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eCapsule is one’s life story digitally preserved for at least three generations (~100 years) with up to one Gigabyte (GB) of available documents, photos, and a few videos.
Like a physical time capsule, the eCapsule maker can ask that their electronic capsule remain unopened until some future date such as their 100th birthday.
We paradoxically spend billions researching our ancestors but pay little attention to documenting our own lives. Of course, public records will always be available but provide limited information. You may have hundreds of documents, photos and videos; however, these are perishable on digital media without taking steps to maintain them. Unless you preserve your life story, descendants may not know more about you than you know about your ancestors.
In the past, there were few tools and little time to document life stories but today’s digital technologies change everything. Creating a life story in an eCapsule is something we can all do, and capsules can survive by following one of several strategies.
What does it cost
Nothing other than your time and energy.
You have lived a successful life and are now enjoying the retirement dream. However, you want to stay productive by engaging in meaningful activity. Consider capturing your life story in an electronic time capsule.
Ancestry interests you and learning about your roots has helped understand who you are. You wish you knew more about your ancestors but too much has been lost to history.
Though not necessarily a famous person, you realize your descendants may have the same interest in you. You understand we are moving to digital media and much of your information is at risk because computer memory is perishable in just a few years, and cloud services will erase your files once you stop paying. Future generations could have the same unanswered questions about you.
However, it need not be this way. Create a digital time capsule containing information that tells your life story.
I can prove it. Think of your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. If you could learn more about them that is, documents, photos and videos, would you want to? The answer is Yes. They cared about your welfare and anticipated your arrival. Parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents established the initial conditions at your time of birth. The fact is, each was woven into the family fabric and has an important story that led up to you.
Your story is worth knowing too.
My great grandmother wrote a two page summary of her life (1853 – 1950). Although limited in detail, the document is treasured. Perhaps she misjudged how interesting her life was. We wish we knew so much more.
You have survived into your senior years and experienced milestones and events, pleasures and pain, and successes and disappointment. You have benefited from special people and perhaps challenged by others. The time is now to recall your childhood, education, marriage, family years, working experience, beliefs, hobbies and sports, and now your retirement activities.
Your life has another remarkable dimension; you have lived in an extraordinary time of technical innovation and social change. You came of age during this period of rapid transformation. What was it like to go from the radio to artificial intelligence, not the mention the man on the moon? Tell your story in documents, photos, and a few videos.
Your descendants will want to know it.
What have you learned and experienced worthy of passing to future generations? Put it in an eCapsule of one gigabyte information preserved for at least three generations.
Your goal should be to tell your life story by collecting up to one Gigabyte (1GB) of digital information from your computer, photo and video collections, and by scanning important paper documents.
My one GB capsule contains 300 total documents, photos, and videos. One GB is sufficient; more is not better. Because videos use considerable memory, keep them short and few.
Then choose from among several preservation strategies to make sure your eCapsule survives for at least three generations (~100 years).
You are interested in your ancestors and have researched government records, collected photos, recorded stories, copied letters, and discovered news items. Yet, you wish you knew more about your family history. Has it occurred to you that future generations will want the details about you too? You are the forerunner to their lives and an important branch of the family tree. The chapters of your life are the prelude to theirs. Yet, your documents, digital photos, photos books, and videos telling your life story may be no more survivable than your ancestor’s records.
An eCapsule is a digital record no larger than one gigabyte (GB) containing your key documents, photos, and a few videos telling your life story. One GB is sufficient—more is not better. Your eCapsule will have more information about you than you could have ever hoped to have about your ancestors.
And if the eCapsule vision is fulfilled, your life story and millions more will be available for many generations.
Create your capsule and provide it to trusted family members. Set a date when it can be opened, that is, when your documents, photos, and videos can be viewed. I selected my 100th birthday.
My eCapsule file name is Clay John Leslie 11-26-1948 UT. It is less than one GB and contains around 300 documents, photos, and videos. I want my capsule to be “opened” by my children, grandchildren, and yet-to-be-born great- grandchildren on my 100th birthday. I am not a famous person; still, my family may want to know my story.
©John L. Clay, 2023, All Rights Reserved; eCapsule is a trademark of John L.Clay.
The eCapsuleTM system is the subject of one or more patents pending. | Site by BrandJini