Kinzin chosen as a finalist for “Excellence in Social Media Applications”

Published by
Michael (23%) Fergusson
June 9, 2008 in About Kinzin, Awards, Blog, Community, Family, Kinzin, Media, Private Family Photo Sharing and Team. 0 Comments

Kinzin has been chosen as one of the three finalists for a Canadian New Media Award: “Excellence in Social Media Applications”! I’m thrilled that the selection committee has chosen Kinzin, and proud to be mentioned together with the other finalists. The team here at Kinzin is working hard to produce fun and safe social networking environments for parents and families, and it’s great to get them some well-deserved recognition.

Also, a big thanks needs to go out to our customers, who have put us among the fastest-growing community sites anywhere. Everything we do, we do for you. :-)

More Reviews for Kinzin

Published by
Michael (23%) Fergusson
May 13, 2008 in About Kinzin, Application, Blog, Community, Design, Developer, Everything photo, Facebook, Family, Kinzin, Private Family Photo Sharing, Review, Team, Technology and These Are My Kids. 0 Comments

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

Published by
Michael (23%) Fergusson
May 2, 2008 in Blog, Community, Facebook, Family, Family activities, Kinzin, Privacy, Private Family Photo Sharing, Review, These Are My Kids, Uncategorized and Vancouver. 0 Comments

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! :-)

Sending Mom Your Favourite Photos of the Grandchildren For Mother’s Day

Published by
Megan Cole
April 29, 2008 in Family, Kinzin and Private Family Photo Sharing. 0 Comments

First BirthdayMany families seem to be living further apart more than ever. The world is smaller, travel is less of an issue and many young people seek adventure and opportunity, which quite often leads us away from our families. A lot of us end up missing out on some momentous occasions.

With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, and the quick fix idea of a flowers delivery has been used, abused and grown tiresome and unoriginal, how about the latest pictures of the kids in the mail?

Kinzin’s automated print delivery service is a great way to send The Proud Grandmother your favourite updated pictures of the kids. And who doesn’t prefer to receive mail rather than an email attachment, especially on Mother’s Day!

Sign up and upload your kids’ photos on Kinzin.com. You can upload images from your own computer, or you can import your photo albums from your Facebook account or from Flickr too. Once you have a few photos collected in the space, subscribe your mom with her mailing address. For just $3 a month ($4 in Canada) you can quickly and easily send her 10 photos of your choice. It’s more personal and most moms would love it. By subscribing her through the mail in Kinzin, you can continue to add photos into your stream and every month she will receive 10 new photos in the mail!

Kinzin wants to connect the whole family, online and off, through every generation, providing you with a private way to share photos with your loved ones. Sign up with Kinzin today!

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

Published by
Megan Cole
April 23, 2008 in Kinzin, Michael Fergusson, Private Family Photo Sharing and Technology. 0 Comments

Listen to Motherhood Uncensored on internet talk radioLast 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 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.)

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

Published by
Megan Cole
April 16, 2008 in About Kinzin, Between the generations, Community, Family, Kinzin, Privacy and Private Family Photo Sharing. 0 Comments

kinzinKinzin 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.

kinzinThere 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!

Check out Kinzin.com

5-Star Reviews For These Are My Kids!

Published by
Megan Cole
March 9, 2008 in Application, Kinzin, Review and These Are My Kids. 0 Comments

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.

CBC Television Interview With Kinzin’s Michael Fergusson

Published by
Megan Cole
March 3, 2008 in Application, CBC, Community, Facebook, Kinzin, Michael Fergusson and Vancouver. 0 Comments

A few weeks back, Michael Fergusson was interviewed in a 6 o’clock Vancouver news piece on the MySpace security breach. Watch the clip here, from the comforts of your own computer screen:

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

Published by
Megan Cole
February 28, 2008 in Application, Kinzin and These Are My Kids. 0 Comments

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

Published by
Megan Cole
January 30, 2008 in CBC, Family, Kinzin, Leo Laporte, Privacy, TV, Television, The Lab, These Are My Kids and Vancouver. 0 Comments

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.

« Previous Entries

Join Kinzin Button

Latest

RSS