Remembering  9/11

9/11 has so much social resonance that begged for an outlet. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, National Geographic Channel asked that we create a global social media tool. The tool needed to allow visitors to share their 9/11 memories while connecting with others. The tool also required language localization for global involvement. Create a global social media tool to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.

We composed a web application for Facebook utilizing the Google Maps API. This application granted visitors the ability to mark wherever they were on Earth during 9/11/01 and share about their experiences from that day. The stories could be viewed and commented on by other visitors. Filters could also be applied that allowed visitors to find any of their Facebook friends on the map.

Between July and September 2011, the application brought together more than 51,000 monthly visitors. Over 8,000 visitors participated in the application by adding their personal story to the map and those stories were shared over Facebook over 9,000 times.