Have you ever walked out of a family gathering with your head spinning wondering who everyone was and how you were all related? Have you ever left a family function and wondered if you would ever see any of the hundreds of great photos that were taken? For Dean Roy of Atlanta, Ga., this was a recurring dilemma - so he decided to do something about it.

In December of 2007, Roy launched Sharefam.com (www.sharefam.com) to provide a place - Where Families Connect. This free service quickly grew to several hundred families, mostly around Atlanta and Roy’s hometown of New Orleans, La. 

 In the last several years, Web 2.0 has provided Internet users with a multitude of ways to connect with each other. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are the most popular and controversial in the market. Sharefam.com has transformed this technology into a private, safe place for family members to interact. 

“Unlike other social networking sites Sharefam.com maintains a tighter circle of contacts for family members to interact with,” said Richard Shuster of Shuster Solutions, provider of industry leading software that arms parents with the best tools to safeguard their children and themselves. “By focusing on family interactions, rather than allowing anybody to join their network, parents have greater control over who talks to their family members.” 

Sharefam.com accomplishes this by only allowing members to invite their family through specific relationships.  This allows Sharefam.com to manage the network to ensure that members are only interacting with blood-relatives and their current spouses. The site also manages non-traditional families by including step relationships and allowing for a seamless network that blocks former spouses without preventing interactions between children and their unmarried parents. 

“While young people may feel a false sense of popularity by adding large numbers of online friends (in the case of MySpace and Facebook), those connections are often less meaningful, less manageable, and potentially open doors to predation,” Shuster said.

Sharefam.com is centered around the concept of the ‘Dinner Table’. “We chose the Dinner Table concept for two reasons,” Roy said. “First, it was where I came up with the idea for Sharefam.com. We were having Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house and I wanted to take that type of setting and design a site around it. The second reason was because in the United States the dinner table is where families connect, share stories and develop their relationships.” 

The Dinner Table on Sharefam.com is an interactive Flash program that places the member’s immediate family around a Dinner Table graphic. From the Dinner Table, members are able to access their immediate family’s table and profiles. The Dinner Table is one of many characteristics that set Sharefam.com apart from other family Web sites, which typically set up families on a family tree.

“One of the things I did not want to do was make another ancestry site,” Roy said. “Although family trees are interesting to look at in terms of family history, they don’t help present day family members stay connected on a regular basis.”

Shuster also believes letting children use this site will be beneficial to them in the future. “Because the connections are family driven, parents are afforded peace of mind knowing exactly who is connecting with their child,” he said. “Additionally, Sharefam.com creates a venue for children to practice using online tools and skills that will be crucial throughout their lives.”

So how do families connect on Sharefam.com? Currently, the site lets users invite family members into a password-protected network where they can share photos and stories, plan events, post announcements and send messages.
“I’m probably one the least tech-savvy people I know, but as my family’s appointed ‘event planner’ I decided to try using a family Web site that my nephew had suggested, called Sharefam.com, to plan my husband’s 70^th birthday,” said Cathy Andrew, grandmother of six. “It was a huge hit; everyone was able to get involved and help plan all the details through the site. It was so easy to use, and afterwards we were able share our photos and stories with each other in one place that only our family could see.” 

Sharefam.com also recently launched an informational blog called Where Families Connect (www.wherefamiliesconnect.com) – which discusses a wide range of useful topics for families including: parenting, children, education, health, family finances, cooking, youth sports and safety and security online. Where Families Connect shares relevant information with parents while also giving them the ability to share their insight with other readers.

“If you really want to enjoy Sharefam.com you need to invite several family members you don’t get to see a lot. Most people want to stay connected with their families, but don’t have time to visit, call or write letters on a regular basis. Sharefam.com makes it easier because it lets you connect with your entire family all at one time,” Andrews said. “I’ve learned so much about my family and feel like our relationship as a whole grows stronger each day.”

To sign-up for Sharefam.com, go to www.sharefam.com and click on Start Connecting. The site will take you through a tutorial to help you invite family members and start sharing. The sign-up process only takes a couple of minutes, similar to setting up an e-mail account.

For more information check out:

www.Sharefam.com

www.WhereFamiliesConnect.com  

www.ShusterSolutions.com