Add Meaning to your Memories!
Are your digital photos an unmaintainable mess? Does it feel like you're sifting through a refrigerator box full of photos when you're looking for one you like?
Well, things just got much easier. Tidepool™ and Storymill™ are here!
Tidepool is a program that lets you quickly add descriptive tags to your photos, then search and share your memories with ease. Storymill is a website that shows your photos to the world, or just your friends. Both products are built for the power of the new Semantic Web.
To find out more, click here.
Granny Goes Digital
21-Mar-2005
by
teefal
The idea for Tidepool arrived in 1999 while I was teaching my mom how to email photos from her new digital camera. The software that came with it had snags that tripped her up, so I downloaded a bunch of other photo programs to see if any were easier.
Without fail, these other programs assumed she knew how she wanted to organize everything. They assumed she was comfortable using files and folders, which is something my mom never quite understood.
In the last years of her life, my mom lived alone. Except for the occasional out-of-town guest, she was lonely most of the time. She'd often tell me how grateful she was for her computer, saying she felt like it was a real person in the house. She loved email, she loved IM, she loved Create-A-Card, she loved Quicken. The machine connected her to family. It gave her a sense of purpose. Yet for all the good it brought, she often got confused. When she called with questions, she always seemed a bit embarrassed, as though it was her fault she couldn't figure things out.
Being a software developer, I decided that if I couldn't find a photo program good enough for my mom, I'd make one. Tragically, before real work began, my mother died. Soon after, Immuexa's top priority became making the program designed with her in mind. For years I've asked "Would Mom understand this, or would it make her feel dumb?" I've imagined her browsing her lifetime of photos, telling stories for all who'd listen. I've imagined her interlinking her snapshots, all the while building something of beauty for future generations: a glimpse of my mom.
Instead her photos, her thousands of photos, lie jumbled in boxes in my basement, all with tales that will never be told. What was she thinking? Who are these people? I long for her voice, her memories, her joys.
Around the world, there are millions who wish to remember more of their lives, their loved ones, their communities. At Immuexa, we can help them do this, and with this release of Tidepool, I hope we have.
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