Crowdfunding the Deep Time Walk app
Member News, News • June 28, 2017
The Deep Time Walk is a groundbreaking walking audio book project that brings to life the Earth's 4.6 billion year story and is built on a scientific breakthrough made in Scotland. The world's first interactive mobile app of its kind, it has been produced by a global team of experts operating out of Edinburgh, with Marketing & Product Manager Robert Woodland based right here in TMP. This month they have launched a Heritage Lottery Fund-backed £20,000 crowdfunding appeal – to increase its impact in raising environmental awareness, help train future ecologists and encourage people to look after the planet.
The app allows people to take a 4.6 kilometre walk ­– anywhere in the world – to learn and experience a detailed, dramatized journey of Earth's Big History, from the planet's formation to the present day. By walking across Earth's geological timeline – with every metre of the walk representing a million years – the app's users gain a vivid perspective of the planet's immense age. Afterwards, they can learn more and join with others to take positive environmental action.
"We hope that people across Scotland are going to be inspired by Deep Time Walk. It was in this country that 18th-century geologist James Hutton developed the theories behind deep time and geological time – giving humanity a fundamentally new understanding of our place in the world," said Edinburgh-based Robert Woodford, Deep Time Walk's marketing director.
"We feel that Edinburgh – where Hutton was born and went to university – is the perfect place to run our operations for Deep Time Walk, a product that's built on Hutton's legacy and enables anyone to gain an understanding of the Earth's Big History."
The Deep Time Walk audio book combines innovative technology and the latest geoscience evidence with an entertaining narrative ­voiced by actors from television programmes and movies including Doctor Who, Sherlock, The Bill, Silent Witness, and Love Actually.
"Deep Time Walk is about creating a sense of awe and wonder. By demonstrating how the Earth is a precious living environment from which all life has emerged – and that all human history has unfolded in the blink of a geological eye – we want to inspire more people to take care of this special place we all call home," said project leader Geoff Ainscow.
"We now need people's help to take this exciting, cutting edge initiative for environmental awareness to a new level, and every pound given towards our crowdfunding appeal is being matched by the Heritage Lottery Fund up to £10,000."
Raising £20,000 will enable Deep Time Walk to become a self-sustainable social enterprise – with profits reinvested and used to fund scholarships at Schumacher College, an international centre for nature-based learning located in Dartington, South Devon. Funds will also enable the project to reach a larger global audience – including through a new website with opportunities for people to learn more and to take environmental action in their communities, and through a new video and expanded social media activities.
For more info on the rewards available, and about the app itself, head to their crowdfunding page at crowdfunder.co.uk/deeptimewalk.
Plus, for the duration of the campaign the Deep Time Walk app can be purchased for a 50 per cent discount on the standard price from deeptimewalk.org. Bargain!