I’m excited to share that we were named a finalist for a Illinois Technology Association CityLights Award in the Newcomer category!  Here’s the press release.  Voting is open to all Illinois technology companies and executives, as well as CityLights attendees, until April 8th at 11:59pm.  The event happens on April 23rd.  So vote for LifeSnapz now!

Cushing Community School

Recently I’ve blogged about different ways people are using LifeSnapz in their businesses.  I blogged about a marketing services company that uses LifeSnapz as a content and project management tool and a film production company that is using LifeSnapz to catalogue and track filming locations, costs and vendors.

Today, LifeSnapz is going to school… kindergarten to be exact.

Beth Vickery, a kindergarten teacher at Cushing Community School in Cushing, Maine is building timelines with her students using LifeSnapz.  Here is the interview with Beth on how she is using LifeSnapz.

LifeSnapz: Please provide a description of the task for which you are using LifeSnapz.

Beth Vickery: My kindergarten is building a timeline.  The project was inspired by my students’ line of inquiry during a presentation by our French teacher about castles.  The students wanted to know how long ago the castles were built and how that related to other events from history. (The voyage of the Mayflower, life of Martin Luther King, Jr., Abe Lincoln, etc.).  The project is snowballing to include a wide range of topics from how long our town’s general store has been in operation to how long a squirrel stayed on our feeder to when Legos were invented.

LS: How many people does your group consist of?  What type of people are using/accessing the site (adults, kids, web-savvy, non-web savvy, etc.)

BV: The group currently has 13 members in all: 4 full members and 9 view only members.  The full members include me, my education technician, our librarian, and my husband.  I hope to get a member of our town historical society to become a full member, too.  The view only members include parents of current students, past students from ranging in age from 12 to 20, and other school personnel.

The group members range from avid web users to those who have never participated in a web 2.0 environment (social networking, blogging, etc.).  I am hoping to start posting my students’ writing to this project soon, but I’ll have to do the posting for all but one or two of them.

LS: How hard was it for the others to get up to speed on using LifeSnapz?

BV: People seem to feel comfortable posting content to the site right away.

LS: How hard was it to convince others that LifeSnapz would be useful?

BV: Most people think this project is pretty neat and are impressed that kindergarten kids are into this kind of a project.

LS: Were you surprised by anything in your group’s use of LifeSnapz?

BV: I am not really surprised, and I’m pleased at how Lifesnapz helps my students see history in context and increases their higher level thinking.  My students have an understanding of time and history that I’d not observed in this age group prior to using Lifesnapz.  It also helps them connect historical events in new ways.

LS: How did you discover LifeSnapz?

BV: I did a Google search specifically looking for a time line tool that would include maps.  (After the aforementioned castle presentation.)

LS: Why do you like LifeSnapz for performing this project?  Any particular features that stand out to you?

BV: My class is really enjoying our project, and it is a great way to weave a classroom full of unique interests into a group project.  I like that we can seamlessly combine mapping, pictures, video, and commentary to the recording of an event.

I like that we can look at time in a variety of spans from century to 12 hours.  When we had a squirrel on our bird feeder for “a long time” my students could easily see that was a different kind of long time than how long our general store has been in business.

I also like the way my students can see how events relate to one another.  (Our store opened in Abe Lincoln’s life time, for example.).  It’s also nice to be able to look at events by location on the map feature, and I like that I can tag events and toggle between different time spans.

Finally, it’s great to have a choice of how to view the information we post, and I really appreciate the automatic email alerts when there is activity in my group.

LS: Had you used anything else to accomplish your task prior to using LifeSnapz?  If so, what did you like or dislike about the alternative solution?  If not, did you consider anything else?

BV: The other programs I looked at did not include mapping.  Lifesnapz sowed up pretty early in my search and seemed to fit the bill.  I have not tried this sort of a project before as it is supposed to be beyond the grasp of six year olds to understand time like this.  Lifesnapz does for time what Google Earth does for place.  Google Earth has made mapping less abstract and more accessible to very young children, and Lifesnapz seems to be doing this with time.

LS: OK, it sounds like you’d give LifeSnapz a passing grade.  The site can’t be perfect.  What would you improve on LifeSnapz?

BV: In one respect, I like having control over who is in the group and who contributes, but I wish it was easier for people to just view the information.  I think visitors to my wiki may not bother to look at this project because they must register to become part of my group.  I wish the timeline would extend to BC…for example, my class would like to include the invention/discovery of Pi on our timeline.  Also, it would be great to be able to move from an event to exactly that point on the timeline without having to scroll through time.  It would also be nice to be able to color code the lines based on tags.  We embed Voki talking avatars into our wiki and use voice thread to create other projects.  It would be really neat to be able to leave audio comments in Lifesnapz, too.

For the most part, though, Lifesnapz was exactly what I was looking for to help with this project.

LS: Thanks for your feedbak.  Anything else you’d like to say?

BV: Stay tuned…we’re just getting started with this project and we seem to be gaining momentum!  I may be presenting at my state technology conference for educators next year.  Maybe I’ll present about this project and your site.  I haven’t seen anyone else bring this kind of a project to that convention.

Thanks Beth for using LifeSnapz and for including the site in your class.  We’re thrilled that we can help with your lessons.

Are you using LifeSnapz in a unique way?  We’d love to hear from you.  Let us know at feedback@lifesnapz.com.

The five tips in the article are:
1. Keep it simple
2. Openings and closings are important
3. Be mindful of your story’s spine
4. Make sure not to alienate your audience
5. Tell the truth

You can read the whole article here.

The author says:

As parents cut budgets, many are finding family stories have surprising power to help children through hard times. Storytelling experts say the phenomenon reflects a growing national interest in telling tales, evidenced by a rise in storytelling events and festivals. New research bears out the value of family stories, linking teens’ knowledge of them to better behavior and mental health.

An Emory University study of 65 families with children ages 14 to 16 found kids’ ability to retell parents’ stories was linked to a lower rate of depression and anxiety and less acting-out of frustration or anger, says Robyn Fivush, a psychology professor. Knowing family stories “helps children put their own experience in perspective,” Dr. Fivush says.

Stories resonate with kids, and they definitely remember them.  About four months ago, my mom told my six-year old daughter a story from 30+ years ago about the time we got our dog Pepper, and how Pepper first showed up on our doorstep during a cold and snowy winter night.  We don’t know how Pepper got there.  (My daughter has been wanting a dog for the past 3 years, with no success).  Last week, during one of our many recent cold nights, my daughter said, “Maybe a dog like Pepper will show up for us tonight.”  This was the first time in since my mom told her that story that she mentioned it, so clearly it made an impression on her and something triggered the memory.

During these tough economic times, it is especially important to focus on what’s really important – family members and close relationships.  Be sure to record and tell (and re-tell) the stories that keep the family memories alive, so that the younger generations can learn from them and future generations will carry them on.

This month, we were contacted by a video production company that is using LifeSnapz in their business to track and catalogue film locations.  This company shoots on location between 4 – 8 times per week, and the locations are typically various businesses and homes.  Below is their case study as answered by Barbara M., Production Manager.  (Note: the company asked to stay anonymous due to competitive reasons).

How is your company using LifeSnapz?

We are using LifeSnapz as a database of our available video shooting locations.  Each location where filming takes place, whether it is a condo, home or business is an “Event”.  LifeSnapz enables us to fill in all necessary information related to the location: exact address of location, contact information, a full description of the location, the date(s) that filming took place, pictures of the location, and tags of the location.  We also record and track the amount paid for the filming.

Who is using LifeSnapz at your company?

Other producers are using LifeSnapz, and they are using LifeSnapz to upload new locations and search and compare across locations.  Executives tap into LifeSnapz in order to review, comment on, and approve locations.  They also use LifeSnapz to help them find an appropriate location for a specific need.

How did you discover LifeSnapz?

I recall searching on Google for a program or system with your capabilities.  I cannot recall the keywords that I used, but it ranged along the lines of “Database” or “Content Management.”

Why do you like LifeSnapz for performing your tasks?  Any particular features that stand out to you?

I am particularly happy with the site’s overall ease of use.  Another feature that has become rather useful, which I had not thought of until I started using Lifesnapz, is the “Discussion” feature.  Each time we use a location we update the “Discussion” with the date, shoot and rate paid.  This becomes part of the location’s history, and we can use this information when the location is being considered again.

Had you used anything else to accomplish this task prior to using LifeSnapz?  If so, what did you like or dislike about the alternative solutions?

I have not tried another program other than LifeSnapz for this use.  For a different company, we used a content management system for which I cannot recall the name.  However, I do remember that we could not add pictures to this system, so I started searching for something with similar capabilities that could handle photos.

Thank you Barbara for using LifeSnapz and for providing your feedback.

If you are using LifeSnapz (either as an individual or a business) and you have some feedback or a story to share, please let us know at feedback@lifesnapz.com – we love to hear from our users!

Be sure to use it prior to March 31!

Livemint.com recently published an article about the steps to take to get a family together online. All of the author’s suggestions are excellent, however he recommends a variety of sites as solutions for each particular step in the process. I believe that this is too complicated for most people, especially for people that are relatively new to the web. (I know that everyone has at least a few people like this in their families!).  One of the things we try to do at LifeSnapz is to make things very simple. By stitching together all the various functions referenced by the author, we deliver these steps in one place and in a simple and clean interface. We make it easy to get all family members together online, even the ones that are brand new to the web.

Here are the five steps:

1. Get everyone in one place. Essentially this means get everyone using one web site. On LifeSnapz, it’s simple: one person creates a group and invites other people via email to join. That’s it.

2. Create that blog. The author suggests creating a blog where family news can be shared and commented on. On LifeSnapz, the news and communication happens around family events (birthdays, sporting events, graduations, celebrations, etc.).  Once an event is recorded (i.e. “Bob and Carrie’s Wedding”), all family members can comment or add their own photos, videos and remembrances to the event. Unlike a on typical blog where all posts are available to any person on the Internet, on LifeSnapz all the contributed information is observable only by the invited members of the family group. This is especially good for anyone that is wary about having personal/private information exposed on the web.

3. Now throw in some pictures. Most families have tons and tons of pictures, and these days most are digitized. Loading them up to LifeSnapz is easy, and we don’t have a limitation on the number of photos that you can upload. If you have paper photos, just scan them first and then upload them. If you have a lot of old paper photos and don’t want to spend the time scanning them, try Scan Cafe’s photo scanning service.  It’s cost effective and high quality.

4. Connect everyone. The author suggests showing everyone in your family network how they are related to each other using family tree software or web sites. We currently don’t offer this on LifeSnapz. Some reputable services to check out include Geni.com, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com. LifeSnapz provides a good way for your family members to communicate collaboratively, and they can  identify relatives in old photos in order to fill out your tree completely and accurately.

5. Go hi-tech. The author suggests moving beyond photos to videos (via YouTube), audio podcasts and SecondLife.com. For most families, videos will be the next logical step for communicating with each other. At LifeSnapz, we support videos from YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr. Frankly, I couldn’t see my parents (who are in their late 60′s) ever using SecondLife, let alone to stay in touch with their grandkids. And everything that a podcast does can be accomplished with a video.

I would add one more item to this list.  Call it A1: Start Now. A group takes a little while to get going, even if (or maybe even because) all the members are related.  Some group members will be highly active from the start and others will take some time to become regular participants. However, once you get going, you’ll find your family communicating more, and everyone will feel more up-to-date with each other.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback!

LifeSnapz gets a lot of use as a communication medium for family members who are spread out geographically. Videos, sounds, descriptions and photos are so much more impactful when they are used together to communicate something, especially  I found this article on Canada.com particularly interesting as it captures how the Internet is enabling a much deeper level of communication than more traditional methods such as phone calls and printed photos. This excerpt sums it up nicely:

If we didn’t have access to the computer, … , they <my parents> would never see him <our son> grow up,” Jablonski says. “Now he’s talking. That’s what is so great about the computer–they can see him as he is interacting with others.

You can read the whole article here.

The Company

One of the businesses using LifeSnapz is marketingFOLIO, a Connecticut-based marketing consulting firm that works with clients to map priorities, define strategies and identify means to increase return on marketing investment.  The seven-year old firm focuses on mid-market companies in the industrial business-to-business sector—engineering-oriented, operations-driven, sales-focused organizations that often lack strong in-house marketing expertise but whose leaders value the primary research, strategy framework and sales-ready programs that marketingFOLIO creates and implements.

The Use Case

Katherine Ventres Canipelli, founder and president of marketingFOLIO, is using LifeSnapz as a simple but effective collaborative planning and tracking tool for a multi-year retained client engagement with Odyssey Logistics & Technology (OL&T), a chemical and process industry logistics services company.  The marketingFOLIO engagement has covered a wide range of marketing elements, including positioning strategy, updated branding, in depth case studies, and lead generation components—and an all encompassing web-centric marketing plan.  marketingFOLIO is effectively this client’s “market manager”:  working with the OL&T VP Marketing & Sales Operations, dealing directly with client managers on three continents, and overseeing joint work product with two other retained specialist marketing firms (Connecticut-based Fathom, a brand/interactive design firm and Ohio-based NMV Strategies, a PR agency).

Below is an interview with Katherine on how LifeSnapz works in this context.

Katherine, could you please describe in detail how marketingFOLIO is using LifeSnapz?

We’re using LifeSnapz in a variety of ways.

First, it’s a tool for marketing planning.  Specifically, we map the plan and committed deliverables as “Events” in the LifeSnapz group set up for OL&T.  The LifeSnapz site is simple and intuitive—the interface allows us to log what we’re planning to do, when and where they’re happening and describe specific deliverables.  For example, the industry meetings and speaking engagements are set up as Events—noting details (what, where, when), who attended, with linked photos tagged with participant names, and post-event evaluations.  We also use LIfeSnapz to document market “buzz”; every OL&T news release or corporate communication is recorded as an event—and any editorial or major mention also recorded.  All tagged by pre-defined category, thus very easy to find.  The dynamic timeline makes it easy to visualize and communicate the plan as whole—and not just as a series of isolated tactics.

Second, it’s a platform for sharing important information.  As tasks are completed, details are catalogued by Event.  Contributing team members then add comments, suggestions, etc..  For example, in 2008 we (marketingFOLIO) project managed the creation and launch of the new OL&T market portal—which involved four contributing “partners”:  the client, the brand/interactive design firm (Fathom), the public relations firm (NMV Strategies) and, marketingFOLIO ourselves, as chief content strategist.  As we approached Phase I project completion, we uploaded to LIfeSnapz an image of the new site, the new logo design, tagline and word mark versions, and images and photos used to support new OL&T positioning.  Now we have a “living record” of what was done, when and where it first appeared.

Third, it’s a tool that facilitates collaboration.   Although three of the “partners” are in Connecticut, we’re each located 60 miles from one another—and several of our OL&T client contacts are elsewhere, here in the U.S., or in Europe or Asia.  Getting together in one room is rare—and web conferences aren’t necessarily the right solution. For example, NMV Strategies recently did a photo shoot at OL&T’s North Carolina location that also captured a strategic supplier conference—we uploaded dozens of photos to the LifeSnapz event and gave OL&T operations managers LifeSnapz access rights so that they could identify the people pictured, documented in one place, quickly and efficiently.  All completed in a couple of days instead of weeks—without having to email scores of images around.

Finally, LifeSnapz’ tags and search capability enables us to find what we need when we need them.  If I want to find all activities related to branding, I simply click the “Branding” tag and up comes the corresponding list of Events.  Need to see just those Events on the timeline?  Easy.  One click.  Or if I want to see all contexts involving the CEO, I just click on his name in the “They were There” cloud.  Or use the search box if a tag isn’t granular enough.

How have you integrated LifeSnapz into the way the client and the three marketing firms collaborate?

For one thing, each of us is a bit different in our styles, but LifeSnapz is so straightforward that it doesn’t require us to change to get value from it.  We rarely meet face-to-face as a group, yet we must approach each week’s work in synch. It’s become our virtual Grand Central Station, where we can see and share aspects of our collaborative efforts.  The social media attribute of LifeSnapz has made it easier to share not just the words or images but also the core creative and strategic ideas.  It complements our separate serial conversations in a way that spreadsheets can’t.  This is what communication is really about—any one of the core marketing team can develop a marketing element and have the other three just a few clicks away from seeing how it fits it and adding insight via comments.

Who is using LifeSnapz?  How difficult was it to master?

Introducing the tool to our extended marketing team was no problem—the interface is clean and easy to understand.  And getting the OL&T execs and managers to jump took about ten words to explain.  Despite varying technical savvy across this group—some of whom are on the high side of that magic demographic divide of  age 50—everyone  picked it up very quickly.   Who’s using it?  At core are we three small business CEOs and our team members, plus the OL&T VP Marketing & Sales Ops. In addition, periodic users include a dozen or so corporate VPs from sales, operations and IT, as well as some of their managers, analysts and admins.

Why do you like LifeSnapz for performing this task (these tasks)? Any particular feature(s) that stands out to you?

It’s the simplicity—LifeSnapz is uncomplicated and intuitive. The registration and invitation process requires very little information, yet it’s easy for me to monitor and control user access.  It’s easy to upload and find information.  The usefulness for our collaborative business process is that it’s not complicated—this is a great example of how engineered simplicity is more effective than a “got-every-bell-and-whistle” system.

Overall, how would you summarize the benefits of LifeSnapz?

As they say, you can manage what you can measure.  LifeSnapz has made our project planning, milestone tracking, and recognition of deliverables more transparent.  In practical terms, this translates to higher perceived value of what the three marketing firms do individually and collectively—and puts a spotlight on how the three firms and the client organization work very productivity together.

Thank you Katherine and marketingFOLIO for your input and for using LifeSnapz!

So I thought I’d take some time to point out what makes our timeline so special.

1. The visual presentation of the timeline is clean and easy to comprehend; rolling over an event shows date, title and primary photo thumbnail. This view provides a fun way to browse through your events.

2. The timeline moves in a smooth and “liquidy” sort of way. You can drag the zoom bar at the bottom to specific events or dates or you can scroll with the arrows on the right and left. It is fast and highly responsive.

3. You can quickly expand or contract your timeline segment view (from 12 hours to 100 years) with one click or with successive clicks on the “+” or “-” buttons.

4. Last but definitely not least, “They were There” and “Event” tags enable timelines to be created dynamically. So if you want a timeline of your dad or your mom (or anyone that’s been tagged as being at an event), all you do is click on their name and voila, the timeline is created. Similarly, if you want a timeline of birthday parties or vacations (or any other tag that have been used to describe an event), just click on the tag and now you have all of these events on their own timeline – instantly created.

If you have not created an account on LifeSnapz and want to see the timeline in action, check out the video that is on our home page or watch this review of LifeSnapz from G4TV. (And then go and create an account!)

Please let us know what you think and how you think we can improve the timeline (or anything else) on LifeSnapz.