WebBiographies

Infobox_Website
url = http://www.webbiographies.com
name = WebBiographies.com


type = Social network service with a focus on Genealogy and Biography
registration = Open
owner = Private
author = Web Biographies, LLCInfobox_Company
company_name = Web Biographies, LLC
company_
vector_
company_type = Private start-up
genre =
foundation = April 2006
founder =
location_city = Denver, Colorado
location_country = USA
location =
origins =
key_people = Scott Purcell, founder and President
area_served =
industry = Genealogy, Biography, Social networking services
products =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
owner =
company_slogan = A visual heritage you can share for the journey that is your life.
homepage = [http://www.webbiographies.com www.webbiographies.com]
dissolved =
footnotes =

WebBiographies is a social network service with an emphasis on genealogy, biography and memoir writing, family trees, and online privacy.

It was founded in late April, 2006 by Scott Purcell, founder of Epoch Networks and a former Board member of the Commercial Internet eXchange.

In an interview for MIT Technology Review, Scott stated that WebBiographies was founded with a "grown-up" audience in mind:

"Like a lot of people, growing up I sat around the kitchen table hearing stories about great aunts and great-great-grandfathers, and very little of it is written down... A couple of years ago I thought, let's write it down on the Internet. But all the tools out there were genealogy stuff, for making family trees.
My partner and I were playing around on MySpace and were very impressed by what they were doing. But MySpace is used mainly by young people and to be honest, it's a bit of a chaotic mess. We said, "There should be a MySpace for grownups. Let's do it.'" [ [http://www.techreview.com/blog/posts.aspx?id=16818 Website Helps Armchair Biographers] , "MIT Technology Review", May 9 2006.]

Genealogy features

The family tree utility can continue ad infinitum. For instance, if you've traced your family lineage to the Fifteenth Century, WebBiographies' family tree utility can accommodate it. Each family member or ancestor added to the family tree is instantly assigned a free account, so that users can upload pictures and stories about him or her without sacrificing the user's own storage space.

WebBiographies is also working on GEDCOM compliance for their online family tree, and users who have resources using this file standard will be able to upload that information to their family tree.

They also have links to other genealogical resources available elsewhere on the internet. [http://www.webbiographies.com/Genealogyresources.do]

ocial networking features

WebBiographies' genealogy and biography/memoir utilities are combined with Web 2.0 features such as the ability to connect one's web biography with friends and family and "comment" on journal entries.

Online privacy protection features are also offered to users of the service. Users may choose to have their blogs, scrapbooks, biographies, or family histories displayed publicly or password-protected and locked from view by all except those whom the user chooses. There are three levels of password protection options. [http://www.webbiographies.com/Infoprotection.do]

There are also weblogging features and one's site is organized like a book, with customizable "Chapters". In addition, every biography page is assigned a unique URL.

Digital photos, digital video, and .mp3s may be shared and/or stored along with users' biography pages. Users can "connect" to one another's biographies, to stay abreast of new journals and photos as they are posted.

WebBiographies also supports foreign language formats and has many members from Eastern Europe and Asia.

Notes

References

* [http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2006/tc20060925_328758.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech Boomers: A Web-Marketing Bonanza] , BusinessWeek
* [http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_4626191,00.html Byte-sized biographies] , "Rocky Mountain News"
* [http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255801.htm Web Biographies: Leaving a Legacy]
* [http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=452316473&channel=151802639 spot on Roots Television]
* [http://coloradostartups.com/2006/11/22/web-biographies-will-you-be-forgotten/ Web Biographies - will you be forgotten?] Colorado Startups

External links

* [http://www.webbiographies.com/ WebBiographies.com]
* [http://bio.webbiographies.com/scottpurcell Scott Purcell's Web Biographies Page]