3W Design Group - Media

I just returned from a family reunion - a gathering of my relatives, the Baryenbruch family - which was held in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. It was a small event as family reunions go, about twenty people age 5 to 79, from Indianapolis, Raleigh, Chicago, Boston, Green Bay, Sister Bay and New York City. As we ate and drank and caught up with one another, I thought about how technology was integrated into people’s daily lives, and what common experiences we may have shared because of it.
First, my 12 year old neice had just returned Friday from a leadership conference in Washington D.C. Our whole family was able to share in this experience by following her daily adventures on slideshows the organizers posted everyday highlighting the sites and activities the kids were involved in. Each slideshow even had a specific original musical score, which was very cool. This was an experience we were able to share in the week leading up to the reunion.
Next, I asked the twenty-something attendees if they had seen Will Ferrell’s “The Landlord” video online. None of five had seen it which surprised me. Gregg and I love this video, especially when Pearl, the two year old landlord is screaming at Ferrell at the top of her lungs “I want my money!” They have been such a smash online that there are tribute videos popping up YouTube. It seems that if “old” people like us had seen it, certainly my hip tech-savvy nieces and nephews would have too?! But they had not. So this was not an experience we had shared.

Let me make it clear that these young adults are techies in their own right. Among them one is a librarian about to integrate new database software; one is a MySpace maven who reminds me that my MySpace page is lame (she’s right); and one is a year away from completing his masters degree in aerospace engineering at MIT. We have technology in common, just not all technology.
An experience all ages in my family will be able to share is when we relive the reunion event by posting our photos online. Gregg and I took lots and lots of pictures that we plan on uploading to Flickr. The nice part about that is people can look at the photos and not have to understand how Flickr works. This will provide an excellent shared experience. In another example of digital photo sharing, my brother used his laptop to share his photos of a family vacation to England as well as the progress of the construction of his new home. My sister clung to her analog-self by bringing along an actual photo album of her and my brother-in-law’s trip to Japan. I give her a year before she surrenders to cataloging her digital photos on her laptop - there are two grandchildren due in the coming year and it will make organizing THEIR photos easier.
All in all the reunion activites were enjoyable and diverse. We took a tour of family historical sites that included visiting our relatives in three different cemeteries. My parents, being the good sports that they are, even posed together for a photo at their own tombstone, standing behind it, smiling out at the family their union has created. In the evening, some of us did a mini pub crawl of some of Manitowoc’s most interesting establishments which included a wine bar; a bar that is home perhaps the world’s largest urinal; and an Irish pub serving Guinness and Harp on tap. It was a memorable 48 hours and thanks to the Web and to digital technology, we will share it for months to come.