Besides the obvious anticipated use by individuals, the app can be used by groups in a coordinated effort. As an example, a rabbi in Omaha is organizing youth events before Rosh Hashanah to completely map all the Jewish cemeteries in Omaha.
They want people to use the app and give them feedback, positive or negative. The free iPhone app is currently available for download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/restingspot/id455237705?mt=8.
An Android app is to be available shortly.
They have Twitter and Facebook pages so users can be updated on new features, etc.
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RestingSpot/217684168263834
Twitter page: http://twitter.com/restingspot
Web Site: http://www.RestingSpot.com/
If a cemetery is not currently in the database, the service will still work. Mark a RestingSpot in that cemetery and send them an e-mail. They'll add the cemetery to the database.
Project RestingSpot's goal is to map every resting spot in the United States by Memorial Day 2013. They are looking for team leaders and volunteers to help them achieve that goal.
I love this sort of stuff when people use technology to help people instead of just making another time waster. This sounds like a wonderful idea.
ReplyDeleteI went to the site and got answers to some of my questions about this app in the help/FAQ section. One thing I hope is that there will be a way to add comments to your GPS tag of a spot. I've gone Geocaching in the past, and often a GPS tag isn't enough to get you to the exact spot. A few sentences of explanation ("12 markers SSW of the large oak tree" or "you can see the pillar from the road - it's 3 graves past that...") would be helpful.
When I was finding family graves, my brother Stan(who died as an infant) did not have any sort of grave marker. The wonderful curator of the cemetery came out with me and had site's paperwork with him, and we found the spot. My parents, a young married couple who had just moved into a new job, and Mom had given birth to preemie twins. I learned that the grave had been paid for by someone else - and the curator speculated that perhaps my parents couldn't afford a grave marker at the time, which makes sense. My dad was a pastor, typically not a high-paying job, and my brother who lived was in the hospital for a few months. A grave marker would have been an extravagance at that point. When I spoke to my 80-year old mother about it, she remembered that they didn't get a marker for Stan and then just sort of left that stay as is.
Being able to put up the factoid that there is no grave marker, along with some sort of explanation, would be wonderful for a site like this. I can see this really taking off. Especially if young Mormons take on projects like these as their missionary work. Thanks for this link.
I'm sorry to hear about your brother who died so young. One of the benefits of RestingSpot definitely appears to be the combination of the online memorial, where you also might be able to include the kind of information you've mentioned, with the GPS coordinates, which are particularly important where there is no grave marker. This could become a wonderful resource for a lot of people.
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ReplyDeleteJanice, thank you very much for the blog post.
ReplyDeleteCarol, that's a good suggestion. We designed the mobile apps to implement GPS to guide you right to the RestingSpot, but it does make it difficult if there's no physical marker to ultimately search for. A 'notes about Restingspot' feature might be something to discuss.
Great feedback, thank you!
The word is getting around about Project RestingSpot, at least in Brett's home town of Omaha: http://www.jewishomaha.org/page.aspx?id=245904
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