The notes in this collection explore the concept of a private, online space to be used as a family archive and for family communication. The motivations for this and the purposes that flow from these are described here. The design concept is outlined below.

The family archive uses the metaphor of the building in which it might be held if it were a physical archive.

Current assumptions are (1) that members of the extended family will form an unincorporated association and (2) that the association will fund a small company to handle contracts for the technical infrastructure; each of these has an 'office' within the building.

The 'meeting room' will contain a social network similar to the original Facebook concept. The 'family tree' room will be a research centre with links out to a genealogy site; a further assumption is that this will be WikiTree which, at first sight, looks tailor-made for our purpose.