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Everybody has a Story

by Team Helsinki
Vote “like” to move the project or write a comment.

TEAM LEADER
Arja Mielonen-Walker arja.mielonen-walker@helsinki.fi

TEAM MEMBERS
The Helsinki  team is

Arja Mielonen-Walker,  arja.mielonen-walker@helsinki.fi
Monica Stefan monicastefan20@yahoo.com

Paul Boncutiu, pb_boncutiu@yahoo.com

Delmi Alvarez, delmialvarez@yahoo.com

We are glad to invite you to visit our Facebook page and publish your picture with a story: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Everybody-Has-A-Story/213190278700886

PROPOSAL OVERVIEW
“Everybody Has a Story” is a social networking platform and a project photography where people who met on the street the other day could come and meet on-line today. In our team, Ms Arja Mielonen-Walker is currently working for a LLL (life long learning) project with a group of seniors in Finland. We were inspired by these persons need for interaction and their need for participating in the social life as active citizens. The project is not closed just for this group of people also photographed people of all ages, because we believe everyone has a story to tell and to provide us with the wealth that each person carries within itself. We started this idea in Chania, Greece while attending a workshop seminar and using the Iphone and the photo application. You can see here the full story with the pictures of participants in Flickr and here a video of Arja.

“Each person has a story and elderly people have more than anyone. They are open books of memories and we can learn from their experience. Using the Apple Iphone and Hipstamatic application for taking pictures is not an invasive-aggressive system comparing with making portraits with a DSLR camera (used by professional or amateur photographers)”.

Descriptions

1. How it works?
The image quality taken with an Iphone is enough to make a book, prints and publish in a magazine or any other media. The photographer or the assistant need to ask the persons photographed for a short interview with questions like age, name, birthday, place born and living, and a statement/experience of what they did in the life, like work for example. It is a short bio of the person that can be improved later. Many elderly people are missed in the last times of their lives, and perhaps with this project we can give a little bit more importance to the time spent helping others in the society and the community.

2. On-line Platform

We don’t want to compete Facebook, Flickr or other huge social network, but our idea is to go with our project deep in the internet world. We intent to use internet and its capabilities to develop this platform. With a easy to use graphic interface and an administration panel we can give to each user a personal page from where he/she can upload pictures, write or modify stories, add friends, manage comments, etc.  The main rule will be that each picture has to have a story attached. Without a story in the background, the picture is just a picture.

Here, on the image from the right, we have posted a first attempt to create the SQL database for this platform. We still must put a lot of work in this incipient step, but we are glad that our project is being consolidated through moving towards multiple stages. We want to share with you all these steps. The SQL Database was made by using an open source site called http://ondras.zarovi.cz/. This database will be updated all the time based on the way the platform is being developed.

3. Photos
The pictures taken can be shown in different ways. The first one as the cheapest, the easiest and the fastest is internet, but we don’t discard a tour exhibition by countries, a book or catalogue, postcards with a message of the project, edition with Blur books online, etc.

4. Book
Using the internet technologies like BLUR (www.blur.com) editing books online Everybody has a story can be in the libraries of schools and other educational institutions.

5. Could be a educational tool?
Yes, it is a very and helpful educational tool, and it is possible use the Iphone and Hipstamatic with children and any age people.

6. Uploading pictures
Using Twit pic the pictures

7. A tool to integrate PSN (people with special needs)
The integration in the society to PSN people is one of the main worries of the EU directions. Our experience working with PSN specially children is a advantage. Photography for children with emotional problems playing with the Iphomatic is a reality.

8. Publish your photo in Facebook
You can publish your photos in our Facebook page, directly, without any permission, only what you need is work with the Hipstamatic application or similar and publish a picture & story of the person or persons on the picture. That’s all! and easy. We are happy if you send us any feedback because it will help to improve the idea.

9. Target and mission
With this project we have clear scores, from one side we want to show to the society the problem with elderly in many countries, because they are part of the communities and they need to be respected and loved. By second, we wish to offer a new perspective in the minds of the new young people and new generations, helping to approach the elderly wizard to them and don´t forget about the always lovely storytelling of our grandparents. Heritage is a treasure and we need to protect it and to put it in a safe place for the many other generations that will come.

10. Sharing, breaking barriers
We intent to start this platform with a small community, like a village or a small city, were we can involve elders but not only. We believe that Everybody has a story, no matter the age of the person. In this way, people can cross some social barriers and they can know each other. Through this social platform, they can find out other persons with the same activities, with the same hobbies, people who share the same interests. The next step is to move our project into a bigger community, a community where exists people who don’t know each other, but they want to be discovered or they want to share their life stories. Another feature of this platform will be “Swap Stories”.

 

11. Interaction

This is a social interaction challenge, through which we intent to insert in people an empathetic feeling. It will happen when a person will choose to accept another people story as it is his own, and he will try to imagine how he would react if it was in the other’s shoes. “Swap Stories” is meant for people to gain trust in each other and to use their creativity in terms of looking for a better life for them and for the ones around them. Tools Flickr free account, Facebook, Hipstamatic application, apple Iphone, PC for write the texts and upload them on the internet, and the most important tool will be the Platform created especially for this project “Everybody Has a Story”.

12. Fundrising
Actually we are asking to the private companies to support the project. In our planning agenda is write to Apple and Hipstamatic for donation of a pilot project.

13. Choosing a community to go ahead with the project
We want to find a small community in Europe where we can test the experiment with Ipho and Hispta. Please we wait any feedback if you are interested in the project and would be a important step to connect people living in marginal areas or with a

14. Stories to publish in Facebook

We have a group in Facebook where once joined you can publish your story with a photo.

15. Creative Commons
The project will be under a Creative Commons license.

15. Creating a Community
Photographers and not photographers around the world are using Ipho and Hipsta as a tool of self expression. One of our targets is create a Community, a big place where anyone can tell a story or stories.

16. Black and white or color?
The application Hipstamatic have a range variety of films, including black and white and infrared. We experiemented with a few of them during 2 years and the quality and the prints are amazing. In all this time we got around more 4000 pictures to made a selection for a exhibition. Black and white have many followers and color give the opportunity of play with the ligth. If the day is bright and sun y the colors will be very powerful, if the day is cloudy you can choose between more than 4 films to made a perfect picture with the look of Holga camera, for example.

17. Send this postcard to your friends >>>
Downdload free the postcard with our project and send by email or publish in your blog. You will help many people that need to be listen. To download the postcard with the mouse over the image and click bottom right and “save as”.You can publish in your blog or send by email to your friend helping to spread the project….

Very easy!.

18. Is a politic campaign?
Of course not, Everybody has a story is a project from a team, with politics own ideas but we are not politicians or talking on behalf them.

19. Who are behind Everybody has a story?
We are professionals working in another more projects with PSN people, children, media, university, elderly. We provide transparency all the time, nothing to hide.

20. Training people
We have a long wide experience training people to become photographers. In a short seminar 2-3 days you will be able to shot pictures, edit, publish, print and made a book. Sound like good for you?.

21. A project to include in many other projects
Photography is one of the greatest expressions that each person can develop freely. our proposal can be included in others as a visual medium. If you’re thinking of giving a sharp turn to your project using digital photography we will give you all the advice you need, think we are with you to support your ideas visually!.

22. Stories with pictures
Everybody has a story has a big and unique difference with the other proposals, we are uploading pictures of people that can tell us a story short or longer. We are uploading each picture directly from the Iphone in seconds.

Ilva and Janis
A latvian couple married visiting a wedding’s friend . We talked about many things in a hot evening in Matonge. Ilva had been living in Galicia for a long time, is teacher and work living in Cesis a small and beautiful village in the latvian countryside with her husband Janis, writer and poet.

 

 

 

Tino Martínez

He is photographer in Santiago de Compostela and have many books. Tino don’t use mobile phone and works with analogic cameras developing the films in his lab.

 

 

 

 

Jesus
Jesus is working as a designer and he likes so much the photography.

 

 

 

 

 

Oskar
Saturday morning Oskar bought a flower to bring his girlfriend.

 

 

 

 

 

Ziga and Urska. The  Couple from Slovenia. They look perfect toghether and everybody loved them. Ziga was talking all the time so passionate about social and political issues. He is student at the History Faculty in Maribor. They are a couple comming from the recent postcommunist regim and they are still affected by that, like all the young people in former communist countries. But he has Urska, the girl who is allways there for him, even if it is a linguistic issue or a social one.

This picture was taken in Chania Airport, where Urska was very proud with her new handbag and the way he is holding her hand shows a protective feeling.

Help us to add more ideas, descriptions to improve the project. Write your comment in the blog, but first you need to sign in.

Everybody has a story is a documentary photo essay to share by social networks in the world using digital photography with a Iphone an a cheap photo application.
To go ahead with this project we appreciate your vote and share with other friends and your community.
Sound good for you? If you want to know more about this project please feel free to write a comment with your feedback or email us directly, we want to know ab out you!.
Use the social share to spread our project. Thank you.

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47 Responses to Everybody has a Story

  1. delmialvarez says:
    May 5, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    With “Everybody has a story” we wish to declare our love for the generations that teach us how to walk in the life. We don’t forget, this is our celebration, our tribute to them.

  2. PaulBoncutiu says:
    May 6, 2011 at 8:55 am

    Through this platform, we would like to develop a symbiothic photo-story page, where a person can upload a picture only after he/she has written a story about the previous picture uploaded.

    • Mada says:
      May 9, 2011 at 6:09 pm

      Congrats for the initiative!
      It would be great if with this idea you managed to involve the elderly and engage them into a sharing and collaborative activity, which is something that many of them need.

      In this way they could share their stories with other people of their generation and find empathy and common interests, but also be a model for the younger generation, that most of the times do not think that the answer to their problems might come from an older person or cannot imagine that their questions and worries might have preoccupied other similar minds centuries ago.

      • PaulBoncutiu says:
        May 9, 2011 at 8:38 pm

        Thank you Mada for your support! We intent indeed to involve old people in a collaborative activity but we would like to get involve all kind of people, because after all, Everybody Has A Story! Then, there is the online platform that we want to build. It must be easy to use, so anyone can be able to manage it, even the old people who have barrely used internet.

  3. arja.mielonen says:
    May 6, 2011 at 10:34 am

    Welcome to our journey with us – but first, fasten your seatbelts: you are about to enter uncharted territory that is filled with beauty not found before, undiscovered roads, birds, flowers and butterflies. Just listen and you’ll be able see it. Enjoy the ride!

  4. monica2011 says:
    May 8, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    keep up with the good work! sometimes photos are able to describe more heartstrings and experiences than normally words can!it will be very interesting crossing the social barriers and discovering other’s life stories! i really believe in this project and can’t wait for the implementation of it!

    • delmialvarez says:
      May 8, 2011 at 10:49 pm

      Thank you Monica for your feedback and we are happy to listen you to improve the project. All the best.

      • PaulBoncutiu says:
        May 9, 2011 at 7:06 am

        In case anyone would want to post a comment and you can’t register, we would like to ask you to contact one of us by sending an e-mail, because it seems that there are some issues regarding the registration procedures!
        Thank you all for your support!

  5. delmialvarez says:
    May 9, 2011 at 8:36 am

    Monica welcome to the team!! Happy that you decide to join Everybody has a Story.

    • monica2011 says:
      May 9, 2011 at 10:03 am

      Thank you both!! i’m more than delighted to be a member of this team and very excited for what it’s about to come! i hope my skills and devotion will complete this team and lead to the development of this project!

  6. PaulBoncutiu says:
    May 9, 2011 at 8:44 am

    Because the rules requiers the presence of a forth member in our team and more than that, this member must be a person who wasn’t in the original team, we are very glad to present Ms Stefan Monica, a young and very bright woman. She was following our project from the beggining and she understood the role of the stories in people lives.
    A complete team means more power of will and more involvment. So, welcome Monica!

  7. IoanaMarincas says:
    May 9, 2011 at 10:19 am

    Great job! i have a suggestion though…i’ve read that ‘the main rule will be that each picture has to have a story attached. Withouth a story in the background, the picture is just a picture’. But what about…i’m just saying…a picture comes without description…and others try to interpret it and find it’s meaning, and several days after the owner of the photo select the story that approaches more of the real one. this could be a quiz on this platform!

  8. adelacetinturk says:
    May 9, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    Great idea!!

  9. nikospalavitsinis says:
    May 10, 2011 at 7:07 am

    Hey guys! Nice work!

    It was a really nice idea from its birth and I am glad I was involved even a little bit in the beginning!

    Anything I can do to help, please do not hesitate to ask me!

    Crossing fingers for first place!

    N

    • PaulBoncutiu says:
      May 10, 2011 at 9:11 am

      Hey Nikos!

      Indeed, you have done a great job and you helped us a lot for doing the first stepts and we thank you for that. Now, if you want to, you can help us with promoting and with gathering lots of likes, comments and tweets!
      As well, if you have an idea of how to improve our platform it would be most welcome.
      Thanks again!

    • delmialvarez says:
      May 10, 2011 at 10:57 am

      Hi Nikos, great to know from you our greek connection!! How is Chania without us?? Local people probably are more happy ;0) or missing us? Thank you for your words and comments, always welcome.

  10. n.marianos says:
    May 10, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    It’s nice to see you active. Keep up the good work.

  11. MihaiM says:
    May 10, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    i really like your idea. i am among those people who travel more than a lot,and always thought that it will be interesting to be able to publish the photos i’m takin’ each journey and the overwhelming stories i hear all the time. There are great unrevealed stories of great people because of the lack of technology or social interaction…

    • monica2011 says:
      May 10, 2011 at 9:29 pm

      we are very glad to hear that, for the beginning you can start by publishing your photos on our offical facebook account “Everybody has a story (Photo Documentary Project)” community and see the impact of it. by this project we hope we will be able to fill that lack of technology (that you mentioned) and help people interact more.

  12. Mirona says:
    May 11, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    I love the pictures from Facebook. So many interesting stories… We are all there, even if our pictures are not.

    • monica2011 says:
      May 13, 2011 at 9:04 am

      simple people with simple but true stories that make us all find ourselves, our parents or grandparents in them…this project kinda brings back memories, at least this is what i feel when i browse all those pictures and stories.

  13. Prof Barry Golding says:
    May 17, 2011 at 4:56 am

    Thanks Arja and others. I really like your words, stories and the incredible accessibility, even from here in the Antipodes (Australia is on the other side of the globe). I am still to be convinced (as an older man) that anything beats face to face, but some of this comes close. Best with it. Barry

  14. Elena says:
    May 19, 2011 at 9:29 pm

    I am thinking about this project in terms of helping social environment through learning from other people experiences. Maybe someday i will go to a city were a person has a restaurant. The picture from this project, with the restaurant and its description could make me choose it instead of other one.
    Great project, and very useful! Keep going, guys!

  15. simone says:
    May 19, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    what you are doing here is going to improve the social community and its inhabitants. the pictures and their stories might be the link to cover the generation gap…if you will need another hand in this project, i would be glad to assist you!

  16. Traveler says:
    May 19, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    hi guys, i’ve just downloaded the hipstamatic application on my brand new iphone, can’t wait to use it on your platform!! keep up the good work!!

  17. Erika says:
    May 19, 2011 at 10:18 pm

    where did you find the hipstamatic application, i’ve recently bought an iphone but still don’t know how to use yet :) ) lol

  18. Traveler says:
    May 19, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    enter iphone app store ;) you’ll sure find it there

  19. Emily says:
    May 20, 2011 at 7:05 am

    So, there’s a platform like Flickr…bc of the stories, this platform is meant to bring portrets in full sight as far as i understand! and that iphone app is great!

  20. Mihai says:
    May 20, 2011 at 9:23 am

    I read that there must be some training courses for people to learn how to use this platform. Could you pls be more specific about the way the courses will be held…locations, curriculum, etc. Thx!

  21. andrei says:
    May 20, 2011 at 1:22 pm

    The impact that the green pattern will have is like a visual aid. All the pictures and the people are much more attractive when they are seen through this pattern. That is really interesting

    • PaulBoncutiu says:
      May 21, 2011 at 10:03 am

      We intend to maintain this as a specific character of the platform. So, if you want to take part of our platform, you should do it only if you have this Hipstamatic app for Iphone. Anyway, we are thinking about making a section for normal photos to be uploaded…

      • Julya says:
        May 23, 2011 at 3:17 pm

        I have never used a Hipstamatic application, but i am looking forward to your courses so we can learn more about this application and how it can be used. Maybe you will teach us something about Authors Rights as well.

  22. joanna says:
    May 20, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    Helping old people to learn it is a european issue and i believe that we should give more and more attention to this matter. We have to learn from them indeed, but in the end they are like children…they need to be helped. The thing you are doing offers the help they need.

    • PaulBoncutiu says:
      May 21, 2011 at 10:07 am

      We really hope to create a connexion between old people and young people. Using swap stories section we would be able to make them interact and excange stories and life experiences much more easier.

  23. dana_denu says:
    May 21, 2011 at 9:57 am

    Your project seems to be very specific and it refeers to an innovative concept of interaction between people. Stories, pictures, Iphone app, methods, non-formal education, everytihing inside one big project! I think its an attractive activity in which i would like to take part of!

  24. geert.mareels says:
    June 6, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    Now that the race is almost over…maybe we could think of “merging” at a certain point the ideas behind Everybody has a story and Schoolville. In Schoolville everybody can teach, from his or her life experience. And in your project everybody can tell a story. In many cases that could be the same thing. The “lessons learned” from a story. I don’t have a clear idea about this yet, but there could be some sort of integration where a person telling his story could sometimes turn it into a lesson for other people. Schoolville is not only about classic education but also about other things interesting to know…

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