Vanity Numbers

Vanity Numbers are what we call custom group numbers. This is a phone number that allows a user to call into our system and leave your group a story without having to enter any additional numbers. We just enabled this functionality and we think it will make contributing easier.

The process to request one is simple. Create a group. On the group page, click "Request a Vanity Number" and fill out the form.

We will contact you once we received the request.

For the time being, this service is free. Enjoy It!

Using Groups for a birthday - Part 1

Yesterday, my wife set up a group for my daughter's birthday. The steps were simple:

1. From My earfl, she choose "new" in the "My Groups" section.
2. She added her title, description, tag and set the group to public.

Or you can hear me explain the process.



After setting up the group, Tracey had Isabel call in the introductory greeting. This took two tries - here is the one she went with:



Tracey also opted to for her own phone number to make it easy to call in and contribute.

You can view the group at http://www.earfl.com/groups/show/123

Photos and voice...

I get asked many times how we decided on building earfl. After all, our experience is more recently rooted in photos.

It is precisely all this time spent looking, thinking, prototyping and building photo services, software, hardware that led us to see how photos (and videos) often miss the real story. They tend to capture the moment, not the real story. We saw lots of companies doing photo annotation -- telling stories about the image itself. Our view is that the story is larger than the photo and is complemented by the picture, not the other way around.


Photos are great to show what my kids or parents looked like at a point in time. But I think without their voice and their stories, I am missing out. Having them talk in front of a video camera changes their comfort and their story. Asking for them to tell their story and just talk works great. Even if you are telling a story of a close friend or a relative, your voice adds the the special quality of affection that often text of video miss.

We heard this one last week, and think that re-living the memory is more powerfully done with this type of voice recording.

More about local content

As mentioned a couple weeks back, we liked what we heard about local stories and wanted to see how we could learn some more, especially about how to capture stories while the memory or experience is still fresh.

When was the last time you thoughts about telling your friends about a wonderful restaurant experience you just had? Or how brilliant your dentist is? I'd guess that most of the time this happens within five minutes of your delicious meal, or painless appointment. Having to wait to get in front of computer always numbs my enthusiasm -- I end up doing email first, and then before I know it, days have gone by, and I either don't share it or my contribution is less than accurate (forgot what I ate) or enthusiastic.

You can do it with earfl, right way. Call in your story minutes after you step away. Or even in the restaurant, or event. And the background sounds all contribute to this layer of authenticity we like to hear... it helps the story! We are constantly learning from our users and their stories.

So we've started getting more restaurant reviews : here's one we received yesterday. I am anxious to get their next time I am in Austin.

Making it easier to get your content

We have heard from several users that it is too hard to redeem recordings. In order to make it easier, we are going to add a new feature that automagically adds all recordings you made before joining earfl to your account.

We will do this using your phone number. When you register, just use the number you used when you called the stories in. It is that simple.

What we learned in Iowa/NHampshire

Getting back to the Bay Area, we've thought about all the stories we captured in our travels.

Matt, Jared and I all worked at Kodak, and as a result, think a lot about stories/ memories. One of the goals I had in looking at campaigns was to see how advocacy could benefit from the personal aspects of voice narratives... from an everyday person - not a journalist. We wanted to get out of our comfort zone and learn.

In our trip, we heard about how Marshall Ganz, a legendary labor organizer/Harvard professor was helping the Obama team and role of stories and advocacy. (good article from Huffington Post) excerpt here :

"Yes! 'To inspire'--it literally means to breathe life into each other," Ganz replied, "And we can do that by telling our stories to each other. That's what Barack did for us when he told his story. And that's what we can do for others when we tell them our stories."

We think voice plays a great role in helping pass along the emotion that is our stories, but is often omitted in text/ emails. And we want to make it super easy to share these stories.

earfl isn't about politics, and while the surge in candidate stories swamped us for a couple of weeks, we are sticking to helping capture stories about memories and experiences. Over time, we may come back to this advocacy space. Lots to learn and lots of good stories to share.

Stories about your hometown

All this travel in Des Moines, Iowa and now in Manchester, New Hampshire has got us thinking about the importance of good local stories -- everything from great places to hang out (restaurants) to special places off the beaten path, that mainly locals would know. Here's one we received back in December...