New site Odbody lets you create a "lifepath"

238 odbody 3.jpgA new website wants to help you create your “lifepath” online.

Inspired by the film “It’s A Wonderful Life“, and by the founder’s grandmother, the site Odbody lets you record what has happened to you. In a similar way to Twitter, Odbody gets you to create a personal timeline – but it suggests you focus on the events in your life that were of historical significance rather than everyday trivia.

In their mission statement, site creator Natasha writes:

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.

So… this site aims to record the substance of a person’s life in a format they call a lifepath.

How To:
Join up, create a profile, then create a life path by adding things that have influenced you. According to the drop-down menu these things can be events or people or websites or animals. I did one about my hamster. It was called Nelson.

In another genius set of drop-down menu options you rate the effect this event/person/website/animal had on your life as: Ordinary, Memorable, Inspiring or Life-changing, then describe whether that effect was positive, negative or neutral.
238 odbody.jpg

I love this classification system. I think my hamster had a memorable positive influence.
You then describe the event in more detail and have opportunity to notify your friends on or off Odbody about your post.

Event recording is linked in to an interesting find functionality, which lets you describe a person connected to the event you mentioned and then asks you to describe them. I guess the theory is that eventually they find this story about them on Odbody and get in touch with you.

My guess is that if you were a teacher in the 80s you should check this out, because you’re the sort of person most likely to be on this.

Conclusion
I like the idea of Odbody, I think it could potentially be a useful place of record and reference. Though, perhaps because I’m so used to random frivolous oddities on the internet I find it a bit funny when people try to get serious on it. Can a diagram with a pram and pawprints really sum up your life? Well, if it can, this is what my life looks like:
238 odbody 2.jpg

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Anna Leach

One thought on “New site Odbody lets you create a "lifepath"”

  • Thanks so much for your review Anna. It’s early days for us so we appreciate all the feedback. Glad you like the categories, we think there’s still a couple to add along the way but I’m sure users will tell us what they need. Your view on the lifepath graphics is also really interesting. When we built the lifepath we were trying to find ways that made it quick to load and not reliant on flash. Our hope for the future is that the lifepath can become a little mote interactive, but by building it this way we hope to introduce different styles for each user to choose their style. That way it represents the person better.
    As I mentioned it’s early days for us, we’re still finding our feet, but we’re really excited for the future. Thanks once again.
    Tash

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