How to make your own Who Do You Think You Are shows by using these online tools

What IS online story telling? I know I’ve heard it used for the past 3 to 4 years, but what exactly is it? I know when I think of story telling, I think of when I was a kid sitting in the library listening with many others to someone reading us a story. Now is online story telling the same? In a way it is, but its online. I believe with the popularity of Who Do You Think You Are, Finding Your Roots and Genealogy Roadshow (just to name a few!) shows are bringing us to find out more about us and who we descend from. To me, this is the story telling many people are now thinking of.

There are many ways you can tell stories to others. These can include, but not limit themselves to, audio, video, combination of these, and written word. Yes, you can do these online, but did you know there’s a new area of the net where there are now tools to make it easier for you to do these things?

A few are:

YouTube – through using various capture programs, you can then post it to your account and share it.

Meographs – These are ways to include voice, pictures, written text using this companies free online tool. To see my example, click on my meograph.

Ancestor Cloud – A place to put audio, visual and share the information all in one spot. However this is still in beta format.

Cowbird – I’ve only recently found this one. Apparently, its one where you can use pictures and audio to tell stories plus share them online.

Jonathan Harris: Cowbird And Humanizing The Web from Piers Fawkes on Vimeo.

Storify – for social media gathering of information.

Storybird – you get pictures and you write the story.

Microsoft Photo Story 3 – I’ve never used this one, but some seem to like it for audio, video and pictures.

Animoto – I’ve never used this, but seems to be easy and free to a point for audio, video and pictures.

Update:

A reader, Ian, has let me know there is another story telling function out there – “there is now a free service from the makers of the show & findmypast which lets you do exactly this: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarestory.com/”

I have looked at this late last night and seems like it would be fun. Although I’m wondering if you could put voice and video in or if its just words and pictures. Have a play and see what you think!

Plus the many blogging sites!