[edwinnathaniel]

I had a brief stint working on this particular area in the past (was my first Rails job as well!):

http://web.archive.org/web/20080217022937/http://kinzin.com/

Didn't make it, pivoted a few times. Not sure what the status right now. Unsure what the challenges were since I didn't get involve much in the business/marketing aspect of it.

Hope you guys get a better shot and be successful in this space.

[ajaymehta]

Hey - thanks for the comment. Kinzin looks really interesting... I'd actually love to hear more about it and your experience working to bring families closer together online. Think you could drop me an email/tweet?

[edwinnathaniel]

Unfortunately I don't have much to share, and it is not because I don't want to, because I worked as a part-time Jr. Dev (still at school) back then not knowing anything much other than what I had to do. That and I worked there pre-beta where things were simple and straightforward: let's ship a very simple private network for family to share things.

This was back in early 2007 where everything (share things, social network, social media, online privacy, etc) were still relatively new and gaining steam.

From the very little figment of my memory, all I remember was that Kinzin was trying to create a social private network for family and were trying to monetize a feature that can turn pictures to photo albums to be shared with family members. The rest were still up in the air.

The marketing had probably focused on getting users to use the site first and probably did not explore as far as you mentioned: how to bring families closer online, which I think it could be the biggest value that the FamilyLeaf could offer [for now :), I'm sure there will be more in the future].

But hey, timing is important and who knows it is on your side now (^_^).

Like you, my family is thousands miles away, I see value on sites like FamilyLeaf/Kinzin. Not sure if I would use it once I'm back home though.