Camille Bautista2013-04-10 21:58:24 UTCThe art of storytelling is timeless. There's nothing like hearing old tales of your grandparent's teenage days — but the narrative connection often loses its spark when Grandma lives across the country and you can only keep in touch through Facebook.
To help collect family history and create deeper relationships between generations, Nick Baum created StoryWorth, an online platform that archives personal stories, both spoken and written. The goal is to bridge family gaps and encourage dialogue by prompting questions you may not regularly ask.
You can share your own memory or invite loved ones to tell theirs. "What were your friends like in high school?" "How did you figure out how to be a parent?" Baum sends users one question per week, and participants can respond via email or phone.
Baum's 82-year-old father inspired him to create the service in order to share stories with his kids and grandchildren.
"He was born before computers, before television, before transatlantic flights, he has a lot of cool stories and I wanted to make sure I would give him an easy way to capture them," Baum tells Mashable.
Though StoryWorth will provide weekly questions, users can make up their own. For older users who prefer not to answer via email, the service sends a phone call to the storyteller who can record their memory, similar to leaving a voicemail. Answers are stored privately to an online biography and can be shared with select family members or friends.
Storyworth is available as a subscription service for $49 a year, and users can invite as many people as they want. Over time, the goal is the discover a broader sense of what that person's life was like.
Responses can be arranged on a timeline, indicating certain chapters or milestones, and users can also download the answers in formatted PDF files to print as keepsakes.
"I think people don’t often take the time to ask these questions of their family, and as one of my users put it, the StoryWorth email is the most important one he gets every week," Baum says. "Almost all emails don't matter a week or a month later. What can be more important than your family history?"
Would you use StoryWorth? Are there other apps or websites you use to collect family memories? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr, JoelMontes
Topics: email, family, Family & Parenting, Lifestyle, storyworth if(window.pageChanged) window.omni({"channel":"lifestyle","content_type":"article","top_channel":"lifestyle","content_source_type":"Internal","content_source_name":"Internal","author_name":"Camille Bautista","age":"0","pub_day":10,"pub_month":4,"pub_year":2013,"pub_date":"04/10/2013","isPostView":true,"post_lead_type":"Default"}); metaData = {"link":[["canonical","http://mashable.com/2013/04/10/storyworth/"],["image_src","http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA0LzEwL2NlL3BlbmFuZHBhcGVyLjZkNThmLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/dba0027e/8eb/pen-and-paper.jpg"]],"meta_property":[["og:url","http://mashable.com/2013/04/10/storyworth/"],["og:title","'StoryWorth' Records Family Memories to Connect Generations"],["og:type","article"],["og:site_name","Mashable"],["og:image","http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA0LzEwL2NlL3BlbmFuZHBhcGVyLjZkNThmLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/dba0027e/8eb/pen-and-paper.jpg"],["og:article:published_time","2013-04-10T21:58:24Z"],["og:article:modified_time","2013-04-10T21:58:35Z"]],"meta_name":[["description","StoryWorth is an online platform that archives personal stories, both spoken and written. The site aims to bridge family gaps and encourage dialogue. "],["keywords",["email","family","uncategorized","lifestyle","family-parenting","storyworth"]],["twitter:title","'StoryWorth' Records Family Memories to Connect Generations"],["twitter:description","The art of storytelling is timeless. There's nothing like hearing old tales of your grandparent's teenage days -- but the narrative connection often loses its spark when Grandma lives across the count..."],["twitter:image","http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA0LzEwL2NlL3BlbmFuZHBhcGVyLjZkNThmLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTU2MHg3NTAKZQlqcGc/dfb69d0d/8eb/pen-and-paper.jpg"],["twitter:site","@mashable"],["twitter:url","http://mashable.com/2013/04/10/storyworth/"],["twitter:creator","@mashable"],["twitter:card","photo"],["twitter:image:width","560"],["twitter:image:height","750"]],"short_url":[["short_url","http://on.mash.to/10TlV9h"]]};
0 comments:
Post a Comment