Today we hosted our first event of 2024, a brainstorming “Clinic” so I thought it might be helpful to share some background about how we envision stories in the context of projects, technology, and creativity.
Creativity unleashed in projects
Project ideas have always fueled Projectkin. As family historians, we’re hooked on stories, but it’s projects that let us share these stories with our loved ones who share the inheritance.
Since the pen, paper, and prose of our ancestors, we’re continuously inventing new ways to capture and share stories. As with daguerreotypes and home movies of the past, new tech today dazzles family storykeepers. And now, the pace of invention has created an overwhelming array of ways to tell a story. The Smith-Corona world we were born into didn’t equip us well to navigate questions of privacy and archiving raised by the digital tools for family history clamoring for our attention today.
At Projectkin, we’re here for each other — and the crazy ideas
Projectkin, as fellow travelers, gather in this community to advise, support, and cheer each other on. Since 2024 brought us a large cohort of new members, I wanted to start with a fun, visual celebration of the “Crazy Ideas” that keep us going. This animation sequence☝️captures just a few of the ideas shared in Project Clinics events and documented in our “Crazy Idea Database.”
Brainstorming can get a little crazy. Sometimes ideas start with something we’ve been thinking about for a while, and sometimes they riff off projects that inspire us. Sometimes there’s a piece of software that creates something like it, but not quite. An idea can be as elegant as a few passages in prose or as complicated as a website. In a recent Project Clinic, member Anna Scheutz shared this insight with the group.
This was part of the Atlantic edition of the monthly Project Clinic held on January 17. These are held twice a month at times for the convenience of our Atlantic and Pacific members. You can get tickets and see all of our upcoming programs here on Eventbrite. You can see Anna’s December talk where she shared a Project Recipe for a Family History Scavenger Hunt here.
A project without a story is a cart without a horse
Hooks let us latch on and invest in a story. Projects create a way to package and share it. Too often we’re dazzled by our tools. We think up stories to tell just because we have a shiny new tool. With a new hammer in hand, everything looks like a nail, doesn’t it?
This is one of the reasons we’ve maintained strict independence from platforms and software tools. Accepting sponsorships or affiliations would tempt us to explore tools to “show what they can do.” Instead, we explore stories and audiences first, then find the best way to convey them.
How a story is told depends on who is listening
The story you tell a grandson from your comfy chair is very different from the one you’ll tell at a mic in the town square. When your audience is at the center of the challenge, you will choose storytelling tools based on their suitability to the challenge of TELLING the STORY — not the fun or fear of the TOOL. This is incredibly important — especially now.
When you think about the TELLING of stories as PROJECTS, then the STORY and your AUDIENCE are at center stage.
A special challenge now
It may not be obvious, but the remarkable demographic bubble of the Internet is still working its way through families. Many of us born after WWII have reached a point in our lives where our children are grown, our parents have left us, and we’re starting to contemplate our legacies.
While this is a normal process, what’s different is that there’s a larger technology gap than ever between ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. Our kids and grandkids think nothing of using animation to tell a story while we’re scratching out drafts on yellow legal pads.
Frightened by the Options: Not here.
Many of us are quite literally frightened by the options, overwhelmed by our collections of family photos and the obligation to carry forward the stories of our ancestors. That’s where Projectkin steps in. Our monthly Kathy’s Corner program steps in with the guidance of a pro to help you through those decisions about scanning and archiving.
That’s a particular problem when you think about keeping control of the private elements of a family story. These delicate stories about infidelity, out-of-wedlock births, and other breaches can be devastating to a legacy. And yet, they’re the important stories that need to be told.
Our view is that the story is the driver.
Select the right vehicle to share the story based on your audience, time, and money available to invest. Requirements for privacy, archiving, and other elements important to a legacy become part of that equation as well. Thinking about these elements as you plan and execute projects will serve you and your family well in the long run.
Projectkin are Hooked on Stories