Category Archives: Kinzin

Blog Talk Radio: Kinzin Is The Better Choice For Privately Sharing Photos

Last week Blog Talk Radio featured an episode about photography and kids with “Taking Better Pictures of Your Kids”. The show featured Tracey Clark and Kate Inglis from the newly launched site Shutter Sisters, a photo blog full of passion and beauty in imagery and words, giving away their tips and tricks in photography. Inevitably, a question from a listener came up about online privacy and the security of posting pictures of your children online. The show’s host, Kristen Chase, refers to Kinzin as a great choice if you’re looking for a private, niche network, to securely post photos of your kids, saying:

“… there are a bunch of really great private websites out there… called Kinzin.com and they are invitation-only access”.

Kate goes on to mention some of Michael Fergusson’s thoughts on online safety in photography: to say the internet is inherently bad is the same to say that kissing is inherently bad because it can spread disease. True enough. You can listen to the show on Blog Talk Radio in its entirety. (The Kinzin mention comes at about the 22:00 minute mark of the show.)

It’s a pretty good show and has a lot of useful content to share from both the experts in the community, the host and from participating listeners around the Internet.

Websites like Shutter Sisters and Kinzin are those special, niche networks that people are gravitating toward more and more. I’m not tired of Flickr (far from it) or Facebook (god forbid) but quality on the Internet has become more and more apparent and absolutely essential, and these specific spaces online thankfully provide me with a rich user experience.
(xposted from Kinzin Blog, with some add-ons)

Private Family Photo Sharing: Connecting All Your Generations With A New, Refreshing Feel

Posted by Megan on April 17, 2008 No comments

Mail my online social network to my non-computer dad? Every month? For 3 bucks?? Sign me up!

kinzin Kinzin is transforming how families share the most important little people in their lives with the latest launch of Kinzin.com.

Privacy and security online is important to many of us, especially to parents. Kinzin understands this better than anyone and has created an online space for you to share your kids’ photos safely and as private as you deem: you control who gets to see your content. Inviting people to your social network, or rather, subscribing any of your friends or family members into your space, is one of the features that puts Kinzin ahead of other photo-sharing networks.

kinzin There is another quality that is probably the most exciting new feature in this launch: social networks in the mail! For Grandma, who doesn’t have a computer or doesn’t know the first thing about social networks or “online communities”, is now able to be a part of your life online. In just a few clicks (and a truly unbelievable low cost), your family members can receive prints of your top 10 images each month, chosen by you, VIA THE MAIL! All of those headaches or concerns over certain family member’s dial-up, download times and those phone calls we all inevitably receive, “How do I login again?” are out the window. There’s something to be said about “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Kinzin has created a really easy way for anyone you choose to receive the cutest, up-to-date images of your kids through the postal service. I’ve given up trying to teach some of the folks in my parent’s generation (and up) how to enter a URL or surf and search. Sign me up for monthly prints!!

There are some other really neat features that help to create that perfect snapshot in time of your kids. You can add status messages, photo titles and descriptions and the family can comment on photos as well. All of these features are available for each and every image so that every memory can easily be captured and each moment can be put into precise context, not just uploaded as part of an album in a bank of photos.

We all need special tools to be able to share the kinds of private information and experiences about our kids – Kinzin provides this for you in the most perfect package – whether you use Facebook, Flickr, or like Grandma, good ol’ fashioned mail! And let it be known: I ain’t got no kids yet, but I’ve already signed up that non-computer dad of mine to receive my hottest 10 shots every month of my dog – he’ll LOVE it!

Check out Kinzin.com
mostly xposted from the Kinzin blog

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

Posted by Megan on February 28, 2008 No comments

tamk flickr You 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 you, the content creator in your family, will be able to subscribe your grandmother to your 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 your 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. (I use Capo as my kid. No, he doesn’t wear a “jacket” when we go out, and no, he does not have rhinestones on his collar – it’s just fun to play in the space with the latest on what this dog is up to because I, too, want a history of my dog’s life.)

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 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!

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

Posted by Megan on January 28, 2008 2 comments

The 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.

xposted from blog.kinzin.com

All You Parents Out There! Check Out Kinzin’s Latest Application: “These Are My Kids”

Posted by Megan on January 20, 2008 1 comment

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.

Joyent Accelerators Work: Kinzin’s Proof Is In The App

Posted by Megan on November 15, 2007 No comments

This week Joyent announced their new Facebook developers program, Joyent Accelerators. Kinzin is well acquainted with Joyent’s infrastructure – it’s what has made the scalability of the “Are You Normal?” Facebook application manageable and successful. The app has jumped to half a million users in a month, has been one of the top apps on the “Recently Popular” Facebook list (more than once), and continues to add tens of thousands new users every day. Joyent’s full case study and more details on the app can be found here.

Joyent Accelerators is “free, fast and scalable hosting”, as quoted by Facebook Senior Platform Manager, Dave Morin.

Joyent has partnered with Facebook and Dell to deliver this sophisticated, scalable, on-demand infrastructure. For developers, it means a quick and efficient launch of Facebook applications that are capable of scaling to millions of users – FOR FREE.

You can read plenty more about this announcement and partnership on a number of our technologist friends’ tech news sites: Read/Write Web, Innovation Creators, Rootly, Social media today, Information Week.

Thank-you to Kristie Wells, Mark Mayo and the Joyent Team.

Kinzin’s Paul Prescod At Vancouver’s First Facebook Developers Garage

Posted by Megan on October 24, 2007 No comments

xposted from Kinzin’s Blog.

Last night was all about the app.

Vancouver, or more recently referred to as “Techcouver”, held its’ first Facebook Developer Garage event downtown at the Vancouver Film School. The event was completely “sold-out” by over double the capacity of the space, so there wasn’t a seat to be had. Once the Nazi-tech guy made his way from the floor back to the booth for the main event to commence, people began to fill the isles and find space wherever they could. It was a packed house.

There were about 9 Facebook applications in all that were on display over the 3 hours. Each developer, or team of developers, grabbed the spotlight for a 10-minute overview of their respective app and covered any technical aspects worth mentioning and sharing, followed by a brief Q and A for each. David Morin, Senior Platform Manager for Facebook (nice title buddy) was meant to be joining us in the flesh for our inaugural evening, but had to cancel 48 hours in advance due to some “big meeting” at HQ. But he was kind enough to take a few minutes out to appear via Skype Video, as he said a few nice words, opened it up to the floor for some questions, when sadly, the connection was lost.

Paul Prescod, ‘DAD’ at Kinzin, shared the “Are You Normal?” app with the crowd. When he gave the current-users statistics (now over 114K in 3 short weeks), there was a gasp as a hush fell over the room. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. But nonetheless, impressive stuff! Johnny Bufu and Boris Mann wrapped the night with a few words on the open web. Facebook? Open??

There is a complete breakdown of each presentation on the live blog post from Miss 604, and on Roland Tanglao’s Jaiku Channel.

Are You Normal? OVER 30K in 2 Weeks!

Posted by Megan on October 16, 2007 2 comments

Just wrapping week 2 since launch, and “Are You Normal?” is one of the fastest growing Facebook apps cookin’, from this northern hub of “Techcouver”. Recently added is a new, fresh design and more surveys will be added each week.
Kinzin wants to involve the online community and Facebook users, asking for topic suggestions on the quizzes. Here’s the x-post from the Kinzin Blog and how to submit your ideas:

Would you like to write for one of the fastest growing Facebook applications?

We are going to release a new quiz on our “Are You Normal?” application each week, and we’d like to get your brilliant and creatively entertaining input. Here’s the deal:

We regularly post topics to Upcoming Topics on our discussion board on our About Page and on the discussion board of the Kinzin Builders group
You create the quiz, suggesting questions and answers, being as normal, or not so normal, as you like (or you can suggest topics as well…)
We reward you and your creative savvy on our application and LINK to your personal Facebook profile, if that is kosher. If not, just let us know you’d rather remain unlinked.
You become part of this great story and community of a fun time well wasted with friends in this Facebook machine of “Are You Normal?”

Facebook App Are You Normal? Day One: 52% Normal

Posted by Megan on October 3, 2007 No comments

Ok all you weirdos and freaks out there on Facebook – get out there and take the Are You Normal? survey so I can at least seem a *tad* more normal! Please?

Here’s a cool Facebook Application, just launched today, released to the masses, that you should most certainly add and play with. I’ll tell you why you should:

It’s good, clean fun that’s entertaining and all about connecting with those people online you love (and love to poke fun at) the most: your close friends and family.

I’ve had a really great last several weeks. I’ve been working with the Kinzin team here in Vancouver to help market and promote this application, and you know what? It’s an easy thing to talk positively about because of what is at the heart of this App: a company that truly believes in working towards finding positive ways for families to connect online. This application is a quirky and whacky way of doing just that.

I had zero to do with building it, designing it, or even conceptualizing it; wish I had. But I do have a thing or two to do with the tail end of tweaking it, looking at what’s down the road, and spreading it out to the masses… and this is part of that.

And please, if you run into *ANY* issues, bugs, concerns: feedback is very much appreciated and welcomed anytime!!

megancole.org