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Can you help? I need web/personal stories

While I try to have at least 90% of this blog's content be something useful for you, sometimes I need your help. Like now. I'm looking for stories, photos, statistics, and--if possible--video clips, along with the permission to use them in a presentation that'll be seen by a large number of people. The overall point is to find success stories about people whose lives have been affected by the web or software apps. I'm particularly interested in places where there is an intersection between live (face-to-face) interaction and online interaction (like people who've met online then forge off-line relationships). But even purely online experiences are important to me as well.

I don't need much detail -- just the basic scenario and what it has meant to you. But I'd love love LOVE to have a few bits of video, even if it's just a few minutes you record on a web cam. (If you happen to live in the Boulder/Denver area, and are willing, we can send someone out to do a brief video/photo shoot.)

The kinds of stories I'm looking for include:

* People who've found their significant other online

* People who've found their dream pet online

* People for whom the course of their life/career direction has been dramatically changed--in a good way--as a result of something on the web or other app.

* People who've found an online community that has been extremely important in their life -- like an online support group for a medical condition, or even just a rare hobby where few people share your passion but you've found them online.

* People who've been able to travel and experience very different cultures as a result of something that happened online.

* People who've rediscovered people online who they thought they'd lost contact with, and where that relationship has become a significant part of your life.

* People who've been able to stay in contact with family members online, where it has really mattered (for example: I took a video editing lesson from a guy who lives in Colorado temporarily but his wife and young son are in New York. Each night, they have dinner "together" by sitting down at the table with their web cams on)

* anything else that might be inspirational or just plain funny that happened as a direct result of software and/or the web.

Again, you'd have to be willing to have your story and potentially photo and/or video shown publicly (not for profit of any kind). This is a project that means a great deal to me, and is intended to be used in a way that will help others. I'll share the final results with everyone.

Thanks so much, folks.

If you have something you're willing to share, please send an email to: [email protected]

(You're welcome to leave comments here, but the best place for me--and my daughter who is helping with this--would be the project email address.)

Posted by Kathy on February 9, 2007 | Permalink

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Can you help? I need web/personal stories:

» Kathy Sierras quest for meaningful web experiences from SensoryMetrics: re-inventing the user eXperience
The author of my favorite blog has issued a request for stories - specific examples how the web may have changed your life. This is one of my stories. In the mid-90s I bought a farm in Wakefield Quebec. I worked at Nortel at the time - and got intere... [Read More]

Tracked on Feb 9, 2007 9:49:07 PM

» Finding success stories from Anecdote
Have you ever been asked to find success stories and been unsure where to start? Done well success storiesslide effortlessly from one teller to the next conveyingcompany values, strategic directions and the good reasons why your company sho... [Read More]

Tracked on Feb 14, 2007 2:51:45 AM

Comments

you may want to check out the documentary "24 hours on craigslist" (http://24hoursoncraigslist.com/), about how people connected via craigslist.

Posted by: jeff kubina | Feb 9, 2007 6:56:36 PM

I've been helping this website (visuarios.com) to put online this challenge to help to solve world hunger.

http://www.visuarios.com/challenges/cook-for-the-world

I think it's a great and fresh idea and combines, video, on-line, off-line, charity.

If it's not what you are looking for, you are free to erase this comment.

We (omatech.com and visuarios.com) are located in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain).

Thank you
Agusti

Posted by: Agusti Pons | Feb 9, 2007 9:28:09 PM

you've got mail (lol)

Posted by: Minnie | Feb 9, 2007 9:40:59 PM

In the mid-90s I bought a farm in Wakefield Quebec. I worked at Nortel at the time - and got interested in exotic pets. Via a simple web search I found a woman named Carolyn Macpherson - owner of Pygmy Pets in Winfield BC. We chatted for 6 months or so… and I decided to raise wallabies - small members of the kangaroo family. First came Rooby -the female. Then Dennis Hopper, the male. Carolyn provided great support!

A few years later, I ran into trouble with a few environment officers in Quebec. The tragic result was that three wallabies were confiscated. That story was widely broadcast - and still appears on the web today. The date - Valentines day 2001.

Posted by: Mitch Brisebois | Feb 9, 2007 10:10:36 PM

There's a great true-life Pygmalion story of how a chat room helped the guy get his girl. The story was so popular in Japan, it inspired a series of manga, a tv series and eventually a film: Densha Otoko (train man). I have to admit I did read through the entire chat translated chat thread. There's actually a pretty good Wikipedia article on "Densha Otoko."

Posted by: NatalieKilkenny | Feb 10, 2007 9:46:52 AM

* People who've been able to stay in contact with family members online, where it has really mattered (for example: I took a video editing lesson from a guy who lives in Colorado temporarily but his wife and young son are in New York. Each night, they have dinner "together" by sitting down at the table with their web cams on)

I'm sorry, is this story supposed to be heartwarming? I find it tragic. Remember David Bowie's classic song "TVC15"? It's about a realistic TV that somehow pulls the singer's GF into the TV. So now if he wants to see her he can only see her on TV. Talk about life imitating art...sheesh.

I don't care what this "cool"/"wow"/bleeding edge work this guy is doing...is it worth being an absentee dad, turning his family interaction into a TVC15 session?!

"Oh my TVC15...uh oh..."

Posted by: T.G. | Feb 10, 2007 11:15:03 AM

Kathy,

I wrote a book on a blog with a geek and it made me taller, thinner and better looking. I have no video to prove it, but this experience was truly life changing.

Posted by: shel israel | Feb 10, 2007 7:41:49 PM

Hi Kathy. I was editing a documentary about a Peruvian folkdancer and made a website to create pre-release buzz. A New York modern dancer saw the site and contacted me - and she ended up being the main character! Mitch T, director (http://www.soyandina.com)

Posted by: Mitchell Teplitsky | Feb 11, 2007 11:19:07 AM

Is there a deadline for submissions? Got a bunch of stories to tell (carreer, travel, and many people in my life), but no time right now to tell them. Might within the next couple of weeks, but will need to know if it's still worth it!

Posted by: Stephanie Booth | Feb 11, 2007 4:19:40 PM

Thanks you guys -- I have 70 stories that came in to the ProjectX email -- thank you so so so much! What amazing wonderful stories, too.

Jeff thanks a lot for that craig's list link -- I didn't know about that.

T.G. -- I hear you, but for all I know his wife and son had to stay with an ailing grandparent, and could not afford to have their only source of income vanish as well. I won't judge (because I don't know) their reasons, but the point is... they had an option for connecting that wasn't available to people before.

Shel: I was drinking hot cocoa when I read that comment. I should charge you for the dry-cleaning : ) But after all, look at my blog's tagline... isn't your co-author also the one who claims blogging improves your sex life?

Posted by: Kathy Sierra | Feb 11, 2007 8:12:28 PM

Kathy,

Unlike Shel, blogging has not made me thinner or better looking. But it has landed me in the pages of BusinessWeek, made me a few new friends with personal heroes like Roger von Oech and has definitely made me better at what I do.

Not bad for an average nobody.

I just celebrated my "one year". You can read about it here.

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2007/02/logic_emotion_t.html

Now if I can only get that whole "sex life: thing going... :)

Posted by: David Armano | Feb 12, 2007 9:30:44 AM

Hi. I happened across your plea for help with your project and thought I'd share with you my story.

My 10 year old son, Joshua was quite healthy up until March 2005 when he suddenly got very sick and went into respiratory arrest.
His correct diagnosis was not found for many months. He is only one of perhaps 25 or so people living with this illness known in the world!
The diagnosis is Late Onset Central Hypoventilation Syndrome with Hypothalamic Dysfunction.

Anyway, I decided to write and post pictures to document his illness online. In doing so, I have met several people all across the country.
One is the mother of a little girl who died of the very same diagnosis. Another is the mother of another little girl who is living with the illness.
I've also met online an adult who has many of the same symptoms and doctors were having great difficulty in treating her. She has since
gotten a trach and is on a ventilator much of the time. She often instant messages me asking for advice or support - which I am happy to try to offer.

I've also met a woman in my area who has become a good friend - she and her family. And she produced a video which she posted online (with my
permission, of course). Together, we got the word out to some local media about my son, and the result was a very nice newspaper article in
the San Antonio Express News. That article (online version) was seen by an independent tv and film company in London, England who was looking
for medical mystery type stories to do a documentary on for the Discovery Channel. Discovery Channel wants to air our story, so this independent
tv & film production company has been interviewing us by phone and is coming to film this week.

If you'd like to see my website(s) and blogs, here are the links:

www.myspace.com/vanessa1973
http://blog.myspace.com/vanessa1973
http://vanessawooten.blogspot.com/

My son was also featured on a couple of not-for-profit websites
since I began blogging about him. Their links are below:
http://www.makeachildsmile.org/images/logo_text.gif
http://www.hugsandhope.org/images/banners/jackinthebox.gif


I hope that helps! Have a great day!

Vanessa

Posted by: Vanessa | Feb 12, 2007 9:39:48 AM

Hi. I happened across your plea for help with your project and thought I'd share with you my story.
My 10 year old son, Joshua was quite healthy up until March 2005 when he suddenly got very sick and went into respiratory arrest.
His correct diagnosis was not found for many months. He is only one of perhaps 25 or so people living with this illness known in the world!
The diagnosis is Late Onset Central Hypoventilation Syndrome with Hypothalamic Dysfunction.

Anyway, I decided to write and post pictures to document his illness online. In doing so, I have met several people all across the country.
One is the mother of a little girl who died of the very same diagnosis. Another is the mother of another little girl who is living with the illness.
I've also met online an adult who has many of the same symptoms and doctors were having great difficulty in treating her. She has since
gotten a trach and is on a ventilator much of the time. She often instant messages me asking for advice or support - which I am happy to try to offer.

I've also met a woman in my area who has become a good friend - she and her family. And she produced a video which she posted online (with my
permission, of course). Together, we got the word out to some local media about my son, and the result was a very nice newspaper article in
the San Antonio Express News. That article (online version) was seen by an independent tv and film company in London, England who was looking
for medical mystery type stories to do a documentary on for the Discovery Channel. Discovery Channel wants to air our story, so this independent
tv & film production company has been interviewing us by phone and is coming to film this week.

If you'd like to see my website(s) and blogs, here are the links:

www.myspace.com/vanessa1973
http://blog.myspace.com/vanessa1973
http://vanessawooten.blogspot.com/

My son was also featured on a couple of not-for-profit websites
since I began blogging about him. Their links are below:
http://www.makeachildsmile.org/2006/prev_2006_sep3.shtml
http://www.hugsandhope.org/joshw.htm


I hope that helps! Have a great day!

Vanessa

Posted by: Vanessa | Feb 12, 2007 9:42:04 AM

I have been leading an internet campus at LifeChurch.tv for almost a year. We see over 750 people visit our Internet Campus each weekend where we have 3 live experiences. Saturday 7pm CST and Sunday 10 and 11:30am CST.

Here is the link:
http://www.lifechurch.tv/int

It has been amazing to see how lives are changed each week all over the US and the world. Here is one response from an attender. "Thank you dear brother in Christ and may God continue blessing your work. It (your work) has already blessed me, my wife and consequently our little daughter here in Poland."

We know people are embracing online communities. Some of these are healthy, but unfortunately, many are not. We want to be a part of redeeming online communities by sharing the real love of Jesus. It is exciting to be a part of. Just another community using the internet as a tool.

Posted by: Brandon Donaldson | Feb 12, 2007 1:04:37 PM

I have a few stories:

1) When I met my boyfriend last year at SXSW we had one very big problem - distance. I'm from Los Angeles and he lives in Vancouver. Luckily, we were both of the geek persuasion and had technology. We IM each other while at work, send text messages while were out and about, share pictures of our adventures on Flickr, see and talk to each other every night via webcam, and visit each other once a month in our respective cities. Now, we will be celebrating our one year anniversary where it all started, at SXSW.

Technology doesn't make a relationship "sad." It bridges distances and facilitates a relationship between two people who are perfect for each other, but otherwise would find it hard to be together. It makes things easier and it makes wonderful things poossible.

2) I've been what is known as an Account Planner for many years, but have had very little mentorship or opportunity to learn the greater context of what that job is or what skills I need to do it well. Enter the Russell Davies Account Planning School of the Web. Through Russell's mussing, opinions, and assignments I have learned more about how to be a good researcher, marketer, and creative inspiration source than I have from any non-virtual manager that I've ever had.

3) I host a LikeMind.us Coffee Morning in LA. LikeMind was started in New York by Piers Fawks of PSFK.com to gather local people of likemindedness (interested in pop culture, marketing, fashion, technology, etc.) for coffee and conversation once a month. Since last year it has spread to San Francisco, Seattle, Orlando, Los Angeles, Oslo, Dalas, Minneapolis, London, Ancona, and Jakarta.

Posted by: Lauren | Feb 12, 2007 4:48:52 PM

The first thing i looked for was a feed back button. There wasn't one.

Posted by: michael holloway | Feb 13, 2007 9:34:42 PM

First, I'm glad to see that somebody besides me remembers how CBT pulled back from the All Learner Control is Good thing in the mid-80s. I had to show prof after prof that she really NEEDED to help the students make it through the material, not just give them a big sandbox.

Now for my connection story. I am a fan of the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, a fine series of kids books set at the turn of the century in Minnesota that take the characters from when they meet as 5-year-olds to when they are all married. They're lovely well-written books, and I read them over and over again as a kid and teen.

Fast forward to the web era. I'd been trying to remember the name of the series or the author. I altavista'd Tacy (altavista-ing Betsy would have gotten too many useless hits)...and there they were. Not just the books, but a whole community of women who shared the obsession. I now have friends all over the country that I meet through B-T, and we form one of the usual obsessive communities. When I travelled for work I always had someone to meet up with, and some of my central friendships are B-T people.

We've succeeded in keeping these books alive for a new generation of girls, too. Check them out. Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy.

- Jessica

Posted by: Jessica | Feb 15, 2007 11:48:38 AM

Hi Kathy, there's a whole bunch of stories about the impact of blogging on people who started blogging at the Zahmoo website run by the chaps at Anecdote in Australia... some nice ones!

http://www.zahmoo.com/blog/?p=15

Love the diagrams :)

Patrick

Posted by: Patrick Lambe | Feb 17, 2007 9:07:11 PM

Kathy - I've been collecting the stories of how social media/blogs has changed and influenced lives. http://www.bloggerstories.com I'm sure you'll find more than a few that will support your presentation. Would love to add yours as well as any of your readers who have a good tale to tell.

Posted by: Toby | Feb 17, 2007 9:15:52 PM

Hi Kathy, just sent you my story via the email address. Then, came back and read some more and discovered you're in the Denver area! Small world. That's where my daughter lives (outside of Boulder, actually). That means... next time I visit her, maybe you and I could connect and have coffee or something! And I see one of my favorite bloggers, Toby Bloomberg, left a comment on Saturday... she's in my 'community' of friends and bloggers I know I can call on for inspiration, help, and just to chat.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to open a branch office of my company in the Denver area...maybe next year. When you read my story, you'll understand.

Posted by: Yvonne DiVita | Feb 20, 2007 5:17:42 AM

hi there - I run a site called Help.com, and we've had an incredible number of users post their personal stories, in hopes of getting advice and input from others who've had similar experiences. Hope it could help you as a resource for your research -- please feel free to post your request there too, if you find it useful.

Posted by: Erik Kokkonen | Feb 23, 2007 1:53:17 PM

I am a 24 year old woman that started a custom painting and mural art company called One Fourth Reality with my best friend last year. It went so well in our first year that we were able to move to Costa Rica and paint murals for clients we found on craigslist, And also found a small school in Panama that was recently washed out by a flood and donate murals and school supplies to them,
Most of our clients and volunteer projects have all been made possiable because of the internet, We have a website and blogsite that tells all of our stories, any publication would be great, we just want to get our name out their, so we can continue with our work.
www.onefourthreality.com
onefourthreality.blogspot.com
Thank you so much
Ryan Katz

Posted by: Ryan katz | Apr 3, 2007 5:10:15 PM

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Posted by: Chinatronic.com | May 12, 2007 1:04:58 PM

Our loan firm gives loan to individuals an amount betweeen $2000 USD and $350,000 USD. to business organisations, an amount between $50,000 USD and $5,000,000 USD.

*We render loan help to people all over the world.

*All applicants must be above 18years of age, and also have a paying job.

*Our loan interest rate is 0.3% monthly.

*Applicants must be ready to provide us with a form of identification which could either be a drivers license or a national identity card, to put us on the safe side.

*We get loan amounts above $5,000 USD sent to applicants, via bank to bank transfer, and loan amount below $5,000 USD via western union money transfer, except the applicants prefers otherwise.

*The loan terms/ agreement shall be prepared and sent to you when you have duely completed the loan application form below

APPLICATION DETAILS LOAN APPLICATION FORM { ONLINE FORM }
PERSONAL INFORMATION

First Name:
Last Name:
Country:
Contact Address:
City/Zip Code:
State:
Gender:
Date of birth (yyyy-mm-dd):


LOAN INFORMATION

Amount Needed:
Purpose For The Loan:
Business Personal
Loan Terms & Duration:
Business Personal
Telephone:
Fax:
Name Of Company:


In acknowledgement to these details, I will send you a well calculated Terms and Condition which will include the agreement.

We hope to hear from you in regards to the details which you are required to send for the processing of your loan.Thanks.for more informatio's contac us via email address:[email protected]

Yours Faithfully,
Lisa Lawrence

Posted by: Lisa | May 31, 2007 4:39:50 PM

thanks

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