/audio interviews — narrators join via a simple shareable link with no account required. Choose per-question mode for response-level annotation, thematic coding, and selective consent, or per-section mode for natural conversational flow. Remote sessions capture per-question recordings synced with researcher prompts, with on-camera consent captured at the start of every call.
Every narrator's consent record is documented with a four-tier system (Internal Only → Full Release), captured as verbal, written, or digital consent, linked to an IRB protocol, and optionally anchored to the Algorand blockchain for tamper-evident provenance.
Stories move through a formal publication pipeline: Draft → Available → Pending Review → Published, with Embargoed, Restricted, and Withdrawn states. Role-based permissions ensure researchers, editors, and administrators each see only the transitions they are authorized to make.
Select from nine qualitative research methodologies — Grounded Theory, Phenomenology, Ethnography, Case Study, Content Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Narrative Analysis, Action Research, or Thematic Analysis. Each methodology unlocks purpose-built structured tools: open/axial/selective coding for GT, bracketing journals for phenomenology, field notes for ethnography, Labov story structure for narrative analysis, and more. Built-in Cohen's Kappa inter-rater reliability calculator, guided workflows with seminal references (Charmaz, Moustakas, Yin, Geertz, Labov), and saturation tracking.
Assemble narrative publications from approved stories, sequence them on the storyboard, write chapter analyses, and export. Output formats include formatted text with automatic publication-name substitution, OHMS-compatible XML for institutional deposit, and citation records in Chicago, APA, and MLA formats.
Designed from the ground up for oral historians, institutional archivists, and research teams working across any domain.
Choose from Grounded Theory, Phenomenology, Ethnography, Case Study, Content Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Narrative Analysis, Action Research, or Thematic Analysis. Each methodology provides purpose-built structured tool panels and guided workflows.
Open/axial/selective coding, bracketing journals, field notes, Labov story structure, cultural patterns, evidence chains, cross-case matrices, saturation trackers, intervention docs, and more — each with methodology-specific input fields.
Built-in Cohen's Kappa calculator with a proper 2×2 contingency table for Content Analysis. Compute observed agreement, expected agreement, and kappa with interpretation — no external spreadsheet required.
Per question — independent clip per interview question for response-level annotation, coding, and consent. Per section — one clip per thematic section with a collapsible question guide. Remote interview — video or audio calls with per-question recording synced to researcher prompts.
Internal Only · Academic Research · General Public · Full Release. Each tier controls exactly what can be shared, with whom, and under what attribution. Immutable consent records with timestamped withdrawal history.
Consent records are hashed and written to the Algorand blockchain, creating a tamper-evident chain-of-custody that satisfies institutional and legal requirements for oral history work.
Each team creates unlimited Projects — each with its own branding, custom domain, interview prompts, timeline, codebook, research methodology, and wellness resources. One platform, any oral history domain.
Every methodology includes a getting-started guide with step-by-step workflow instructions and seminal academic references (Braun & Clarke, Charmaz, Moustakas, Yin, Geertz, Labov, Krippendorff, and more).
Drag stories onto a storyboard, define narrative arc, write chapter analyses, and assemble institutional publications. Exports in OHMS XML, formatted text, and citation-ready records.
Researcher · Editor · Admin · Viewer roles, each with distinct permissions. Team-scoped data isolation. Superuser access for cross-team institutional publications.
Wellness check-ins at interview session end. Configurable crisis resource cards per project. Content sensitivity classification with mandatory warnings before viewing restricted material.
Conduct interviews from anywhere with built-in video or audio calls. Share a single link — narrators join in their browser with no account required. Per-question recording stays synced to your interview prompts, and on-camera consent is captured at the start of every session.
Select the research methodology that fits your study. Each comes with structured tool panels, guided workflows, and seminal academic references — not generic forms, but purpose-built research instruments.
Identify and analyze patterns of meaning across a dataset using a flexible coding framework.
Build theory from data through systematic coding stages and constant comparison.
In-depth investigation of a contemporary phenomenon within its real-world context.
Describe the lived experience of a phenomenon as experienced by participants.
Study cultural groups through sustained fieldwork, observation, and thick description.
Systematically categorize and quantify textual content using a defined coding scheme.
Analyze language use in social context — how talk and text construct social reality.
Analyze how people make sense of experience through the stories they tell.
Iterative cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting to drive change.
Every design decision reflects the ethical obligations of oral history research — not afterthought features, but structural requirements.
When a narrator's consent record is finalized, the platform hashes the record and writes it to the Algorand blockchain. The resulting transaction ID is stored alongside the consent record — providing institutional-grade evidence of the consent chain.
Withdrawal events are also anchored. Any change to a narrator's consent status creates a new, immutable provenance record — not a deletion of the original.
From individual oral historians to large institutional archives — and for the narrators whose stories deserve protection.
Oral historians, qualitative researchers, and digital humanities scholars who need methodologically sound tools that meet IRB requirements and institutional data-management standards.
University libraries, museums, national archives, and cultural organizations building collections that will be preserved, searchable, and depositable into standard archival systems.
Cultural heritage groups, veterans organizations, civil rights foundations, and community memory projects capturing stories for preservation, education, and advocacy.
Journalists, documentary filmmakers, independent historians, and authors building narrative works from primary oral sources — who need both scholarly rigor and a publication workflow.
Each Project gets its own branding, custom domain, interview prompts, timeline, codebook, research methodology, and wellness resources — all within a single team workspace.
A university department documenting the stories of Civil Rights activists, organizers, and community leaders from the 1950s–1970s.
A doctoral research project studying Japanese manufacturing mentorship practices at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, 1985–1992.
An oral history archive documenting firsthand accounts from the Global War on Terror era — capturing the voices of service members, veterans, military families, and civilians affected by the conflicts from 2001 to the present.
Everything your institution needs — from single classrooms to campus-wide deployments. FERPA-ready, LMS-integrated, and designed for how universities actually work.
SAML 2.0 single sign-on integration. Students and faculty sign in with existing university credentials — no separate accounts needed.
Launch directly from Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle. Grade passback, roster sync, and assignment linking built in.
Professors create course sections with join codes. Students enroll, complete assignments, and build portfolios — all scoped to their section.
Role-based access control, encrypted data at rest and in transit, audit trail logging, and course-scoped data isolation meet FERPA requirements.
Export to Dublin Core XML, METS, and OHMS XML. Deposit directly into DSpace, Islandora, Omeka, or Fedora institutional repositories.
Accessible design with semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, sufficient contrast, and screen reader support throughout.
Try OralHistory.app free for one semester. Full platform access, onboarding support, and usage analytics included. No credit card required.
Every plan includes all 9 research methodologies, 45+ structured tools, blockchain consent anchoring, IRB tracking, and OHMS export. No features gated behind a higher tier — only seat count and institutional workflows differ.
For individual oral historians and independent scholars working on their own projects.
For research teams at universities, colleges, and academic departments.
1-year license: $2,500 · 2-year license: $4,000
One line item in your grant budget. Contact us →
For university libraries, archives, museums, and organizations with multiple research teams.
1-year: $8,500 · 3-year: $15,000
Replaces NVivo + recording + consent tools. Contact us →
For non-profit organizations, grant-funded projects, and community organizations with flexible funding structures.
Our six-module curriculum covers everything from ethical foundations to advanced analysis techniques. Complete the training to earn your OralHistory.app certification.
Core principles, ethics, and methodology behind scholarly oral history practice.
The 5-stage oral history lifecycle — Capture, Consent, Archive, Analyze, and Publish.
Best practices for recording, transcribing, documenting interviews, and managing narrator profiles.
Consent tiers, IRB protocol management, compliance flags, and blockchain anchoring.
Using nine methodologies and 45+ tools for rigorous analysis.
From analysis to publication — exports, citations, and archival strategies.
Register your interest and we'll notify you when the next cohort begins. Free for all plan tiers.
OralHistory.app exists because every voice matters — and the stories of ordinary people are the primary sources that define civilizations. We build tools that treat oral history with the same scholarly rigor as any other research discipline.
The platform is designed for institutional longevity — OHMS compatibility, open export formats, and blockchain provenance ensure collections survive beyond any single software vendor.
Universities, archives, and grant-funded labs trust OralHistory.app for multi-year research projects. Stable infrastructure, predictable pricing, and long-term data stewardship mean your collections are safe for decades — not just until the next funding cycle.
OralHistory.app supports any oral history domain through its Projects system — each with its own branding, prompts, timeline, codebook, methodology, and wellness resources. One platform, unlimited research contexts.
We support open-access oral history scholarship. Non-profit and grant-funded projects receive flexible pricing. Our exports work with any institutional repository system.
If your question isn't here, email us at research@oralhistory.app
OralHistory.app supports nine formal qualitative research methodologies: Thematic Analysis, Grounded Theory, Case Study, Phenomenology, Ethnography, Content Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Narrative Analysis, and Action Research. Each methodology includes purpose-built structured tool panels, guided step-by-step workflows, and references to seminal academic works.
The platform complements, not replaces, recording equipment. You can capture audio directly in the app or import existing recordings. The platform structures the interview, manages transcripts, and handles all downstream consent and archival workflows.
When a consent record is finalized, the platform creates a SHA-256 hash of the consent data and submits a transaction to the Algorand network. The returned transaction ID is stored with the record. This creates a tamper-evident timestamp that cannot be retroactively altered — even by the platform itself.
No. OralHistory.app's Projects system supports any oral history domain. Each project gets its own branding, custom domain, interview prompts, timeline events, research methodology, thematic codebook, and wellness resources. Terror to Testimony, Civil Rights, Holocaust testimony, mentorship studies, Indigenous history — all on one platform.
Yes. We offer grant license pricing designed to fit as a single line item in your NSF, NEH, IMLS, or foundation grant budget. Academic grant licenses start at $2,500 for one year. Contact us at research@oralhistory.app and we'll help you draft the budget justification language.
Yes. Each Project can be assigned a custom domain. When visitors go to that domain, they see a branded landing page with your project's name, description, colors, and logo — all automatically generated from your project settings.
Yes. Narrators can be given access to view their own records, update their consent tier, request corrections, and export their complete oral history record. Withdrawal of consent creates a new, dated consent record rather than deleting existing data.
Yes. The platform generates OHMS-compatible XML that conforms to the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer standard, which is accepted by university library systems, the Internet Archive, and most digital humanities repositories.
The researcher creates a remote session from the app and receives a shareable link. The narrator opens the link in any modern browser — no account, no download, no installation needed. After granting camera/microphone access and recording verbal consent, the interview proceeds with the researcher controlling prompt navigation and per-question recording from the app.
Yes. Each remote interview link uses a single-use, time-limited token. Once the narrator joins, the token is rotated so the link cannot be reused or shared. Only the authenticated researcher can control the session — including advancing prompts, managing recordings, and ending the call.
We can assist with migrating existing collections from common oral history databases and formats. Contact us at research@oralhistory.app with details about your current system and collection size.
The app runs natively on iOS and Android via Expo Go, and as a full web application accessible in any modern browser. All features are available across platforms, with the native app providing a better experience for in-the-field interview capture.
Join researchers, institutions, and archivists using OralHistory.app to build living oral history archives.