OurStory

**__Description__**
OurStory is a free online service for collaborative multimedia storytelling. Users are able to share and publish events, celebrations, and history in an exportable and interactive timeline of words, videos, and pictures. It includes a library of over 2,000 prompts to facilitate the building of a timeline. The timeline can be emailed and placed on websites. Users can also download a copy of the timeline collection to create a hard copy keepsake book. Although the service is free, a premium subscription is available for $39.95 per year that includes multiple files, timelines, and embellishments. OurStory’s free online service is available at [|www.ourstory.com].

**__History__**
Andy Halliday and Chris Lunt created OurStory in June 2005. Halliday was motivated by his desire to remember and pass on the important moments, lessons, and stories of people in his life before they were forgotten. He found that the Web presented a way to build upon the storytelling tradition of capturing and sharing stories with friends, family, and generations of people. He hoped that OurStory would help people learn from the past in order to create a more meaningful future. On August 26, 2008, Andy Halliday reported that OurStory was purchased by a team of entrepreneurs with long-term vision, new ideas, and new resources to build upon the foundation he initially created. Halliday stated that the new team would create new features and make improvements to the user experience. The following press releases give a historical perspective of the company and can be found online. __January 2007__, “ [|OurStory Launches Flagship Product at DEMO] ” “ [|Video of Andy Halliday, CEO/Founder, LIVE at DEMO '07] __March 2007__, “ [|OurStory Offers Option to MySpace] ” __April 2007__, “ [|OurStory Combines Collaborative Content with Web 2.0 Mashups Via New Exportable Timeline: Integrates with MySpace, Frappr, YouTube, Blogs and Web Sites] ” “ [|Andy Halliday, OurStory CEO, Radio Interview with Maria Sanchez, 1590 AM: The Connection] ”

**__Impact on Teaching__**
OurStory helps teachers work with students in creating timelines and journals. It is an online activity that promotes skills in sequencing events, creating chronologies, and digital storytelling. OurStory encourages collaborative learning, teamwork, interactive learning, and the sharing of different perspectives. One example of use in the classroom is the preservation of oral history in social studies. OurStory provides a way to engage students in a personally meaningful and authentic task.

**__Practical Applications__**
OurStory can be used by many groups and individuals, including corporations, small businesses, families, and classrooms to create a photo-history timeline about people, places, and events. The timeline is placed on a website where viewers can click items to view more details, such as photos, narratives and video. Users can enter stories with photos and videos in any order and the timeline sequences them chronologically. Viewers can move through the timeline and add comments and photos to entries. Users decide who can see each entry and who can add photos and stories. OurStory’s applications are many and include memorializing people, preserving events, sharing experiences, and social networking. The following are links with more information. http://ourstory.com/register/stumbleupon.html http://www.revver.com/video/47065/interview-with-ellen-leanse-of-ourstory com/

**__Examples or Demonstrations__**
[|http://ourstory.com]

http://ourstory.com/doc/interview.html http://ourstory.com/doc/podcast.html

**__References__**
[|ourstory.com]

**__External Links__**
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/235674/1839310__** 