Our site is about to be unveiled for the first time, you can't yet join unless you have a magic key but you can take a little look nose around Odbody. If you'd like to register for a key then please email team@odbody.com
18 months ago we had an idea for a website. We were amazed at how much current information we could find on Google, Facebook, FriendsReuinted (or Reunion.com) but still not actually get a true picture about who a person really was or what made them who they are today. We found that the amazing beast that is the web, scans real-time brilliantly and can pick up on a persons moods and mutterings through Twitter, but apart from births, deaths, schools and marriages on some geneology-like sites there was little or no substance to a persons life - what has actually made each of us who we are.
There certainly seemed no way of finding out this information about past generations without doing a lot of digging, and so it seemed there was little to leave behind once we shuffle off this mortal coil.
We became eager to capture what impact we had made in life, what had shaped us into who we are and to see if we had made any difference to the world around us. The basis of what was to become Odbody was born. (Why 'Odbody'? you can read it in About Odbody).
Fast forward 18 months, add 1 full-time, committed developer, a night-time designer/director, a candle-burning copywriter/director and two further 'out-of-hours' directors (one who is exceptionally good at small print, the other who is fantastic at making contact with the right people at the right time). Add to this a lot of hours, the backing of a few friends and family, throw in some ribbon, a bit of sticky-back plastic and a couple of cotton reels and Odbody is finally coming out to play.
So what's different?
Odbody allows to you to record everything in life that makes you who you are, be that inspiring people, friends, great books, films, places or events to name a few. One of the exciting elements to the site is that rather than just connect with people you know now like you do on other social networking sites, you can find people who have crossed your path and shaped your life, even if you can't remember or don't even know their name. Although a search result maybe instant (once the mice that drive the servers into action are fed), any searches you create stay live until you find the person you are looking for, reporting back to you if someone matches the search you have started. Whether that's in five days or five years time!
On top of this, you can match the things that have inspired you or made a difference to you with others who also have found the same stuff pretty amazing too - be they events, films, music or charities. This allows you to view what else they liked, giving you some great recommendations for other stuff you may find inspiring.
The site can be used as an online journal of your life, or to just track the impact you've made on others (even the times when you didn't know you've done anything). We've tried to make it a place you can call home for you to share and keep the for the future. (We're working to enable you to be able to print books and wall charts of your life or those of the lives you loved).
Does it handle Facebook / Twitter realtime integration like a lifestreaming site?
Not yet, we're working on getting the integration with Facebook and other networking sites up and running pretty quickly, so you won't have to re-enter all your personal details/friends etc and in the future we will probably add twitter updates and feeds too. However, there's a lot of sites that do that all very well and we wanted to focus on two things first;
the stuff that happens in the offline world that shapes your life, and
making Odbody as inclusive and accessible to everyone, that includes my mum -– and lovely as she is – she isn't a twitterer, however, she still has an amazing story to tell. We strongly feel that technology should be fully inclusive and not exclusive.
Is that it?
Good grief no, we've chosen to launch now under a beta label (it could have been alpha but we flipped a coin and beta won), to enable people to start to play and gather more user reaction. We have huge plans for the development of the site; making our searches and matches deeper and cleverer, adding more integration, second profiles for your loved ones (children or those that have passed away), creating more clever graphic representations of your impact to name a few. However, we understand our limitations, whilst we're a small team we have to focus on the core elements of the site, so that's what we've done. During this stage you may find we have a few glitches and a couple of breakdowns (both technical and nervous); somethings could be done better we know, but we hope you can live with these whilst we strive on our quest for perfection. We'd appreciate you letting us know about any problems and we'll fix stuff as soon as we can. We'll keep you up to date with downtime or problems through this blog and on twitter if you follow @odbody
Investment opportunities
Up until now we've funded Odbody on a shoestring budget, through our own pockets and with some very kind investments from friends and family, however with our plans for future growth we are now beginning to look for further funding. If anyone is interested in the investment opportunity then please contact us by mailing team@odbody.com. We have some big plans we'd like to share with you and the world.
We really hope you enjoy the site, most of all we hope you discover you've made a difference.
Natasha and Team Odbody
Comments