Problem Statement:

From the beginning of time, human beings have tried to leave a
lasting record of their lives. Drawings on rock walls, hieroglyphics
inside Egyptian Pyramids; from the ancient Greeks, to the Anasazi,
only small bits and pieces remain of people's stories...of their
memories.

Even now, in this age of ever-present technology, most of us don't
leave a record of our stories for those we leave behind. Millions of
homes around the world have personal computers loaded with powerful
word processors, waiting to be put to the task of telling our stories…
of capturing our memories.

It's a hard task, this writing our stories. We start with our birth
and try to work forward, chronologically, through our memories. As
we write, the memories begin to flood back. Grade school, high
school, and college, all swirl collectively with jobs, children, and
relationships; houses we lived in, cities we visited, people we knew,
all rush together in a confusing memory dump, faster than we can
write them down.

Remembering something which we have already passed over in our
chronology causes us to go back and re-write paragraphs, inserting
new memories among the old, disrupting the flow, and adding to the
confusion.

This method of writing our stories takes time, and skill. We become
discouraged at the lack of organization, with the lack of flow.
Frustrated in our efforts, most of us give up, leaving only a few
early memories on three or four printed pages, a story left mostly
untold.

My Vision of the Future

A web application or service that allows you to do the following:

1. Record Memories
2. Display a "Memory Map"
3. Show Memories by:
a. Time/Date
b. People
a. Places
b. Activities
c. Any combination of the above
4. Search and Display Memories by:
a. Person
b. Place
c. Activity
d. Date
e. Any combination of the above
4. Show Links to Other Memories
5. View a Specific Memory
6. Print Memories
7. Link Memories
a. From one person's story to another person's story
(e.g., children link to a memory of a parent)
8. Storage and Accessibility
a. Story will remain online for a minimum of 100 years…
guaranteed

So, Where's the Revolution?

1. With this application, you don't write your story
chronologically, from beginning to end. You write your story one
memory at a time. The application takes care of inserting the memory
on your "memory map" based on the date it took place.

2. With this application, you will be able to link a memory in
your story (e.g., buying your first house) with your parent's memory
of buying their first house. And your children will be able to link
to your memory, and their children will link to their memories, and
their children's children…well the possibilities are endless.