Respectance

So a few days ago I wrote about the website Respectance receiving funding and how it seemed like a preposterous concept. Well, I officially proved myself wrong and wanted to write about my recent experience with the site.

On Tuesday of last week I found out that my Grandpa who had been in poor health ever since he had a mild heart attack several months ago, was being moved to Hospice. My family, who keep in regular contact via email, started to collect photos of him in order to make a video for the impending service. Since our family keeps in such regular contact, I thought using a site like Respectance could be a really cool way to collect all of the photos in one place so that others who have been touched by my Grandfather (he delivered over ten thousand babies during his life) could view them and also add their own. In addition, the Respectance site lets users add videos, memories and create videos from the photos on the site.

In creating the site I was also able to add the text from his obituary to the front page, create a video with one of his favorite songs (Big Rock Candy Mountain) and help others in the family add photos. The site so far has been a bit hit with the family, partly because of its ease of use and also I think because it follows modern web standards as far as simplistic and clean design. I applaud the creators of the site for providing such a hassle free environment to honor the memory of my Grandfather and I really hope they are successful in the future.

Some of the things I'd like to see added to the site are the ability to upload audio without video (my grandfather did a radio interview that a couple of the grandkids set up which I would love to include on the site somehow) and also maybe some sort of forum for families to get together and chat.

We will see how the tribute to my Grandfather evolves over the next few months but so far I'd say Respectance is a hit and I am very happy with the level of innovation this new round of investment in social networks has fostered. So keep it up VC's; even if a lot of these sites flare up and disappear, the web and our social connections will be better for it in the end. I already feel closer to my relatives on that side of the family by involving them in this collaborative effort in honor of my Grandfather.