Technical field The disclosure herein generally relates to an online community hosting system and method for hosting an online community commemorating the life of an individual.

Background

When an individual in the form of a person is approaching the end of their life or dies, friends and relatives of that individual may wish to document the life of the individual by, for example, telling and sharing a life story so that it can be preserved for the benefit of families, friends and communities, and in this way commemorate the life of the individual. Typically those wishing to commemorate a life may merely provide messages of condolence, for example in a condolences book. Consequently, the value of the commemoration may diminish after a funeral, for example. Similarly, a metal health professional may wish to document the life of an individual suffering from dementia, anxiety or depression as a service to aid treatment of the individual. Life story telling is a valuable tool in reducing anxiety and stress whilst building confidence, especially in individuals suffering from dementia. However, a patient does not always have the faculties to recount a life story. The mental health professional may wish to use the documented life of a deceased individual as part of, for example, grief counselling for family and friends of the deceased individual.

A funeral director may wish to document and so commemorate the life of a deceased as part of a funeral offering, or subsequent to a funeral to engage with a family and friends of the deceased. There may be very little between the death of an individual and the funeral in which to document the life of the deceased.

An individual may want to document their own life story to preserve their memory for generations to come or other reasons.

Similarly, it may be desired to document an individual animal in the form of a pet. Those wishing to document a life of an individual, however, are often time poor and are not skilled in the documentation of lives.

Summary

Disclosed herein is an online community hosting system for an online community

commemorating the life of an individual. The system comprises at least one machine having at least one microprocessor, an associated memory, and a network interface providing access to the internet, wherein the memory comprises instructions executable by the at least one

microprocessor. The machine is operable to determine a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual. The machine is operable to, for each of the plurality of life segments, generate life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The machine is operable to generate machine readable information for the electronic display of a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments. The machine is operable to send via the internet the machine readable information to a plurality of remotely-located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community.

In the context of this document, an online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other via the internet, and include but are not limited to online social networks facilitated by an online social networking system, examples of which include FACEBOOK and LENIKEDIN. The individual may be a person, animal, or a thing, examples of which include a building or monument.

In an embodiment, the machine is operable to receive segment age range information indicative of a predefined age range for each of the plurality of life segments and date information indicative of the date of birth of the individual, and determine the plurality of life segment delimiting dates using the date information and the segment age range information so received. The date information may be indicative of date of the individual. The machine may be operable to receive the date information via the internet.

In an embodiment, the generation by the machine of, for each of the plurality of life segments, the life segment information includes replacing with individualised information a plurality of placeholders within non-individualised event related information. The non-individualised event related information may be selected from a plurality of non-individualised event related informations, each of the plurality of non-individualised event related informations being contextualised for an associated life segment of the plurality of life segments. The plurality of non-individualised event related informations may comprise a plurality of non-individualised event related texts. The plurality of non-individualised event related informations may comprise a plurality of non-individualised historical event related information. The non-individualised historical event may be selected by comparing a past location of the individual with the location associated with each of the plurality of non-individualised historical event related informations. The selected non-individualised event related information may be selected using individual information indicative of information about the individual. The individual information may comprise at least one of information indicative of an interest of the individual and information indicative of a personality of the individual. The memory may comprise the plurality of non- individualised event related informations. The machine may be operable to receive the plurality of non-individualised event related informations via the internet, or otherwise, and store the plurality of non-individualised event related informations in the memory.

In an embodiment, the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments is indicative of at least one of text relating to the plurality of events, a plurality of images relating to the plurality of events, and a plurality of videos relating to the plurality of events.

In an embodiment, the machine is operable to generate machine readable information for a machine to generate a representation of a time line comprising the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments.

In an embodiment, the machine readable information is for a machine to electronically display a web page having the representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments.

In an embodiment, the machine is operable to receive from the plurality of remotely located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community via the Internet event information for one of the plurality of life segments and include the event information in the life segment information for the one of the plurality of life segments.

Disclosed herein is an online community hosting system for an online community

commemorating the life of an individual. The system comprises a life segment information generator configured to determine a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual and for each of the plurality of life segments, generate life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The system comprises an incorporation module for generating machine readable information incorporating the life segment information, the machine readable information being for the electronica display of a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments. The system comprises a network interface configured to send via the internet the machine readable information to a plurality of remotely-located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community. In an embodiment, the network interface is configured to receive segment age range information indicative of a predefined age range for each of the plurality of life segments and date information indicative of the date of birth of the individual. The life segment information generator may be configured to determine the plurality of life segment delimiting dates using the date information and the segment age range information so received. The date information may be indicative of the date of death of the individual. The machine may be operable to receive the date information via the internet.

In an embodiment, the generation by the machine of, for each of the plurality of life segments, the life segment information includes replacing with individualised information a plurality of placeholders within non-individualised event related information. The non-individualised event related information may be selected from a plurality of non-individualised event related informations, each of the plurality of non-individualised event related informations being contextualised for an associated life segment of the plurality of life segments. The plurality of non-individualised event related informations may comprise a plurality of non-individualised event related texts. The plurality of non-individualised event related informations may comprise a plurality of non-individualised historical event related informations. The non-individualised historical event may be selected by comparing a past location of the individual with a location associated with each of the plurality of non-individualised historical event related informations. The selected non-individualised event related information may be selected using individual information indicative of information about the individual. The individual information may comprise at least one of information indicative of an interest of the individual and information indicative of a personality of the individual.

An embodiment comprises memory comprising the plurality of non-individualised event related informations. In an embodiment, the network interface is operable to receive the plurality of non-individualised event related information via the internet and store the plurality of non- individualised event related informations in the memory.

In an embodiment, the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments is indicative of at least one of text relating to the plurality of events, a plurality of images relating to the plurality of events, and a plurality of videos relating to the plurality of events. In an embodiment, the incorporation module is configured to generate machine readable information for a machine to generate a representation of a time line comprising the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments.

In an embodiment, the machine readable information is for a machine to electronically display a web page having the representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments.

In an embodiment, the network interface is operable to receive from the plurality of remotely located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community via the Internet event information for one of the plurality of life segments and the life segment information generator is configured to include the event information in the life segment information for the one of the plurality of life segments.

Disclosed herein is a method for hosting an online community commemorating the life of an individual. The method comprises the step determining a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual. The method comprises the step of for each of the plurality of life segments, generating life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The method comprises the step of generating machine readable information for the electronic display of a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments. The method comprises the step of sending via the internet the machine readable information to a plurality of remotely-located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community.

An embodiment comprises the step of receiving segment age range information indicative of a predefined age range for each of the plurality of life segments and date information indicative of the date of birth of the individual.

An embodiment comprises the step of determining the plurality of life segment delimiting dates using the date information and the segment defining information so received.

In an embodiment, the date information is indicative of the date of death of the individual.

In an embodiment, the date information is received via the internet.

In an embodiment, the generation by the machine of, for each of the plurality of life segments, the life segment information includes replacing with individualised information a plurality of placeholders within non-individualised event related information. The non-individualised event related information may be selected from a plurality of non-individualised event related informations, each of the plurality of non-individualised event related informations being contextualised for an associated life segment of the plurality of life segments. The plurality of non-individualised event related informations may comprise a plurality of non-individualised event related texts.

In an embodiment, the plurality of non-individualised event related information comprises a plurality of non-individualised historical event related information.

In an embodiment, the non-individualised historical event is selected by comparing a past location of the individual with the location of each of the plurality of non-individualised historical event related information.

In an embodiment, the selected non-individualised event related information is selected using individual information indicative of information about the individual.

In an embodiment, the individual information comprises at least one of information indicative of an interest of the individual and information indicative of a personality of the individual.

An embodiment comprises the step of retrieving the plurality of non-individualised event related informations from memory.

In an embodiment, the machine is operable to receive the plurality of non-individualised event related informations via the internet and store the plurality of non-individualised event related informations in the memory.

In an embodiment, the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments is indicative of at least one of text relating to the plurality of events, a plurality of images relating to the plurality of events, and a plurality of videos relating to the plurality of events.

An embodiment comprises the step of generating machine readable information for a machine to generate a representation of a time line comprising the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments.

In an embodiment, the machine readable information is for a machine to electronically display a web page having the representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments. In an embodiment the machine is operable to receive from the plurality of remotely located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community via the Internet event information for one of the plurality of life segments and include the event information in the life segment information for the one of the plurality of life segments. Disclosed herein is a method for generating machine readable information documenting a life of an individual. The method comprising the step of segmenting the life into a plurality of life segments each corresponding to a predefined age range. The method comprises the step of generating segment information for each of the plurality of life segments, the segment information being indicative of a plurality of events contemporary with the segment of the plurality of life segments for which the segment information is for. The method comprises the step of incorporating the segment information for each of the plurality of life segments into the machine readable information.

A embodiment comprising the step of receiving segment age range information indicative of a plurality of predefined age ranges and segmenting the life into the plurality of life segments each corresponding to one of the plurality of predefined age ranges.

In an embodiment, the segment information for each of the plurality of life segments is indicative of at least one of text descriptive of the plurality of events, a plurality of images of the plurality of events, and a plurality of videos of the plurality of events.

In an embodiment, the step of generating segment information comprises the step of receiving text information indicative of generic text contextualised for each of the plurality of life segments and comprising a plurality of placeholders for individualising the generic text.

An embodiment comprises the step of replacing each of the plurality of placeholders with individualised text information.

In an embodiment, the individualised text information is received from a database. An embodiment comprises the step of a user generating at least some of the individualised text by interacting with an application executed by a machine in response to a query displayed by the application executed by the machine.

In an embodiment the query is for individualised information. An embodiment comprises the step of selecting the historical text information from a plurality of historical text information alternatives indicative of a plurality of accounts of the historical event contextualised for the plurality of segments.

An embodiment comprises the step of selecting the historical event from a plurality of historical events.

In an embodiment, the step of selecting the historical event comprises the step of using individual information indicative of information about the individual.

In an embodiment, the individual information comprises at least one of information indicative of an interest of the individual and information indicative of a personality of the individual. In an embodiment, the step of selecting the historical event comprises the step of comparing a location of the individual with a location associated with each of the plurality of historical events.

In an embodiment, the machine readable information is indicative of a time line.

An embodiment comprises the step of sending the machine readable information. In an embodiment, the machine readable information comprises web-page information indicative of at least one web page.

Disclosed herein is a system. The system comprises at least one machine having at least one microprocessor, an associated memory, and a network interface providing access to the internet, wherein the memory comprises instructions executable by the at least one microprocessor. The machine is operable to determine a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual. The machine is operable to, for each of the plurality of life segments, generate life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The machine is operable to generate machine readable information for the electronic display of a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments.

Disclosed herein is a method. The method comprises the step of determining a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual. The method comprises the step of, for each of the plurality of life segments, generating life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The method comprises the step of generating machine readable information for the electronic display of a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments.

Any of the various features of each of the above disclosures, and of the various features of the embodiments described below, can be combined as suitable and desired. Brief description of the figures

Embodiments will now be described by way of example only with reference to the

accompanying figures in which:

Figure 1 shows architecture of an embodiment of a system.

Figure 2 shows the system of figure 1 connected via a communications interface to a computer network.

Figure 3 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of a method executable by the system of figure 1.

Figure 4 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method exectuable by another embodiment of a system. Figure 5 is a representation of an example web page that may be used to define life segments of an individual.

Figure 6 is a representation of an example web page the lists historical events stored in a database.

Figure 7 shows a representation of an example of a web page for adding a historical event to the database.

Figure 8 shows a representation of an example of a web page listing non-individualised text stored in the database.

Figure 9 shows a representation of an example of a web page for defining the non- individualised text. Figure 10 shows a representation of an example of a web page.

Figure 11 shows an architecture of another embodiment of a system. Figure 12 shows an example of a timeline.

Description of embodiments

Figure 1 shows architecture of an embodiment of a system, the system being generally indicated by the numeral 10. The system 10 comprises at least one machine 12 that includes at least one microprocessor 13 and associated memory 18,20. The machine 12 has a network interface 22 in the form of an Ethernet card provding access to the internet, however generally any suitable network interface may be used, for example a Wi-Fi module. This but not all embodiments of the system 10 comprises an optional internet router 29 in intermediate communication with the internet and the network interface 22. The memory 18 and/or 20 comprises instructions executable by the at least one microprocessor 13, such that the machine 12 is operable to determine a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual. The machine 12 is operable to, for each of the plurality of life segments, generate life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The machine 12 is operable to generate machine readable information for the electronic display of a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments.

This but not all embodiments of the system 10 is in the form of an online community hosting system for hosting an online community commemorating the life of an individual. In this but not all embodiments, the machine is operable to send via the internet 28, shown in figure 2, the machine readable information to a plurality of remotely-located machines 30, 32, 34, 30 that are each associated with a member of the online community.

The microprocessor 13 may be any suitable microprocessor, such as, or similar to, the INTEL XEON or AMD OPTERON microprocessor connected over a bus 16 to the memory which includes a suitable form of random access memory 18 of around 1GB, or generally any suitable alternative capacity, and a non-volatile memory 20 such as a hard disk drive or solid state nonvolatile memory (e.g. NAND-based FLASH memory) having a capacity of around 2 Tb, or any alternative suitable capacity. Alternative logic devices may be used in place of the

microprocessor 13. Examples of suitable alternative logic devices include application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and digital signal processing units. Some of these embodiments may be entirely hardware based. The machine 12 may include one or more input/output interfaces 26 in the form of, for example, a universal serial bus, thunderbolt interface, PCIe, or generally any suitable input/output interface. In this but not all embodiments the processor 10 supports a human machine interface 24 that comprises in this but not all embodiments a mouse, keyboard, and display, and may comprise additional or alternative human machine interface elements.

The remotely-located machines 30, 32 and 34 that are each associated with a member of the online community may take any suitable form, examples of which include a personal computer, a smart phone and a tablet computer.

The machine 12 is configured to execute the steps of an embodiment of a method. The steps may be coded in a program for instructing the machine 10. The program is, in this embodiment stored in the non-volatile memory 20, but could be stored in FLASH, EPROM or any other form of tangible media within or external of the machine 12. The program generally, but not necessarily, comprises a plurality of software modules that cooperate when installed on the machine so that the steps of the embodiment of the method are performed. The software modules, at least in part, correspond to the steps of the embodiment of the method or components of the system described herein. The functions or components may be

compartmentalised into modules or may be fragmented across several software modules. The software modules may be formed using any suitable language, examples of which include C++ and assembly. The program may take the form of an application program interface or any other suitable software structure.

A flow chart of the steps 42 - 48 of an embodiment of the method 40 performed by the machine 12 is shown in figure 3. A step 42 includes determining a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual. Another step 44 includes the step of for each of the plurality of life segments, generating life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. Another step 46 includes generating machine readable information for a machine to electronically display a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments. Another step 48 includes sending via the internet the machine readable information to a plurality of remotely- located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community.

An alternative embodiment of a system has the same or similar architecture to that shown in

Figure 1, and is configured to perform the steps of an embodiment of a method 50 shown in figure 4. The embodiment of the method of figure 4 will now be described. A step 52 of the method 50 comprises segmenting the life into a plurality of segments each corresponding to a predefined age range. Another step 56 of the method 50 comprises the step of generating segment information for each of the plurality of segments. The segment information is indicative of a plurality of events contemporary with the segment of the plurality of segments for which the segment information is for. Another step 56 of the method 50 comprises the step of incorporating the segment information for each of the plurality of segments into machine readable information.

The alternative embodiments may have a segmenting module for segmenting the life into a plurality of segments each corresponding to a predefined age range. The machine may have a segment information generator for generating segment information for each of the plurality of segments, the segment information being indicative of a plurality of events contemporary with the segment of the plurality of segments for which the segment information is for. The machine may have an incorporation module for incorporating the segment information for each of the plurality of segments into the machine readable information.

Features described herein in relation to the system 10 of figure 1 may, where appropriate, be taken by the alternative embodiment of the system that is configured to perform the steps of the method 50 of figure 4.

The machine 12 provides online tools that at least in part automates the process of documenting a life. The machine 12, in this but not all embodiments, comprises a web server that

communicates with browser applications executed by computational devices 30, 32, 34.

Alternative embodiments may use proprietary web-enabled software installed on the machine 12 and the computational devices 30, 32, 34 or generally any suitable software. Using the machine 12, users, for example administrators and/or members of the online community, can create at least one web page that documents and/or commemorates a life of an individual. The web page may contain stories, memories, occasions, messages, photos and videos in the context of the individuals life. The web page may be viewed by the individual's family, friends, wider social community, or generally any online community that may be defined by member information stored on the system 10. The web server uses PhP, a datastore in the form of a database 31 that may be a relational database having a plurality of related tables (this embodiment for example, has a relational MySQL database), JQuerry, JavaScript and SSS/SAS, and XML technologies, but may use any suitable technology. The machine readable information, in this embodiment, is in the form of the web page information, and is sent by the communications interface 22 via the network 28 to at least one of the computing devices 30, 32, 34 for display of the web page thereby.

The machine readable information may define, for example, a timeline that is used to plot the life of a deceased or living individual. Content can be stored in each of the segments according to when they occurred in the context of an individuals lifetime. Figure 12 shows an example of a screen shot from a web page generated using the machine readable information that includes a timeline 110. Names have been obscured in figure 12 to preserve privacy.

The at least one web page may comprise a timeline for the plurality of segments. The time line may take the form of, for example, an arrangement of text blocks, each text block corresponding to one of the plurality of segments, with the text blocks being in chronological order.

Additionally or alternatively, the web page may present text that is a story of the individual's life. The story is generally, but not necessarily, chronological.

A user, for example an administrator, may use a web browser to segment age range information indicative of a preefined age range for a plurality of life segments. Life segments separate the life of an individual into ages of the individual's life. The segment age range information may comprise, for example, a segment name, a start age and an end age. The user may also, for example, provide via the user interface or over the internet date information that is indicative of the date of birth of the individual and optionally the date of death of the individual (provided that the individual is deceased, however they may not be). The machine 10 is operable to determine the plurality of life segment delimiting dates using the date information and the segment defining information so received.

The system 10 allocates stored events that occurred during the individual's life into the segments. The segment defining information may be stored in the memory 18,20 of the system 10. An example web page shown in figure 5 includes defined segments including

"Childhood", "Adolescence", "Young Adulthood", "Midlife", and "Late Adulthood". While the segments may be defined arbitrarily, in this embodiment the segments are defined as: Childhood (0-12 years), Adolescence (13-19 years), Young Adulthood (20-35 years), Midlife (36-60 years), Late Adulthood (61+ years). The status column indicates the status of the segment within the machine 12. Buttons are provided to initiate editing and/or deletion of a segment definition. Life segmentation allows for system automation of content and also allows users, particularly but not exclusively members of the online community, to plot memories of the individual with greater ease of use than if they were required to remember specific dates of memories and events. This may enhance the effectiveness of generating crowd-sourced content. Uses may also specify a date for an event and the system 10 when executing an embodiment of the method will add the event into the segment having a date range encompassing the event date.

Events may include, for example, an event that the individual participated in, and a historical event that occurred during the life of the individual. When content is added by a user, for example an administrator and/or a member of the online community, via a web browser, for example, the user adding the content may select which life segment the event would belong and the event is subsequently displayed together with other events in that segment. Figure 6 shows an example of a web page listing historical events stored in the database 31 in a historical events table, each event having a historical event record of the database 31. The listed historical events include World War 1, The Great Depression, the Vietnam War, the first moon landing, and 9/11. Fields for each of these historical events include a start year and an end year for the event, the status of the event in the machine 12 and the text describing the event. Figure 7 shows an example of a web page for a user to add a historical event to the database 31 of the machine 12. The web page allows the user to enter the necessary details in the required fields. Images and videos may be added to the articles. Historical articles provide generic content that may be used to populate chronological timelines. The system may populate the segments with historical events, and may filter for historical events that match an interest and/or personality of the individual. The life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments may comprise machine readable information, example of which include but are not limited to, ASCII encoded text, and image files in the form of either of still or moving image files. The image files may have any suitable format, examples of which include but are not limited to Portable Network Graphics (PNG), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Audio Video Interleave (AVI), QuickTime, MPEG-4, for example). The machine may be configured for a user, for example of member of the online community, to apply an image filter to an image, either still or moving. The machine may be configured for a user to apply audio information to the machine readable information for the generation of sound. The sound may be generated when the life story of the individual is displayed to a member of the online community.

Information may be entered via the human-machine interface of the system 10 or another machine via the internet and stored within a database 31. The information stored within the database 31 is used to populate web pages that contain life stories. The database 31 also has predefined content that is both manually entered and sourced from relevant application program interfaces (APIs), for example APIs supplied by media outlets. When a web page is created for an individual by a user, for example an administrator and/or member of the online community, algorithms and code are utilised that match the details entered by the end user with the most appropriate content held within the database 31 and the best matches are subsequently displayed chronologically. This story may be additionally shared via social channels (e.g. facebook) to bring additional users to the page who collaborate and help to build the story further and may become members of the online community.

For example, historical text information descriptive of the Vietnam war, the second world war, the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York may be provided to the system 10. The system 10 may be in communication with a historical articles database or may, as in this embodiment, the database 31 may be configured to store the historical text information that may define key historical happenings that fall within specified date ranges. This database 3 lean be built and populated manually or used to store content via available APIs that house appropriate content. The database 31 provides a historical narrative in a chronological fashion against the context of the individual's life. The database may be configured so that historical articles may be matched to the personality preferences of an individual so that only articles matching the personality of an individual in question will be selected. The content derived from the database 31 are typically used to populate the chronological timeline of the person in question and plotted at the relevant life phase points accordingly. The database 31 may, for example, contain the following fields: title; year start; year end; description; copy; preferences alignment; image; and video. An example of this is: Joe Bloggs is born in 1960 and passes away in 2014. It is defined in the database that Joe has an interest in sports. Joe's timeline may contain an entry from our historical database in the adolescent phase of his timeline that details the famous "rumble in the jungle" boxing match between Mohammad Ali and George Foreman that has occurred in Joe's lifetime.

The historical event is selected from a plurality of historical events stored in the database 31. Individual information indicative of information about the individual may be used to select the historical event. The individual information comprises at least one of information indicative of an interest of the individual and information indicative of a personality of the individual.

Selecting the historical event may comprise the step of comparing a location of the individual with a location of the plurality of historical events.

The historical text information is, in this embodiment, selected from a plurality of historical text information alternatives indicative of a plurality of accounts of the historical event

contextualised for the plurality of life segments. The step of generating life segment information may comprise the step of receiving text information indicative of non-individualised text contextualised for each of the plurality of segments and comprising a plurality of placeholders for individualising the non-individualised text. The historical text information is selected from a plurality of historical text information alternatives indicative of a plurality of accounts of the historical event contextualised for the plurality of segments. Each of the plurality of placeholders may be replaced with individualised text information, to construct a story of the person's life in a historical context. For example, hypothetical individual Joe Bloggs is born in 1960 and passes away in 2014. A sentence may be constructed to describe each phase of Joe's lifetime. This might start with "Joe Bloggs was born in 1960 at the beginning of the Vietnam war with the integration of television into US households accelerating at a rapid pace", having been generated from the non-individualised text "{ FIRST NAME} {LAST NAME} was born in {BIRTH YEAR} at the beginning of the Vietnam war with the integration of television into US house holds accelerating at a rapid pace", having the placeholders {FIRST NAME}, {LAST NAME}, {BIRTH YEAR}. The system 10 may then source sentences for relevant historical happenings relevant to Joe's lifetime but in the context of his life segments. This could mean an additional sentence constructed out of further non-individualised text, for example "As {FIRST NAME} reached young adulthood the world was gripped in the cold war between Russia and the United States". In the present embodiment the system 10 uses preferences to determine which sentences relate most appropriately to which individuals. The database 31 has a story builder component that contains the following fields; start year, end year, life segment, historical article, title, snippet. The sentences generated tell a life story of the individual in an automated way that has historical context both historically and in particular to each life segments. Figure 8 shows a representation of an example web page listing non-individualised text stored in the database 31 in a generic text table. The web page lists non-individualised text contextualised for each of childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, midlife and late adulthood for a plurality of historical events including the moon landing and world war 1. The non-individualised text is tailored to the life segments. Figure 9 shows a representation of an example web page for a user, for example an administrator and/or member of the online community, to define the non- individualised text by entering the required information in fields. The data entered into the form of figure 9 is stored in the database 31.

The individualised text information is received from the database 31. For example, the database 31 may have an individuals table having records for a plurality of individuals. Each record may comprise fields for, for example, the individuals first name, second name, date of birth, interests, and personality, and generally any other information that may be useful. Other tables may include a next of kin table. The information in the records may be used to individualise the non- individualised text. An embodiment comprises the step of a user, generally but not necessarily a member of the online community or funeral director, generating at least some information by interacting with an application executed by a computing device in response to a query displayed by the application executed by the computing device. In one example, the machine 12 sends web page information to a computing device that provides text boxes for entry of individual information for example the individual's name, date of birth and death. That is, the query is for individualised information. The individualised information is stored in the database 31.

In another example, content prompts may be triggered when a user clicks on specific buttons throughout the web site. This may increase user-generated content. Responses to these prompts may be included into the life segment structure of the individual. Figure 10 shows a web page of questions that can be used to prompt users within the process of creating the story. The questions are in the form of non-individualised text with placeholders for individual details. The question having ID 2 and labelled Sporting Team is "Please list the sporting team

{ {first name} } followed", where { {first name} } is a placeholder for the individual's first name that can be replaced with the contents of a first name field in individual's record in the database 31. An example of how this may work as follows. A hypothetical person named Jane Doh visits the page of Joe Bloggs. Jane clicks on the Facebook like button or follow button contained on that page. Jane is met with a popup dialogue asking her in which life segment she met Joe and what her favourite memory is of Joe. Jane says she met Joe when he was a young adult and her favourite memory was the AC/DC concert they attended. A content entry is created on the timeline within Joe's Young Adult life segment stating that Joe met Jane in the Young Adult segment and Jane's favourite memory was meeting Joe at the AC/DC concert.

The segment information for each of the plurality of life segments may be simultaneously updated by the plurality of members of the online community. Figure 11 shows another embodiment of an online community hosting system 100 for an online community commemorating the life of an individual. The system comprises a life segment information generator 102 configured to determine a plurality of delimiting dates that delimit a plurality of life segments of the individual and for each of the plurality of life segments, generate life segment information that is indicative of a plurality of events having an event date between the delimiting dates thereof. The system comprises an incorporation module 104 for generating machine readable information incorporating the life segment information, the machine readable information being for a machine to electronically display a representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments. The system comprises a network interface 106 configured to send via the internet the machine readable information to a plurality of remotely-located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community.

The network interface 106 is configured to receive segment age range information indicative of a predefined age range for each of the plurality of life segments and date information indicative of the date of birth of the individual, and the life segment information generator 102 is configured to determine the plurality of life segment delimiting dates using the date information and the segment defining information so received. The date information may comprise date of death information. The machine 12 may be operable to receive the date information via the internet.

The generation by the system 10 of, for each of the plurality of life segments, the life segment information includes replacing with individualised information a plurality of placeholders within non-individualised event related information (eg. in the form of text) for the life segment information, the non-individualised event related information being selected from a plurality of non-individualised event related informations, each of the plurality of non-individualised event related informations being contextualised for an associated life segment of the plurality of life segments. The plurality of non-individualised event related information comprises a plurality of non-individualised historical event related information. The non-individualised historical event is selected by comparing a past location of the individual with the location of each of the plurality of non-individualised historical event related information. The selected non- individualised event related information is selected using individual information indicative of information about the individual. The individual information comprises at least one of information indicative of an interest of the individual and information indicative of a personality of the individual.

The system 100 comprises memory 108 comprising the plurality of non-individualised event related information. In an embodiment, the network interface is operable to receive the plurality of non-individualised event related information via the internet and store the plurality of non- individualised event related information in the memory.

The life segment information for each of the plurality of life segments is additionally indicative of at least one of a plurality of images relating to the plurality of events, and a plurality of videos relating to the plurality of events. The incorporation module 104 is configured to generate machine readable information for a machine to generate a representation of a time line comprising the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments. The machine readable information is for a machine to electronically display a web page having the representation of the life segment information for each of the plurality of segments.

The network interface 106 is operable to receive from the plurality of remotely located machines that are each associated with a member of the online community via the Internet event information and the life segment information generator is configured to include the event information in the life segment information.

Example

When a user chooses to create a story for a person who is deceased a timeline class script is activated. This class script triggers a sequence of events within the machine 12 that will create a segmented timeline covering the life of the deceased. The user will first enter the name of the deceased, the place of birth, the place of death, date of birth and place of death. When these core details are saved, the web server contacts the database 31 and is tasked with making appropriate matches in the database against the criteria that has been specified.

For example, if the deceased was born in Newcastle, New South Wales on the 22nd April 1921 and passes away on the 22nd April 2015 the timeline class script will do the following:

1 Divide the timeline into life segments that fall within the lifetime of the deceased;

2 Look for content based on the geographical way points indicated at place of birth and place of death;

3 Match historical articles and content held within the database against the dates created by the life segmentation; and

4 Apply the historical articles into the timeline to create a life story.

The timeline class will then trigger a life story telling class. This class will prompt the user with a series of questions and preferences to help further refine and categorise the life story that is being created. An example of this would be the following:

1 The user is asked what interests the deceased may have had and specifies history, art and culture;

2 A call is made to the database to now find historical articles that fall within the confines of geography and time indicated above matching the categories of history, art and culture; and 3 The script will then trigger a series of questions based on these taxonomies.

An example of this might be a question asking what the deceased experienced in the Newcastle Earthquake in 1988.

The information collated will all be added into the life story to create an account. While embodiments have been described with respect to an online community hosting system and method, other embodiments are for:

• documenting the life of an individual, for example documenting the life of an individual for the treatment of a neurological and/or physiological condition;

• documenting the life of a deceased for grief counselling;

an individual documenting their life, for example to preserve their memory for generations to come.

Variations and/or modifications may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Prior art, if any, described herein is not to be taken as an admission that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction.

In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word

"comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" is used in an inclusive sense, that is to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.