Connecting with family when you can’t be there in person

Like the song says, "there’s no place like home for the holidays." But when time, geography or financial constraints keep you from being with family, a little old-fashioned imagination combined with some of today’s technological conveniences can keep you connected and make you feel … almost as if you’re there.

According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Modern Woodmen of America, well over half of Americans utilize the Internet for communicating via e-mails and passing along photos. And, while only one in six have created a family Web site, nearly 40 percent of us are interested in the possibility. Family Web sites, instant messaging and digital cameras including, digital camcorders and Web cams, are quickly taking their place among the telephone and postal service as popular methods for communicating from afar.

Web sites – an exciting answer to sharing news

For the Kiechle family of Valbonne, France, the family Web site plays an important role in maintaining connections with family and friends in the United States.

"When we first moved here [France], all our relatives, friends, and acquaintances went
into mild shock, wondering what in the world we were doing," comments Daniel Kiechle, who created his family Web site in 1995, five years after his job transplanted him, his wife and two sons from Huntington, Long Island. "The responses have been great. Grandma even learned how to use a Mac and subscribed to Earthlink when she found out that this enabled her to receive photos of her grandchildren the day they were taken!"

According to Joshua Weinberg, spokesperson for Homestead Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif., company, which was rated No. 1 for family Web site design by "PC Magazine" in 2001, the tendency for today’s families to live long distances from one another and the "busy-ness" of our lives has people turning to new solutions for staying in touch and significantly boosted the use of personal Web sites.

"The Internet is important today because we don’t all live in the same place, and, even if we live only 20 minutes apart, people have busy lives," stresses Weinberg. "Despite those obstacles, we want to continue to share our lives – both the special moments and the everyday ones – with those important to us."

"We have come to realize that people build Web sites not to create new communities, but to communicate with communities they already have, such as their families," he adds. "Many Web sites, today, are all about personal expression, from photos to artwork to poetry and journals. Children, in particular, find the Internet exciting. Now they don’t just bring their artwork home and hang it on the fridge, mom or dad scans it in and they can see it on their Web page for grandpa and grandma and all the rest of their family to enjoy.

While software for creating Web sites from scratch is available, for most people a more convenient and affordable route can be found. Hosting sites, such as www.MyFamily.com, are free and enable you to have your site up and running in a matter of hours. The best bet may be to hire companies such as Homestead Inc. (www.homestead.com), which provide a happy medium between the do-it-all-yourself software and the cookie-cutter templates of the free sites. These companies provide easy-to-use, flexible Web design software, as well as the host space. Most customers begin with the site starter package, and as they gain more confidence in their abilities, eventually use the advanced editing tools that allow them to retoo