Press Contact:
Kathy Bisbee
kathy@wisdomark.com
OurStory Combines Collaborative Content with Web 2.0 Mashups Via New Exportable Timeline:
Integrates with MySpace, Frappr, YouTube, Blogs and Web Sites
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – OurStory, an online service where users collaborate to create, share and preserve life stories using photos and videos, recently announced a new exportable timeline that presents user-generated content plus "mashups" on other social networks, blogs and web sites.
Users can now add a playable version of the content from their OurStory timeline to a personal blog or website. The exportable timeline will only include stories that users have saved as "public." OurStory's new timeline works on MySpace, Friendster, Xanga, Word Press, and many other web sites.
"Each OurStory member creates a photo-history timeline about any subject—it could be about recent events, or the personal history of an individual, child, family or organization. The resulting content is easily placed on other web sites as an animated flash timeline which viewers can drag and scroll and click on to view more details, such as photos, narratives and video," said Andy Halliday, CEO and Founder of OurStory.com. "The flash timeline can be used anywhere online as a presentation gateway into the detailed photo-history collection for the individual or group which is preserved on OurStory."
OurStory combines the best of blogging, photo sharing, digital storytelling, and family history. It uses a rich feature set that includes an interactive visual timeline, privacy controls, collaborative email requests and a library of over 2,000 prompting interview questions. OurStory content can be preserved online, backed up to a home computer and made into heirloom-quality books, CDs and DVDs.
Some of the major features of OurStory.com include:
• An Exportable Timeline: OurStory’s drag and drop, visual timeline easily collects and organizes any milestone, event, moment or memory. Enter stories with photos and videos in any order and the timeline sequences them chronologically. Once content has been added, the flash-based timeline can be easily exported to other web sites and blogs. The timeline “auto-plays" through a visual lifetime of events, people, places and memories. Viewers can click back to historical events, forward to present time, and add comments and photos to entries.
• Collaborative Storytelling and Interviewing: Users work together to collect a group history with photos, comments and videos. Users share multimedia stories with family and friends, gather comments and photos and exchange “life-interview” questions.
• Private and Secure: Connected to private circles of family and friends, users decide who can see each entry, and who can add photos and stories to their timelines.
• Preserve Living History: At any time, free downloadable software allows the user to import a copy of the complete timeline collection to a home computer for local backup. Heirloom books, CDs and DVDs can be created as gifts or mementos that document special events, births, memorials, anniversaries or family biographies. Books start at $13.95, and orders are fulfilled in five to seven business days.
Andy Halliday, CEO/Founder of OurStory shared his inspiration for starting OurStory, “Family tradition, daily events and personal history are captured in the stories we tell about our lives. But these are often lost or forgotten. At OurStory we set out to involve everyone in a fun and engaging process that uses the latest innovations on the web to make sharing and preserving important photos, thoughts, and memories easy, beautiful, and rewarding.”
About OurStory
OurStory is an online service where family and friends share and preserve photos, videos, and stories from life, organized in lifelong interactive timelines. OurStory is a full-featured free service on the web with a premium subscription for $39.95 (USD) per year that adds features such as multiple profiles and timelines, unlimited privacy circles, style embellishment, and discounts on books and CD/DVDs.
Founded by Andy Halliday and Chris Lunt in June of 2005, OurStory is funded by Benhamou Global Ventures, El Dorado Ventures and Venrock Associates. OurStory’s free online service is available at www.ourstory.com.