WereYouThere is a social network which brings people together through shared memories of their life and of other major social events, and gives people a place to browse stories about personal experiences of commonly shared events.
An interesting aspect of
Were You There is that it focuses not only on larger events, but also on very personal memories like, for example, that of Manvivar, who reminds of the day when he was told John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed: at that time he was in the 3rd grade at elementary school, and when when he got on the school bus to go home, he noticed that the bus drivers was crying.
Indeed,
WereYouThere has been built on the premise that everyone has a story to tell, and where there are stories to be told, there are also people who want to hear them.
"The concept grew out of my own passion for storytelling both as a former TIME magazine bureau chief in Jerusalem and Chicago and a bestselling novelist. Over the years I’ve received many letters from readers who were moved to share some of the unforgettable moments in their own lives, hopeful that someone might listen. Because what are stories without an audience? At heart, we are all storytellers, telling and retelling our stories to give structure and meaning to our lives. I started looking online for a place where these memories might come together in a meaningful and organized way, whether from a recent trip or a battlefield long ago, but to my surprise I couldn't find one. So I created WereYouThere."
To begin, at
WereYouThere you can join a community, start your own, or simply browse various categories, such as:
- Events: John F. Kennedy's assassination, 9/11, Woodstock, Hurricane Katrina, Attack on Pearl Harbor, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Holocaust, ...
- Places: Venice, Gettysburg National Military Park, Prague, Somme, The Vietnam Memorial, Ground Zero, The Vatican, Westminster Abbey, ...
- People: Elvis Presley, Pope John Paul II, The Beatles, Roger Maris, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, Frank Sinatra, ...
- Schools: Harvard University, New Canaan High, University of Oregon, New Trier High School, St. Joseph Senior High School, ...
- Eras: The Sixties, The Great Depression, Civil Rights Movement, The Cold War, ...
- Organizations: 4-H, Boy Scouts of America, The Peace Corps, Greenpeace, Rotary International, Doctors without Borders, ...
- Military: Tet Offensive, World War Two, 80th Infantry Division, Navy, Fort Bragg, Army, Veterans of Foreign Wars, ...
At
WereYouThere you can also:
- Share stories, photos and videos of growing up in your hometown, your old hangouts, high school or college.
- Remember the March from Selma, Woodstock or what it was like to live through Katrina.
- Reunite with others who served in your combat unit at Omaha Beach, Chosin Reservoir, Da Nang or Takrit.
- Relive the sites and sounds of the Summer of Love, your favorite travel spot or the Whisky a Go Go when The Doors took stage.
- Share a passion for ‘56 Chevys, Elvis or Coltrane.
- Recall the everyday scenes of a time gone by, from the fads and fashion to the cars, the music and the dreams that defined your generation.
You can also have full privacy controls, so you can choose if you prefer to post anounymously, to block others from seeing your profile page, to give access to approved friends, etc.
To me, it seems there can be interesting starting points for reflection even for
LiveMemories (Active Digital Memories of Collective Life), a new project started on the 1st of October 2008 and scheduled to run for three years, funded by the
Autonomous Province of Trento, and coordinated by
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, in collaboration with several departments of
University of Trento and of
University of Southampton.
