Manifesto for the 21st Century Family (Archive and Social Network)

As a new dad I have been thinking about ways to capture and document my little girl, Hudson's, life. But as a documentary producer/videographer and instructional technologist I think my responsibility to her goes deeper. I want to help her understand her heritage and capture her family history in new and compelling ways. I mean come on-- every family has albums of pictures and old videos gathering dust in someones closet or attic. But how can we make these historical original source documents more meaningful? By sharing them in interesting and compelling ways. Family memories are meant to be shared, so I have a mission to determine ways we capture these moments optimally for our children to be able to use them as the learning tools they are. The web now provides this type of ideal archiving ability. Just think if you parents were able to capture their perspective on important moments in history and utilize modern tools to share them with you when you are oldenough to appeciate them. Wouldn't that be a more compelling lens through which to view history when you are in Middle and High School?  I hope to explore a variety of methods to do this on this blog.

Family is at the core of community, so in order to build strong communities we also need to look for new ways to develop strong family bonds by using modern web-based tools. I propose urban families should begin creating family communication hubs and archives in cyberspace by communicating via 21 Century tools like social networks and blogs. The idea is, if we use tools that the younger family members already embrace, we ensure their ongoing development as interactive family archives. A families' youth can be used to teach these skills to older members of the family who may be less "network literate". They may be a bit more patient with grandma as well.

Communication between family members is vital, so to aid in the process of educating adult family members to be "social network literate" and computer literate, in general, we need to embrace modern methods of documenting family histories. Semi-private, password protected social networks are great ways to do this. Network literacy, used in this context, is the process of understanding social networks and how they are used to enhance ones communication with others, namly family members. Another important reason to do this is that parents need to use and understand social networking in order to protect their children from new dangers that arise do to the popularity of tools like this. Virtual communities and social networks are new places for cyber predators of all kinds to lurk and understanding them is vitally important for responsible, 21st Century parents.

What is "Digital Family Archiving"?
An important aspect of the digital family life should be capturing your family history to share with your children. We all do it we just don't know what to do with it once we have it. Not just the family movies but first hand accounts of family milestones and historical events as told by family members who witnessed them. This is vital family data that should be protected and cherished but most importantly it should be made accessable for family members to explore and take pride in.

For this reason it is important for the modern family to buy and lay claim to their family domain name. I purchased http://Grandison.info for this reason this site currently serves as my portfolio site, but I have a History section that I am developing I also have a private family group on my Ning network- http://urbanthinking.net I use it to share pictures and videos with family members.

There are hundreds of extensions to choose from but it is important to own the .com extension if at all possible. I suggest families utilize the .info and .name, because this is the reason these domains were created and they are in less demand so they will be less expensive. I encourage all families to become a part of this movement by creating a family blog or website. At a minimum create a private group on a Social networking site like Facebook or start  your own free Ning network for your family.

What else does creating a family website entail for the 21st Century digital family?

• It means moving the family tree info, from your great grandmothers family bible to a webspace online to be shared and built upon by family members.
• It means digitizing all of your historic family images starting with the oldest first. Photos that are on the original photo paper are decaying and fading away in your family albums right now. Scan each page of images as soon as you can or to quote my favorite film quote they will be "...lost like tears in the rain." (Bladerunner). It means creating a digital portfolio for your child to track and make their development visible to your family community.
• It means at least one family member should have their geneology traced using new inexpensive ($399) DNA sequencing techniques offered on sites like 23 and Me. General info on the families' geospecific origins and racial info should be shared with family members who may not have the means to have this testing done. Think of how far disseminating this type of info to families across the country would go in erasing racial barriers. (I'll add to this list periodically)
• It means capturing historical milestones and special family moments in short 3-5 min video clips and posting them on your site.
• It means interviewing the oldest members of your family to create a oral history narrative on the site.

Please comment with your ideas: