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Obituaries are getting an online makeover.

Blogs of everyday life have become ubiquitous. Now, blogs are blossoming about friends and family who've died.
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An Evanston company, Legacy.com, takes the business in a different direction by posting newspaper obituaries online.

Legacy's latest innovation will roll out today -- the ability for family and friends to post music, photos, voice recordings and text messages about the deceased on the Legacy.com Web site. The service costs $29, and the tribute is meant to stay online indefinitely.

The new service, called "Moving Tributes," allows users to do the following: Post photos from their own PCs onto the tribute, choose from a selection of music to accompany the photos, record a voice message by calling into Legacy.com's voice-mail system and/or type a text message.

Legacy currently allows families and friends to sign and write messages in online guest books, and the postings stay online for periods varying from one month to one year, depending upon the policy of each newspaper. (Legacy posts online obituaries for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily Southtown, both owned by Hollinger International.)

Families of servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghan-istan have been able to post the multimedia tributes since February.

The tributes have no video capabilities, but that could be an option in the future, said John Bikus, Legacy.com's chief marketing and sales officer.

"The purpose is to celebrate a person's life. It's a very emotional experience," Bikus said.

One caveat: Legacy.com omits politically tinged comments about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "If the comments are in the [deceased's] words, it would be evaluated in the context of all the information submitted," Bikus said.

Likewise, Legacy screeners read comments posted to deceased people's guest books, and screen out inappropriate content.

Legacy President and CEO Stopher Bartol spearheaded the company's startup seven years ago with venture capital totaling $9 million, including an investment from Tribune Ventures.

Legacy charges newspapers to host the online obituaries, which are searchable. Rivals range from Lifefiles.com, to sites that work directly with funeral homes, to personal blogs, such as www.MessagesOf.com, which allows postings of text and photos.

Despite the competition, Legacy.com has grown to 50 employees with about $5 million in yearly revenue from 10 employees and a loss four years ago. The current staff includes six tech team members who work in Naperville.

One fan is Lynn Lenker, mother of Marine Cpl. Christopher W. Belchik, who was killed by a roadside bomb Aug. 22 in Iraq at age 30. Cpl. Belchik won two Bronze Stars for his bravery and leadership: One for spotting a daisy chain of artillery rounds and, in so doing, keeping his squad out of harm's way, and the other for leading a charge against the enemy that enabled a pinned-down squad to run to safety.

Lenker and her husband, Jim, wanted to demonstrate what a champion Cpl. Belchik was for others. "Since he was a kid, he took up for the underdog. He was fearless," Lynn Lenker said of her youngest son.

Cpl. Belchik, of Godfrey, Ill., got his GED and lost 30 pounds in five weeks in order to join the Marines four years ago.

Said his mother, "Legacy.com has touched our lives, to be able to ask people to go to the site and look not just at Christopher's tribute, but at all of them."

Key components of a successful recovery plan

What does a disaster-recovery and business-continuity plan include?

"Many companies have some elements for a minimal disaster recovery plan in place, but typically they don't have them all," said Tim de Lisle, managing principal of Corigelan, the Chicago disaster recovery consulting company.

He said the basic points companies must cover include:

• An alternate facility in case of a disruption by a disaster, such as a hurricane or terrorist attack.
• Similar computing technology to that at the company's home available at the alternate site.
• Recently backed-up data stored off-site.
• A network to "re-connect" employees, vendors and suppliers to the recovery site.
• A team leader and staff assigned to go to the alternate site to restore computer systems, business processes, applications and connect people to the network.
• Established procedures that detail how to restore a database, re-establish network connections or configure a router.

De Lisle added: "I would also argue that testing your plan is vital."

Copyright © 2005. Chicago Sun-Times.