Archive for the 'These Are My Kids' Category

More Reviews for Kinzin

Wow - a whole series of reviews have come out in the wake of Kinzin’s new photo finishing subscriptions. Here’s a small sampling:

Three Kid Circus says:

For the delivery service alone, Kinzin is going to make me look like a rock star. But the online hub for interested family and friends is really cool, too - and keeps all those (photos from my) “Mommy Weekends” safely segregated.

Pumpkin Products chimes in with:

Kinzin allows you to upload pictures and stories to your page. You can create memory books, journals, family newsletters, and even more, all on Kinzin! But my favorite feature of all, by far, and the one that has initiated a truce of sorts with the grandparents, is that you can sign up for an additional service that mails your best 10 photos from every month to the address/es of your choice(…) No one has anymore excuses for why they don’t have pictures of your children featured prominently on their mantle. Plus, it’ll help out those non-computer literate members of your families (we all have ‘em). Zero effort from you, and voila! You’ve kept everyone up to date!

Modern Mama Marvels loves that the invitation process doesn’t require your relatives to go through a cumbersome sign-up process:

It’s an easy, private photo sharing site that even my most technologically-dumb family members can navigate. I was easily able to share our account with them and they were easily able to (…) view the pictures that we uploaded.

Ebony Mommy surprised her Mom with the Kinzin prints:

I chose a surprise tactic in the actual sending of my pictures just to get my family’s first reaction to receiving the images. Each grandmother was thrilled to get pics of their grandsons- one was so excited she called me immediately gleeful in the surprise of these recent pictures. She stated that while she enjoys getting pictures online having the real tangible photographs is something she really treasures. Getting through the protective layers of wrapping to get the special pictures of her boys made the moment even more exciting. Her strong hint that this is the perfect gift idea for families who live apart from grandchildren and loved ones definitely let’s me know we’ll be using Kinzin again…

It’s wonderful to get some positive feedback. We were a little nervous having the reviewers be the first people in to use the new print functionality, but it seems to have worked just as designed (thanks to the best development team ANYWHERE - I love working with these guys).

Crazy MomCat reviews Kinzin

Crazy MomCat has posted a review of Kinzin today. She starts out by describing her ongoing concerns about privacy, her frustration with existing photo sharing sites that make privacy hard and bombard your visitors with ads for photo finishing services. Then:

“…I think I’ve finally found a solution to all of this. Kinzin is a new site dedicated to protecting your privacy while letting you show family and friends what is new with you and your family.”

That’s great stuff. She loves the new photo “print and mail” service as well, which she uses to keep her Father-in-law up to date with the latest photos of the kids. Thanks, Crazy MomCat. Everything we do, we do for you! :-)

5-Star Reviews For These Are My Kids!

These Are My Kids - New Flickr Integration!We recently added the “Reviews” feature to the These Are My Kids Facebook application page, which enables users to review, comment, endorse or give some constructive feedback on the application. It’s a good place to get some response from the more motivated users in Facebook.

It’s been great to have so many people tell us how much they love “These Are My Kids”. Here’s a sample of a few 5-star reviews:

  • “I love the kids status feature. I tried out a couple of other ‘kids applications’, but this is by far the best one.”
  • “Lovin it.. great app.”
  • “Brilliant!!”
  • “Great application! I’m really enjoying putting my kids pages together and it’s so easy!”
  • “I like that even people that aren’t on the internet will be able to get value from this app!”
  • “I really appreciate that I can import photos from Flickr, as I don’t have time to upload my photos to multiple sites.”


Killer Start-ups recently reviewed the app as well. They also had some nice words stating, “… easy to use and is a great way to chronicle the life of a child as he or she grows up.”. Read the full review and vote for it.
Thank you to those users of the application getting in touch and sharing your good thoughts - good reviews always help, and it’s nice to hear that what we’re building and creating for families to connect online is well received and is exactly what you’ve been waiting for!
You can review These Are My Kids on the application page.

Kinzin’s These Are My Kids Adds Flickr Into The Mix!

tamk flickrYou ask and you shall receive :)

These Are My Kids launched about a month ago, and there isn’t a day that goes by when the team on the back end of things, the crafty Kinzin coders, are not looking for more ways to improve the application for you.

Kinzin is all about connecting family and friends. And not just online, which is why this latest application was created in such a way that the content creator in any family, will be able to subscribe grandmothers to this social network via the post! And people like her, who don’t have a computer or who would rather not play online (or Facebook as well), can be a part of the user’s virtual network.

Some of the more savvy users who use and love These Are My Kids were looking forward to a Flickr upload feature inside the app. So Kinzin has gone and made that possible for you! You can now browse your photos from Flickr, your Facebook albums or your own computer. You can bring all of your Flickr Sets right into the application, and they will remain there, adding to your bank of photos to choose from when uploading an image into your kids’ pages. When you create more sets in your Flickr profile, you can refresh your Flickr sets in These Are My Kids with a click of a button.

This was a pretty vital step and one that was intended from the onset in building this application. For people like me, I have been using Flickr for a few years and have almost 100 sets and 4000 photos, so this feature was one that I am very happy to be able to use.

These Are My Kids is the tool that makes capturing your kids’ lives and recording their history a snap. Kinzin’s goal has always been to enable you, the user, to do this with great ease and in a seamless process. By tapping into networks like Flickr and Facebook, Kinzin makes life a little easier and saves you a little time, something the Kinzin family knows we all need a little more of!

KINZIN TV

cbcBig day across the airwaves for Kinzin. Tonight, the CBC is airing a story about online privacy and security in the wake of the MySpace breach. Michael Fergusson is featured in the story with his take on social networking and the privacy issue, and speaks in reference to Kinzin’s latest application These Are My Kids. Catch the story airing on CBC local Vancouver news tonight at 6pm. (Thanks to Tod for sending them this way!)

lab logoSticking with TV Fame, Episode 140 of The Lab With Leo Laporte airs today on G4 Tech TV in Canada (The How-To Channel in Australia). Michael does a segment with Leo, talking about designing and building applications in the era of social networking. That interview will be made available on The Lab website after it airs on television.

From “Launch” to “Garage”, techy event speaking.

Kinzin "These Are My Kids" at Launch Party VancouverThe Kinzin team spent the better part of their Friday evening at Launch Party Vancouver 03, showing off the application These Are My Kids. If you haven’t read or heard what this latest app is all about, please read more here.

It was a fantastic evening, to say the least. Michael, Frank, Julie and Paul held court all night to the many new fans wanting to find out more, take a look at the interface and have a spin for themselves. We are extremely grateful for the interest and enthusiasm for These Are My Kids from those of you who attended, and we very much appreciate the time that each person gave to learn more about it. It is an incredibly rewarding feeling to have such a great tech community come to such an event and to support the work that is being produced. It was inspiring and exciting.

A quick, but very necessary thank-you to the organizers of LPV: Maura, Danny, Dimitri; and to the sponsors as well: Sun Microsystems, Strutta, Techvibes, Layer7, QC Docs and Growthworks. This event is a treat. Looking forward to the next.

And onto the next…

Monday night, Michael Fergusson will be at the Vancouver Facebook Garage Event at the Vancouver Film School. There may just be a little room left on the event page, so add your name and come check out Vancouver’s newest and hottest Facebook applications. There are amazing things happening in this city, and this event shows off the best of what’s being developed for Facebook, and beyond…

And if you can’t make it out, just follow along on Miss 604’s live blogging rendition, and watch the night unfold before your very own monitor-watching, live-streaming eyes. :)

Kinzin at Launch Party Vancouver 03

TAMKKinzin will be showcasing their latest application, “These Are My Kids”, at the third installment of Launch Party Vancouver this week. Sun Microsystems, one of the key sponsors of this event, will be unleashing their Start-Up Essentials program, and Kinzin has a neat connection to Sun as well: Joyent, Kinzin’s first choice for an application infrastructure, uses the Sun Fire X4500 server. Michael Fergusson will be there to hold court at the Lamplighter Pub in Gastown, along with a few other Kinzin team members. Launch Party is a great chance for local technologists, community builders, investors and sponsors to all gather to meet one another and discover more about the great technology produced in Vancouver.

“These Are My Kids” is launching next week and we’re excited for parents to discover the application that solves many of those problems that often come with posting photos and updates of your kids for the loved ones who want to watch them grow. Read more about the application and its features.

If you’re in Vancouver, come down to the Lamplighter between 5:30 - 8:30 this Friday and meet the many companies and technology builders in Vancouver that will be there to show their work, meet new people, and have a lot of fun!

Introducing “These Are My Kids”: Beta

These Are My Kids Beta

Kinzin’s newest application, “These Are My Kids”, is ready. Almost. The latest app from Kinzin is currently in the Beta phase, soon to make the leap to full launch. The app is quite stunning as-is in every way, in design and technology - it’s easy, efficient, creative, useful, private and fun - but we’d like to perfect it, so we need your help and your feedback.

A Little Bit About The Application “These Are My Kids”:

In a few points, or less, here’s what the app is all about:

  • Resolves all of your photo headaches and problems of multiple publishing networks and accounts - it’s an all-in-one!
  • Easy access to your personal photos by invite only - no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle for the end user (your defined friends)
  • It’s Private - Only those friends explicitly invited to view your photo books will be able to see your content
  • You’re creating beautiful photographic books of your children’s lives to keep forever (soon to be available to print as well!)
  • Photos and Comments are delivered to all of your loved ones with the greatest ease, inside of outside of Facebook, and even in the mail (coming soon!)

Add “These Are My Kids” here and let us know what you think! You can comment within the application (there is a prompt along the top of the app), or join the Beta Testers Group for the app and comment in the Discussion Board. You can of course comment here as well.




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