Tombstoning

Here's the latest in online memorialisation. Intriguing. I don't know that I've entirely got my head around it, but that's my age (Dr Alzheimer is the wolf at my door).

This is how it works:

MemorialTags was created by David, a retired soldier and family man, and someone with a keen interest in mobile technology and writing.

It was whilst writing his latest novel that David decided he wanted to integrate technology with books. And he achieved this by using two dimensional bar codes that can be scanned with any mobile phone. This meant that while reading a book, a reader can get closer to the action by scanning a ‘tag’ and seeing images, characters, video, music, scene of crimes etc. displayed on their mobile phone.

When writing, David would often go to the small cemetery in his village to tend the grave of his baby son Matthew, who passed away in 2003. It was one of these days that changed his life completely. Whilst sitting quietly looking across the cemetery at all the different gravestones, David wondered who all the people might have been. Did they have families? What kind of jobs did they do? What kind of life did they have? All these questions and many more can never be answered by a single piece of carved stone. Instead, all we can do is try and remember the people we have loved and lost until our memory fails. And, sadly, when that happens, the link to the next generation is lost, as stories about certain characters in families are forgotten.

It was at this point that David decided to utilise his knowledge and technical ability to change this, and create a system that would allow anyone to preserve memories of family, partners, friends.

Research and Development followed with intense testing of materials and technology platforms. And MemorialTags came on the market in 2009.

Find out more at the rather good website here.