Memiary Blog

Memiary for Education

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:20:00 -0500

[If you just want to try it out, click here]

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been getting questions like, “So, are you still working on Memiary? What’s the future plan?”. This is one that has been perplexing me for a few months, too, so unfortunately, I couldn’t answer them at the time — I didn’t want to be brutally honest and admit that there was none, and I didn’t want to promise something that wasn’t. Meanwhile, another problem was the site’s financial status: it costs me $600 a year to keep it going, and while that was initially something I was gladly paying out of the iPhone app’s earnings, it started adding up when the sales dropped to the lower double-digits/per day (inevitable for most iPhone apps.)

So a month ago, I decided something had to be done. I put a few messages out on Memiary’s Twitter account about suggestions for a way to fund the site, features, and a general inquiry about whether a pledging system would work. After getting a mixed response to the pledging system, and a bunch of suggestions to run ads on the site (something that has been my last resort from day one), I got a nice e-mail from Mark Warner in the UK, who runs the popular teaching resource website Teaching Ideas, about a potential educational version.

To cut the long-story short, after we discussed some details, it came down to this: I’d build a modified version of Memiary specifically for the educational audience — teachers, students, classrooms — and it would be financially and conceptually supported and sponsored by Teaching Ideas. The version would include a bunch of new features, some of which would even be copied to the main website, thus giving me an opportunity to deploy some much-requested features while being financially rewarded for my time, effort and Memiary’s hosting bills, and most importantly cater to its educational/classroom audience.

And that was how Memiary for Education was created.

Now, for the quick run-down. The site is a spin-off from Memiary, under the sub-domain edu.memiary.com. At its core, it provides a way to use Memiary in multi-user and group environments.

There are two types of accounts: student and teacher. Every account is a student account upon signing up, which is free and open to anyone. A teacher account adds a few extra controls and features, including a unique ‘teacher code’ which can then be used to attach subsequent student account at sign up, a ‘class overview’ page where the teacher can get an overview of all their attached student accounts, and the ability to change or modify the default questions. In a classroom environment, where Memiary is widely being used, this setup is easy and efficient.

Additionally, there are a bunch of features that can be seen in both versions of the site. These include:

A widget — embeddable on any blog or site, which shows the user’s 7 last days of memory entries.
A date picker — a cool way to browse through your memories.
Jump to random date — seen under the ‘browse’ menu. Heard of I’m feeling lucky?

…and if you missed it, the ability to search was added not too long ago.

To be honest, I couldn’t think of a better future for the site — not to mention a way to fund it — than this one. Education is an environment that has been long linked with Memiary’s usage, and it’s great to finally be able to cater to it. Mark Warner has been a long-time supporter of the site, having introduced it to a number of teachers in the UK region (check out this presentation), so this link-up feels anything but unnatural. I’m immensely thankful to him for this opportunity; it’s not everyday that you get to work on something you love so dearly, for a noble and important cause and audience, and be supported for it.

I’m hoping that if you’re a teacher, you’ll try it out in your environment and see if it is a fit. If we can help in anyway at all, feel free to let us know.

Memiary API

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:33:00 -0400

After having spent a year ignoring “When will the Memiary API be published?” requests, I decided to do something about it today. Anyone can now build an app that talks to Memiary. To request a unique developer key which is needed with every request, drop me a line!

Also, you may find this page useful to test/debug.

1) GetUser
http://www.memiary.com/api/getuser/

Needs variables: key, username, password

If user doesn’t exist, creates account and shows “signedup”:

true
signedup

If user exists and credentials (username/password) are correct, shows “loggedin” indicator:

true
loggedin

(Standard to other requests too) If user exists and credentials are incorrect, shows “false” and “invalid info”:

false
invalidinfo

(Standard to other requests too) If not all fields are passed (i.e. username/password/key), shows “fieldsmissing”:

false
fieldmissing

(Standard to other requests too) If key is found to be invalid, shows “invalidkey”:

false
invalidkey

2) GetEntries
http://www.memiary.com/api/getentries/

Needs variables: key, username, password, lastUpdate (in format: 2008-11-10 10:08:38)

For default, i.e. first attempt, use “0000-00-00 00:00:00”. This will return ALL the entries for that user.

If no entries are found:

false
fieldmissing

If entries are found with a timestamp that is later than lastUpdate ( is the timestamp container in each entry just incase you find it useful, shows when it was lastupdated):

2008-11-10 11:19:17

2008-11-10
0000-00-00 00:00:00
BLAH1
BLAH2
BLAH3
BLAH4
BLAH5

2008-11-09
0000-00-00 00:00:00
BLAH1
BLAH2
BLAH3
BLAH4
BLAH5

3) SetEntries
http://www.memiary.com/api/setentries/

Needs variables: key, username, password, date (in format: 2008-11-10)
Optional variables: one, two, three, four, five (indicates each list item)

If entries are successfully updated (as long as the “needed” variables are supplied, this should be the case), shows:

true
2008-11-11
entryupdated

Memiarising Classrooms

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:48:00 -0400

Memiary has been getting some great traction in the teaching community lately. Mark Warner, a primary school teacher from the UK, has been using it extensively with children he teaches to record things they learn everyday, and recently made a fantastic presentation about his use for the Teachmeet Sussex conference. The presentation was so well received that it got on SlideShare’s most tweeted list and has noticeably brought Memiary onto the radars of many teachers all around. You can read Mark’s blog post here.

As the creator of a utility, this is way way way beyond what you could hope for. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the service being put to such use, let alone a teacher making a 12-slide presentation for a conference to show other teachers how to use it with their own respective classes.

The iPhone app has sold thousands of copies so far, the website has tens of thousands of users of which thousands still use it daily — even a year after launching — and yet I’ll openly admit the biggest reward for me so far has been hearing that primary school children are using it to better their outlook at education. Now that’s something.

It’s easy to get a few users and sell a few apps, but reaching that golden demographic? It’s a challenge even to attempt, which is why I am so glad that it has reached the most fantastic userbase, and one who believe in helping turn good ideas into good utilities.

Plan Tomorrow

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:36:00 -0400

As I was flipping through a yearly-planner/diary today — one of the many New Year presents one rarely uses — something crossed my mind.

Diaries, by nature, are there to help you remember and recall your past. Memiary, as a quintessential ‘online’ diary, wants to help you do exactly that. But the absoluteness of a real-life diary, as opposed to Memiary, allows you to cheat and skip to any date in the future — essentially using it as a planner. The diary manufacturers market this as a ‘feature’ (it’s a diary, but it’s also a meeting planner! And a calendar! And a to-do list!).

As an aside, for the last two months or so, I’ve been using TextEdit on the Mac to keep a simple 3 - 5 item to-do list. In the list, I have important things noted which I need to remember to do for tomorrow. It can be ‘Watch Bruno’, or ‘Pick up bread.’ These are not things I want to do today or right now, and they’re not months in the future I want to put in iCal.

So, when I was looking at the static diary on the table, I had a flash: what if Memiary could be used to plan tomorrow — just tomorrow? This would make it a simple 5-item todo-list, while still keeping its basic essence alive: to remember your past. And also, since I know most of the things I’ll be doing tomorrow (especially if they’re important ones), it begs the question: why not just enter it today?

Another thing it does is bring the 5-item simplicity to to-do lists. Never before has a todo-list been limited to a specific day (tomorrow) and a specific number of items (5). So, it’s a constraint worth attempting. I don’t want to spend 10 minutes planning 10 things I need to do right now, but I can spare a couple to find 5 or less for tomorrow.

With that said, Memiary has now be used to plan tomorrow. When you log in, you will now see that tomorrow is clickable on the date bar (i.e. Wed Thu Fri Sat San Mon Tue Wed). When you click on it, you’re posed with the question, “What will you do tomorrow?”, and the same 5-item list Memiary is known for. You can enter things today, and of course, come and change or add to them tomorrow.

Something to note is that this functionality is not currently available on the iPhone app, but it will be in the 2.0 version, coming soon given that things go our way.

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel. (part 2)

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:55:40 -0400

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel. (part 2)

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:27:07 -0400

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

"A little like exercising, the more you use it, the more natural it becomes, but unlike exercising,..."

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:34:45 -0500

“A little like exercising, the more you use it, the more natural it becomes, but unlike exercising, it can be done in about 30 seconds a day, and has a great iPhone app.”

- Alex Bain (thanks Alex!)

New feature: Tagging (and a new nav bar too!)

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:40:00 -0500

I’ve been working on a lot of stuff under the radar, but today I’m happy to release a couple major(ish) new features and upgrades to Memiary.

Firstly, say hello to #hashtags. #You #use #them #with #Twitter, #and #now #you #can #use #them #with #Memiary.

Here’s how they work: you can include #hashtags anywhere in your memory — like “#work Went to product meeting.” — and this will allow you to browse through your memories by #hashtags either clicking on the tag itself (love how it instantly becomes clickable?), navigating to memiary.com/tag/whatever, or using the top nav to navigate to your tag cloud at memiary.com/tags (browse -> by tags).

Why would want to use them? Categorizing (“#work”), remembering and bookmarking (“#specialday”), moods and feelings (“#happy”), travel (“#france2008”), special events (“#olympics2008”), etc. etc. Basically, it’s going to make your memorable memories even more memorable by allowing you to associate them with a particular feeling or category or thing rather than just a date in time.

Secondly, a new top nav bar is in town!

I’ve always thought there was something lacking in Memiary’s information architecture (i.e. navigation), so I spent the last few days trying new solutions and came up with the nav bar you’ll see in top-right (near the logout link). Here’s its structure:

record
- today
- yesterday
- 18 month year
- 17 month year
browse
- by timeframe
- by date
- by tags
settings

I think it adds a lot of flavor and clarity to Memiary’s purpose, features, and structure.

As always, I am craving for a complement or a put-down. Please drop me a line at feedback@memiary.com and let me know what you think!

SCREENSHOTS:

Photo

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:28:49 -0500

It’s here. GET IT NOW!

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:13:19 -0500

It’s here.

GET IT NOW!

The amount of e-mail exchanges I’ve had with Matt...

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:25:00 -0500

The amount of e-mail exchanges I’ve had with Matt Brooke-Smith, Memiary’s outstanding iPhone app developer, in the last 7 days to ensure Memiary for iPhone turns out to be the best app ever.

Matt has been a ridiculous gem to work with and I can only imagine all the crazy perfectionist demands he’s had to endure, but it’s all worked out for the best. As soon as Apple approves, all iPhone and iPod Touch users alike will be given the opportunity to make their memories memorable forever. From their pocket. Even while they’re visiting Alaska.

Check out Matt’s other apps here, and if you need one made, be sure to get in touch with him.

Coming soon.

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:53:00 -0500

Coming soon.

Settings: Twitter Integration, Change Password, Reminders, and More!

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:30:00 -0500

A lot of wishes have been fulfilled with the addition of a few settings.

Reminders
There is now an “e-mail” tab under Settings which asks you to officially associate your account with an e-mail address — used for ‘forgot your password’ recovery (coming soon) — and more importantly, gives you the option to set a “daily” reminder. A reminder is essentially a once-a-day e-mail if you haven’t recorded anything for that day yet — useful for forgetters, like me!

Change Password
I’ve been bombarded with e-mails by people asking to change passwords, and I was embarrassed at one point that you couldn’t already do so. So, better late than never, here it is.

Twitter Integration
I am really excited about this. Here’s how you can set it up:

Go the Twitter tab under Settings.
Enter your username, and if you’d like to have reminders (they work just like e-mail reminders, but send you a direct message instead). Press “Setup”.
Make sure you’re following @memiary and it’s following you back (can take a minute or two).
Dm the activation code given (remember to tweet it like it is.) Example: d memiary #activate fjanj28dj.
Wait for the validation response.
You should be all setup!

You can now add or edit entries to Memiary via Twitter using the following convention: d memiary #[List Item #1 - 5] [Your Memory]. For example: d memiary #4 Went swimming for 40 mins. If the list item # already exists for today, it is replaced, and if it doesn’t, it is added. On a typical day, your tweets will look like this:

d memiary #1 Woke up @ 6, went jogging.
d memiary #2 Went to work, ate breakfast with team, talked financials.
d memiary #3 Went to see ‘Twiilight’ after work w/ Kathy.
d memiary #4 Had dinner at Junnoon.
d memiary #5 Read some ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded’ before going to bed.

There are a couple bottom-lines to this. First, this means that Memiary will work wherever Twitter works. Twhirl, TweetDeck, Twitterific, iPhone, SMS, you name it. Second, for those who are bad with everyday scheduled tasks, this eliminates your need to have to visit memiary.com every day. Set a daily Twitter reminder, send a few dm’s, visit Memiary weekly or bi-weekly to see what you’ve been doing lately, and you’re set to have your memories catalogued for life!

Export
A lot of users reported not being able to find the RSS/iCal links placed on the past week/month/year archive pages. So, there is now an “export” tab in Settings which lays it out for you.

"Features tell you what you can do, constraints tell you what to do."

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:26:00 -0500

“Features tell you what you can do, constraints tell you what to do.”

- After a debate I had with a Memiary user this morning, I’ve been thinking about this all day, and I think that phrase sums up my belief. In the end, none of them is better than the other, but just more suited to the type of product you are creating and the type of user you are serving.

Memiary is supposed to be simple, minimal, focused, and something even my grandmother can use, so embodying constraints into its soul is what’s best for the type of the product that it is — this way, the user is told what to do, and most of them are not left in the dust with things they can, but never will do, creating a mist around what they should be doing with it. Its potential and purpose are best served with its constraints.

On the other hand, some products are supposed to be rich, open, and serve the ‘hacker’ type of user and usage, in which case, constraints are just going to make its users mad, get in their way, and limit the product to its potential — what it could be, but what it isn’t.

The iPhone is a perfect example of a product trapped in the middle of the two types of products and the two types of uses. Steve Jobs’ vision is to serve me and my grandmother at the same time. My grandmother would be amazed at what it can do, and would never want to go beyond it. On the other hand, I want to hack it to the level that it can make calls to the moon while displaying a video wallpaper and tethering to my laptop.

The Delimma:

If Steve doesn’t tell my grandmother what to do with it, she won’t use it.

If Steve limits what I can do with it, I won’t use it.

The Solution:

An App Store which lets us make applications, enabling us to use the iPhone to do what we want with it, and go far far beyond its original use and potential, BUT with Apple’s approval.

All the product’s settings hidden under the “Settings” section, never to be seen by anyone who won’t use it and modified like crazy by those who want to use it in their own way, BUT only limited to what Apple wants us to modify, not what we want to.

A computer-based syncing software with a focused experience to enable us to transfer music, videos, podcasts, and what not to the device easily, BUT not any other type of file, and only those files which can be read and seen by iTunes, preferably purchased from their store.

In one word: compromise.

(via sidyadav)

Memiary was mentioned on this week’s episode of my...

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:40:00 -0500

Memiary was mentioned on this week’s episode of my favorite podcast of all time, commandN. When I say it’s been one of my few milestones to achieve for Memiary, I’m not kidding. Thanks, Amber and crew!

iCal Export

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:38:00 -0500

Beside the RSS icon in the Past archives pages, you can now find an iCal icon which links to the .ics file corresponding to the particular view (week, month, year, etc.) Click, save, import into Outlook, iCal, or Google Calendar, and have your memories preserved in your trusty calendar, forever.

…but that’s not all!

The coolest thing about exporting in the iCal format is that you can subscribe to it (or share the URL for others to subscribe to) with your calendar tool. If you use Outlook 2007, iCal, or Google Calendar, copy the URL (instead of clicking on it, right click + copy link location) and look for the ‘Subscribe’ option in your tool. Once subscribed, the new entries should automatically ‘pop-in’ every day!

Update - 13/11/08

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:23:00 -0500

The iPhone app is well under way, and we hope to have it out really soon. Matt, who is collaborating with me on it, has a great idea of what it should be, and I have no doubt he’ll pull of something better than I can imagine.
I got started on the Settings page but couldn’t settle on a “layout” suitable to the aesthetics of Memiary. I hope I can see the light soon, because oh believe me I do know how simple and necessary a “change password” addition is.
I had the chance to look into the iCal format over the weekend. It sure has a weird structure, but looks easy enough. Hoping to deploy it soon.
A lot of people have been asking for a reminder service, and I’m puzzled as to how I should go about it. E-mail seems to be the most convenient option, but most backward. (Do you really want an inbox full of Memiary alerts? I have a feeling it will add some “guilt” to the experience of the service.) IM would be best if I knew how to do it. Twitter seems a middle ground, but not everybody has an account and uses it regularly. Ugh.

Questions? Feedback? Suggestions? Problems? I’m an e-mail away.

Indie Startups

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:10:40 -0500

Indie Startups:

a really great blog about bootstrapped-startups, gives Memiary a nice mention. Without sounding biased, I think Memiary is the most accurate example of a “bootstapped-startup.” Built over a weekend, with literally $0 and some Coke Zero.

Bitelia

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:06:36 -0500

Bitelia:

has some really great things to say about Memiary in Spanish. Oh how I <3 international publicity.

Awesomeology

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:04:31 -0500

Awesomeology:

calls Memiary awesome and describes it as a “web based diary for anyone who is not a 12 year old girl.” I love that analogy.