socialtwister — an archive in time

Twittering from the Cradle? Damn Straight.

filed under Blue Whale Labs, Lil'Grams, Twitter

I woke up this morning to a surprise tweet point me to an article on the New York Times site.  As the page appeared, the title "Twittering from the Cradle" showed up and my interest was naturally peaked.  As I read through the article, I encountered the names of many people and products that I recognized well.

A natural disappointment swelled as I assumed that my beloved, Lil'Grams, had not made it into another piece covering a space we entered oh so long ago.  Then I saw it, and realized just how wrong I was.

Call it convenient. Call it baby overshare. But a host of new sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil’Grams and Kidmondo, now offer parents a chance to forgo the e-mail blasts of, say, their newborn’s first trip home and instead invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby in their lives.

“It’s an interesting model,” said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist for the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Everyone can decide how much or little they want to know about a baby, which avoids the situation of receiving a few too many e-mails about someone’s wonderful child, and parents can decide how much they want to share — in minimal or maximal ways.”

Now I can't tell you just how happy I am to be where I am right now.  Building Lil'Grams has been a challenge in a number of ways.  Professionally, it is a testament to our ability to understand a problem and create a solution that means something to the audience it serves.  Personally, it's been a personal challenge filled with highs and lows, tears and fears.

We're about a month away from the big reveal.  I'm looking forward to bringing our efforts out to the world at large.  We're still making a number of important decisions about how things will work and what will be in the final release (we have more than we planned).

Until October 22nd, from Delhi.