The Vikido Blog, Live - Share - Smile

Wordless Wednesday: Green

Amit — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:12:11 +0000

Green - Tamar & Doron - Photo by @Amitos

]]>

The things that people do with your product..

Amit — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:10:35 +0000

A few days ago, we bumped into this funny Video

Yes! Vikido!

Wordless Wednesday: Morning

Amit — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:31:55 +0000

Morning - Tamar & Doron - Photo by @Amitos

]]>

Vikido for iPhone – New Version

Amit — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:01:14 +0000

Hello to all Vikido friends!

Vikido has been updated, please download our latest version.

What’s new in this version:

Log-in bug fix
Added large media thumbnails to feeds. Photos, videos and links look much better now
Design improvements in Kids and Parents interface
New Navigation bar and Icons, improved usability
Feed auto-refresh bug fix
Audio & Video recorders bug fix

The shiny new version of Vikido is now available on the app store, go go go!

You and your kids can now also experience Vikido in your web browser, we hope you’ll enjoy it! http://my.vikido.com

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, don’t be shy, it’ll be fun!
Feel free to contact us with anything! support@vikido.com

Vikido Team

Wordless Wednesday: U and I

Amit — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:35:40 +0000

U and I - with Tamar - Photo by @Amitos

]]>

My World Tour

Amit — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:02:45 +0000

Blogs make me happy, they give me this feeling that life has so much more to offer. Blogs are the best fantasy ever. Today, I want to share with you some of my favorite blogs.

As the list is crazy long I will share just a taste… and some takeoffs.

Are you ready?

My Parents were awesome

This is an amazing one, people uploading pics of their young cool-goofy parents, I can’t stop watching it… Oh, and see mine below!

The Glow

One day when I’ll grow up, I will be one of those women, I will have a great house, clean one. My kids will be clean too, and will wear cool things, colorful things. I’ll have the best kitchen to cook in and my hair will be just on the spot. In the meantime, for some reason – other women live my life, and you can see them here…

When I will be like them – it will look like this:

Her Bad Mother

Few of my new friends (when I will live the life we discussed above) will be bloggers, polished as this one. I love her pics, her way of thinking, and boy, I love her pics.

When I’ll be like her, all my pics will glow

The Man Repeller

This dudette would not take anything from anyone, she is cute, so funny, free spirit and has the best eclectic taste ever. She will be my friend too one day, but she still doesn’t know it, lucky girl.

She said:

MAN·RE·PELL·ER¹ [MAHN-REE-PELLER]

–noun

outfitting oneself in a sartorially offensive way that will result in repelling members of the opposite sex. Such garments include but are not limited to harem pants, boyfriend jeans, overalls (see: human repelling), shoulder pads, full length jumpsuits, jewelry that resembles violent weaponry and clogs.

–verb (used without object),-pell·ing, -pell·ed.

to commit the act of repelling men:

Girl 1: What are you wearing to the party?

Girl 2: My sweet lime green drop crotch utility pants!

Girl 1: Oh, so we’re man repelling tonight?

*DISCLAIMER: the above conversation is not a dramatization, took place in this room 5 minutes ago.

I can never have such nice cloths…

How To Be A Dad

Charlie and Andy are 2 fathers and so much more, they have the best graphic look and feel around, the cutest baby ever (Charlie’s) and the right hype for now. I love their multi-platform behavior (twitter/FB/istagram/youtube and more), these guys are taking blogging and interpersonal relationships seriously. I appreciate it.

But more than anything, they just make me laugh, kudos!

What Katie Ate

Damn, I am hungry.

I love food too..

From me to you

Full of inspiration, love for life, photography, food and good-looking things. I keep visiting this blog in order to clean my mind and soul…

My Feel-good blogs:

How to Write to Bloggers?

Amit — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:05:37 +0000

This will be a two-part series. In the second part which I will post later, I will discuss writing and blogging. In this, the first part, I will cover the subject of the bloggers themselves. Specifically, How to talk to and engage with these mysterious creatures.

A good first step is to first recognize the vastly different styles and try to figure out all those ‘inside jokes’.

Then the question is how to engage with them without coming out looking a fool, or at least aim to appear an affable fool.

(BTW – Mashable published a good post regarding this subject yesterday which I suggest you read: http://mashable.com/2011/10/01/blogger-outreach-tips/ )

Blogher 2011, meeting LOTS of amazing bloggers

I started writing this post as I began sending out emails to blogs about Vikido (and I used my experience from the time I worked with Wix.com). It was all written and edited recently, all the while continuing to send and respond to letters, to talk and to put up posts, to write about ourselves and ignore ourselves. I waited before putting up this post out of a fear that this ‘logic’ will turn out to be a great disappointment. To my relief, after a few classic marketing letters, responses began to trickle in. I then decided that, if I believe in something, I should trust it – a lesson for me as well as for all who read this post.

Here’s a general rule of thumb to remember: the blogger who is writing is a human being and the dialectic rules that I lay out below are theoretically interesting, and logically sound. That said, each blogger could be a particularly irritating individual (or not a “human being” at all) so, in each and every case, take it all with a grain of salt…

1. Try to know, more than loosely speaking, what you are talking about, sending emails in a production line method will bring, in the best case scenario, to failure and a global scandal in the worst case. Send only things you can stand behind them later.

Me, trying to look like I know what I’m talking about while pitching

2. What the hell do you want?! Don’t reach out to anyone before you know how to communicate what you are and what you want in a single sentence, two sentences or a brief paragraph . First, know exactly what you want to say, as well as what exactly you want from the blogger (That they will write back? Do you need contacts? Do you need a link? What?). After a while it becomes some kind of a Stockholm syndrome, you LIKE those bloggers! You don’t want anything, just to keep hanging around them. I like it, I am a blogger too… Sometimes it is nice NOT to want anything (yes, contradiction rules).

3. Write to the right person directly, don’t use a ‘contact us’ form. For those who have a strange inclination to open themselves up to the whole web, you will find your post next time you google yourself. Scandals (not that I have not done it, but still with great trepidation). Find his name, its not that hard!

4. Try to know to whom you are talking. Most bloggers have a strong presence on the web. Study their Flickr, their Twitter. Add them as a friend on Facebook. Do all this before you write them. Read the comments that they have written – not in order to elegantly remark, “Your little Megan is so cute!” (and in turn be suspected of being a crazy pedophile), but rather to get a small sense of the person. They are active and write, you want something from them and, according to the dialectic blogging rules (of which you want to be a part of rather than be identified with instead of), you must conduct a dialogue, and a dialogue must have interlocutors. By the same token, represent yourself. You and blogger alike are thinking, ‘Who are you? What do you want?’ Everything is personal, as well as businesslike.

Remember – they can talk back! (from BlogHer 2011) Rednackmommy talk back

5. No templates. So now that you know roughly what you are going to write, it’s time to compose a general letter, but write a separate letter to each blog which you personalize to the specific blogger you are writing to.

6. Tell a story. You have a story; an angle, the blogger has a story; where do these stories develop into a third story that will interest the reader? If you don’t have a story, it’s game over.

7. Think of the audience and whether your story really interests them. If it really does not interest them, move on to other blogs whose audiences are more relevant and will find your story compelling to their personal lives.

8. Quality, not quantity. There are small, high-quality blogs with a loyal audience which also lead opinion. A TechCrunch article is always nice, but 95% of the users that it brings will be people like you. Perhaps that is what you want, but with your product you need users who fit *your* product.

9. Sharing is caring. If you know someone who knows someone, that is always a good start. Do not be afraid to use connections and always make sure you return favors. There is nothing like an internet acquaintance – I’ve had my share of thrilling ones in the last few weeks. I love those folks, have I mentioned it before?

I went to a LOT of conventions…

10. Do not overload it with files, a million examples, a drawn-out letter. You will lose the blogger and the whole blog after two seconds. If they get back to you with an expression of interest, then go on and overload it (but even then, be careful!). We have our stuff on air too.

11. Write simply and coherently, assuming you know how to write, of course. Alternatively, write out enough coherently so that you won’t sound like a an online translation application, which translates at its leisure to something resembling pure Haiku poetry. If your English is not up to scratch, turn to someone whose is. (use your friends who can write, please)

12. Keep in touch. A network of relations with bloggers is not limited to ‘bang-write-done’! Be sure to update your favorite bloggers on new things that are going on (in proportion, please). Be sure to continue correspondence and the personal basis of your relationship with them. Also, be sure that they also write to you down the line (it doesn’t matter what company you work in) and (no less important) get to know some truly heartwarming people, for whom the internet flows in their blood. You’ll gain – it’s worth it.

I could have listed a number of other significant things but the most important thing is to be flexible and attentive, and to really get to know the surroundings you are facing. Be real, it takes time.

2 more interesting links:

HOW I PITCHED @TECHCRUNCH AND 13 WAYS TO GET PRESS WHEN YOU LAUNCH YOUR

Robert Scoble tells about one good pitch

Wordless Wednesday: Doron

Amit — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:12:45 +0000

Doron - Photo by @Amitos

]]>

Vikido in the eye of the user

Amit — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:31:44 +0000

Doron (my 6 years old daughter) has built a computer with Vikido on it. As you can see, she exposed the new web-interface (to be released soon)

Vikido and the FTC proposed revision of COPPA

Amit — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:21:17 +0000

The relevant online forums are now boiling over the issues of kids under 13 and their usage of web and mobile apps. The main reason for this is the FTC’s plan to update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/09/coppa.shtm

And I quote:

“The COPPA Rule requires covered operators to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children”

“The proposed amendments also seek to streamline and clarify the direct notice that operators must give parents prior to collecting children’s personal information.”

Read the full document – it’s important to all of us, whether we are parents, operators or startup companies dealing with kids under this age.

So, What is Vikido doing about this?

We started Vikido as “concerned parents” and that is why kids on Vikido don’t have an “account” in the regular sense of the word – it’s an extension of the parent’s account. The parent logs in using FB connect, creates a “child” account – and the child is logged-in only via the parent’s permissions – entering a child-mode interface.

So – no one can connect with your child unless you approve it (you add a family member via YOUR parent side, but the child doesn’t have this ability).
In addition, no one can see the child’s feed (other than his family) and the only person who can share the child’s creations is the parent. You can see an example on my own facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/amit.knaani/posts/10150310197421443 - that’s me as a parent, sharing my child’s pic under my name.

We also added an additional level of control by notifying the parent when a message is sent to the child.

“But it’s kind of annoying to pay all that attention to my kids’ activities!”

Well, the process implemented by Vikido requires at least some initial parental intervention and consent. The parent needs to register the child, add and approve other family members, and the child can’t login with its own password. We know… it ain’t easy, but we did it anyway, because just like you, we rather spend a couple of minutes here and there, and make sure we don’t put our kids in harm’s way.

Want to ask us questions? We’re here and would love to help: support@vikido.com.