ROVIN'
AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE
Brought to you by Peanut.org
A few years ago, John Glenn attracted attention all over again as a senior citizen in outer space. At the risk of overstatement, I recently took part in a similar effort, launching a centenarian into cyberspace, when I prepared some web pages in honor of a friend, my "adopted" Aunt Eunice, on her hundredth birthday.
My experience might be of some use and interest to others, who might similarly turn to the Internet to create online celebrations. The question, of course, is
why? One answer is simply, why not? But a better answer is that with families so scattered these days, a web site provides an opportunity for everyone to get together and catch up on each other's lives.
What occasions might be appropriate? Birthdays, births, anniversaries, commemorations of military service, retirement, graduation, baptism, confirmation, anything that draws family and friends together.
I'm not suggesting that you sink a lot of money into such a project. The good news is, you need only three things: space for the site, a program with which to create it, and a program to send your product from your computer to the Internet site. The very good news is, you can obtain all of these free. And the excellent news is, we've already roved through the free possibilities in a three-part series, beginning with
"Who Wants to a
Webmaster?"
So, let me invite you to join Aunt Eunice for the e-celebration of her hundredth birthday, not because I consider it a masterpiece of web-work, but because I hope it will give you some ideas for your own e-celebrations.
***
Welcome back. Now, I would like to propose, humbly, what I consider the ten commandments for a such a family event site. These are not hard and fast rules but rather suggestions for things that I found to be effective.
(1) Establish your purpose. This is not a genealogy site, an informative site, although there is a fair amount of information. Instead, on a birthday or anniversary or other such occasion, you are celebrating.
(2) Provide opportunities for people to respond to you and to interact with each other.
The easiest way to do that is simply to provide e-mail links. You can also find various free guest book, forum, and even chat room programs on the Internet.
(3) Keep your focus. Start off with a clear statement of whom and what you are celebrating, where and when the real-world parallel will take place, and why everybody is getting all worked up over it anyway.
(4) Maintain visual continuity in the site. I feel strongly about this in any site development. Find certain visual elements
(such as the flags in Aunt Eunice's site), the colors, the font, and the background to give the site coherence and appeal.
(5) Use lots of photos. Most people don't want to read a lot at a celebration. This might be a good time to review some basics about digital photography,
"Giving Your Computer
Eyes." Be sure that your camera or scanner is set at a low resolution, 72 dpi (dots per inch), so the pictures will load quickly, and crop unnecessary elements from the picture. Similarly, use sound and video files sparingly, because they take a long time to load. I felt that one sentence from the guest of honor was more meaningful than the whole crowd singing "Happy Birthday."
(6) Give the site some appeal to people who may not know the family involved. Once it gets on the Internet, you never know who may see it. In two recent articles, I have given you sources for such materials as old sheet music covers and inaugural addresses, which you can find on the site I created: "Our Online Grandma's Attic" and "Our Musty, Dusty Online Libraries." You can even add weather and time – such as you find on the home page of Peanut.org—and, after all, aren’t we one big happy family here in the cyber-peanut patch?
(7) Be careful. Again, you don't know who may be dropping in for your online celebration. By all means, display an heirloom quilt or bedspread, but if your family really treasures the sterling silver that was buried in the backyard when the Yankees were coming through, don't show that, or even mention it. Similarly, specific street addresses are not necessary
(8) Be courteous. If someone doesn't want to be pictured on the web site, respect those wishes... and the person. This is, after all, about strengthening family ties, not about breaking them.
(9) Update the site. After the event, follow up with more photos and news. Send e-mail news about the updates to everyone who has been in touch with you, but don't get the reputation for spamming, for sending too many messages.
(10) Prepare an e-book afterwards. This is where I am in this whole process. Who knows how long a site will stay “up”? Or, how long people will keep visiting it? So, reformat your materials to create a lasting e-souvenir. Of course, we've already raved about some free ebook programs. Basically, I'm preserving the website, with hyperlinks omitted, so that the book can be viewed offline. I'll post it so that it can be downloaded from the site (by March 17th, I hope), or I'll provide CD's for people who cannot download it, and I hope one of those CD's will end up in the trunk where many of the family's heirlooms are stored.
One place where the site is already “stored” is at Linda Roeder's About.com site on Personal Web Pages. I’m not going to give you the specific link to where my report on my site is archived, because like most treasure troves, the Personal Web Pages site is fun to dig through without knowing what you’ll find. Wherever you rove and maybe even rave on the Internet, keep your links to your families--by biology, by marriage, by adoption, or even by way of the Internet, like Aunt Eunice's most recently acquired "niece" and "nephew" --as strong as the noble thoughts of your heart. And, as always, keep those feet dry, the better for rovin’ to brave new sites, brave new possibilities.
Find more articles about creating your own website.