Tuesday, December 8, 2009

It Time(line)!

While CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAYS are fun and all, there are many more things happening around these parts.  Good things, bad things, Christmasy things and regular life things.  One of the things happening around these parts is a bloggy type deal.




A little while ago the ladies over at Mamapedia and I had a phone conference.  You know those ladies right?  Or rather you know the work they do, they are the organizers of Mamapedia Voices, a place where I have written an article or 2.




What did we talk about?  Did we spend hours gabbing about kids and the like?  Well, sort of, but not really.  You see, they had asked myself and a few other Mommy bloggers out there to take a look at a new application they were getting ready to launch.  And you know what I got the very first look!  Yay for soothing my nosey nature!

While using a fantastic program called Go To Meeting I was able to telephone conference with the ladies, while also "seeing and using" their computers.  I was able to play with the application, have some fun with it and give them what I hope proved to be useful feedback.

They've tweeked and worked, they've spent what I'm sure are countless hours editing and creating and now it's here, the new application is out there and ready for everyone!

"What is it?" you ask.

Well, let me tell you it's a Timeline!

"A timeline of what?" you ponder.

Great question!  It's a timeline that is completely catered to you and your children.  A multitude of functions in one great application.

Here's how it works.

1. You go on over to Mamapedia and either sign in/create an account or sign in using Facebook (which you can find the button to do that on the top right of their page).  I totally didn't know you could do that until I talked to those ladies, anywhere you see the blue box icon that says "Connect with Facebook" you can avoid creating an account on that sight and just sign in using FB.

2. You can either click my link to the Timeline or you can look on the upper tool bar on Mamapedia and click timeline. 

3. You'll then be asked to enter your child's name, gender and birthday.

4.  After you click submit, it all get's awesome from there!  Up pops a screen with a whole bunch of balloons and a timeline below (I tried to copy the image of my timeline here but I'm just not that computer literate).  It will show your child's developement in stages of years, you can skip forward or backwards by clicking the arrows.


(Thanks Julie for sending that over!)

5.  Inside those fabulous bubbles you will find all sorts of topics the average parent with a child of your age and gender, are intersted in.  The great thing about Mamapedia is that it's a resource of information for Mom's by Moms.  You can post a question in one of their other applications and dozens if not hundreds (depending on the question) of other moms will respond with their opinion/advice.  If you don't want to ask you can search and read through other similar questions to see if that will answer your question.

While that is all good and well, it can be a little tedious to find exactly what you're looking for sometimes.  So being the thinkers that those ladies are over there, they decided to use the timeline to streamline.  In those bubbles, are the topics that will probably interest you.  You click on one and narrow down your search, finding a plethera of information in a matter of seconds.

"How useful is that for me?  I mean, I'm the only Mom dealing with ______ as a problem." Wrong!

It's super, uber useful.  You would  be amazed at how not alone you are!  Thinking of having kids, pregnant, have babies, toddlers, teenagers or are entering the emptynesters stage of your life, there's something there for you!  (If your child is older than 19 the timeline doesn't apply but Mamapedia its self still has a wealth of information) When I was test driving the site, almost every balloon applied to something we were dealing with at the moment.  And boy did I find the potty training stuff interesting.

6.  And if that's not enough or not what you're looking for there's more.  You can also add memories and will soon be able to add photos to your timeline (regardless of age or who,you can even add you!) too.  Creating an online scrapbooky type timeline of your little one.  So those little things they say or do, that you love but forget, no longer forgotten.  With the click of the mouse and clatter of a couple of keys you can record them here, to see in chronological format.

7.  Want more?  Ok!  You can also invite your family and friends to join you as a friend on Mamapedia and they too can see your timeline.  WICKED! (because I'm still young and hip, yo)

So you parents who are non-bloggers.  You can now fill out your timeline, add a little or a lot of information about your kidlets, invite your family and friends (especially the long distance ones) and they can see what's happening in your lives.  A great way for Grandma up North or Auntie in South America to see what's happening with little Penelope.

8.  Have more than one munchkin, you can add more than one kid to the memory part of the timeline.  The bubbles are kid specific but it's easy to flip back and forth between kids. 

9.  I know there is more coming on the application.  It's just getting out there, and I know that they NEED everyone to go and check it out.  Play with it, send them feedback (or you can let me know and I'll forward it through) and have fun.  The only way these guys know what we think is if we try it out.

I'm so hugely excited about this new application guys, and you so need to head on over and try it out!  Then come back and let me know if  you had fun.  Comment and let me know what you think.  If you want to see our timelines, send me an e-mail (see my profile on the right sidebar to do that) and I'll invite you as a friend.

Anyways, thanks to Julie and the ladies over at Mamapedia for the chance to see the new Timeline!  It was great and I can't wait to hear how ya'll like the new "toy" that it is!

disclaimer: This post was NOT paid for my Mamapedia and is only the opinion of this blogger/user.

1 comment:

Kimmies said...

I do like the timeline, it looks like alot of info for every thing. I also love the pics of the girls, they are growing up so fast. Talk to you soon, Love Mom/grandma Kimmie