Zipiko Blog

On Ice

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:59:00 +0300

One year of feedback and usage data shows that Zipiko is being used mainly for group activities – even though it was not primarily designed for groups. Therefore we have put it on ice while we redevelop it into a dedicated “group activity organizer”.

Ideally we would have like to run the previously version in the background while we undertake the change, however, the current SMS usage is too high for us to afford but not high enough to attract advertisers. And SMS was so integrated into the core of the service we are unable to simply remove it.

We thank everyone who has supported us so far and beg understanding from our current users.

If you would like to be kept informated about developments and would like to be a potential tester of the new version then please email richard@zipipop.com

We are also currently looking for investment to help boost the development of the new version.

Zipiko stays online

Mon, 18 May 2009 10:58:08 +0300

You might have noticed that we did no actually take Zipiko offline at the end of April. This was because we had some last minute plees not to do so.

We have noticed that the service is not really working for personal social life organizing, however, people seem to be using it successfully for group sport/hobby activities.

It appears that it is useful when there is a need to coordinate activities that require low-levels of commitment with in the context of a larger group, e.g. the weekly indoor football game or rockclimbing. This seems to point in the direction in which we should try to develop the service.

Zipiko entering chrysalis stage

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:47:36 +0300

At the end of this month (April) we will be taking Zipko offline and wrapping it up in a cocoon for redevelopment. When it comes out it will have hopefully metamorphised into something radically different and beautiful.

We look forward to your continued support in the future and apologies for any inconvenience this might cause.

Rethinking Zipiko

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:10:00 +0200

We are currently rethinking the best way to take Zipiko forward and will not be doing any ‘development’ work on it for a while. We would love to hear how you think it might be best improved. In the meantime here are some of the improvements on the current wish list (please note that it is in no particular order):

IMPROVEMENTS:

Public Events: An option to make your plan visible to all Zipiko users. Immediate content for 1st time users is crucial.
Connecting to other Networks: import events from other services via APIs, eg – Eventful, Meetup, etc
Better Connections: Improved the feeds in and out to Facebook, calendars,Twitter, etc.
Improved Group Features: To control who sees your intentions and connect better with existing communities.
Intention Seeding: Provide invitees with selectable options: activity, location, date. Think enhanced Doodle.
Improved Commenting Features: The ability to take notes at meetings and share them with the other attendees.
Finding Past Meetings: Go back in time to see who was there and what was said.
Calendar View: See all plans by the month.
Buddy / Group Icons: Instantly see who or which group posted the plan.
Visual Clue Icons: Instantly see the theme of the event: coffee, beer, sport, walk, etc
Map View: See the upcoming events (public & private) on a local map, so that you can quickly and intuitively filter events by location.

FIXES:

Web Service: Redesign and rebrand Zipiko as a web-based, cross-platform service: Even though Zipiko has ‘always’ been a browser-based service, we now realize that our initial attempts to promote it as a mobile-centric service have backfired – since the majority of people are not yet regularly accessing the Internet via their mobiles. Trying to meet the demands of the immense diversity across mobiles was also proving to be an inefficient drain on our limited development resources. However, thanks largely to the iPhone and improving mobile-browser standardization, mobile Internet is making fast inroads and, after all the experience we have gained in the field, we will not neglect this growing trend.
Email Only: Remove the mobile/SMS signing in and invitation options. People are understandably reluctant to give away their precious phone numbers and this extra option has added unnecessary technical complications and user confusion. SMS services (especially in the US) are fraught with difficulties and the costs are an unavoidable issue. Instead of the slightly impersonal SMS invitations, we will shift the focus to copyable links (events, groups, personal, etc) that can be sent through the users’ normal email systems. However, we can still provide some SMS services (such as reminders) as 2nd-layer additional options.

I guess that is plenty to keep us busy for quite a while. Please do suggested anything that you think could improve Zipiko.

Zipipopin mobiilisovellus Zipiko lupaa säästää aikaa tapaamisten sopimisesta | Tuhat sanaa

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:20:26 +0200

Zipipopin mobiilisovellus Zipiko lupaa säästää aikaa tapaamisten sopimisesta | Tuhat sanaa

Contact upload, group administration, new background

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:01:00 +0300

This week’s update to Zipiko brings you a new background. Zipi the fish now feels much more happy and at home in his natural habitat. To celebrate this, Zipi now talks! Look for him at the top of the main page. He will bless you with hints or news or random chit-chat, depending on his mood.

We also added the first set of group administration features: if you create a group you can now choose who else can post plans to it, and you can add a group description.

If you have a Java-enabled phone, you can now upload your phone contacts! We hope this will get you started using Zipiko with all your friends faster, without all that tedious number-typing.

We also made a small but potentially powerful policy change: we are now showing everyone who has been invited to an event, not just the people you invited personally. We feel that the added information you get about an event can be very useful in some situations. Let us know what you think about this!

Finally, if you get an SMS invite or someone sends you a link to an event or a group, starting from today you can preview the details of the event (or the group) before you even register for Zipiko.

Things are speeding up here at Zipipop as we approach our San Francisco outing. We’re looking forward to bringing you another load of useful changes next week!

Champagne drinking Startup Style

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:16:42 +0300

Champagne drinking Startup Style

Zipipop Gets into Mindtrek Launchpad

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:16:42 +0300

Zipipop Gets into Mindtrek Launchpad

Hele Caught the Fishy Feeling

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:52:07 +0300

Hele Caught the Fishy Feeling

Catch the Feeling Fishy

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:51:43 +0300

Catch the Feeling Fishy

An Intention Broadcasting Model: Preliminary Thoughts

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:28:57 +0300

An Intention Broadcasting Model: Preliminary Thoughts:

I have recently been developing our Intention Broadcasting (IB) concept into something approaching a more fully-fledged theory. My first objective was to come up with a model of how an intention…

Startup Ideas and Painting

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:28:36 +0300

Startup Ideas and Painting:

During the first year at Zipipop we constantly debated how open we should be with our ideas. At the very beginning we even made people sign NDA’s and this had some benefits: people…

Organizing Get-togethers: Zipiko vs Micro-blogging

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:30:43 +0300

Organizing Get-togethers: Zipiko vs Micro-blogging:

The screen shot above shows Jyri Engström talking about how to use micro-blogging to get your friends together for a last-minute beer. However, the likes of Jaiku/Twitter are not …

You can now add comments to events. No more wondering what your friends are thinking!

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:27:19 +0300

You can now add comments to events. No more wondering what your friends are thinking!

Stefano interviewed about Zipiko by Josh Chandler of Technology...

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:36:16 +0300

Stefano interviewed about Zipiko by Josh Chandler of Technology Gazette.

We’ve added experimental support for groups. Go to settings to join or create a group, or test...

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:00:21 +0300

We’ve added experimental support for groups. Go to settings to join or create a group, or test the Zipiko group: http://zipiko.com/g/zipiko

Groups and Channels

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:11:00 +0300

By the end of the month we will be adding Zipiko Groups and Channels.

The groups function in a stardard way and will be both public and private.

The channels, however, will be created using 4 search categories (groups, activity, location, and city); so that you can tune into the events that are most interesting to you and then you can save the search results as a fixed channel to see later.

This can also work the other way round so that event organizers can create their own channels and then email or add links to websites.

We are really looking forward to seeing how you use these features.

Zipiko now speaks many languages… today we have English, Finnish, French, Italian, German and...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:27:01 +0300

Zipiko now speaks many languages… today we have English, Finnish, French, Italian, German and Spanish!

You can now import your Gmail contacts into Zipiko. If you have an iPhone, you can sync your phone...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:48:05 +0300

You can now import your Gmail contacts into Zipiko. If you have an iPhone, you can sync your phone contacts with Gmail too!

"It’s better to be clear than clever."

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:06:04 +0300

“It’s better to be clear than clever.”

- One of our mantras these days… News.com: Google takes the pun out of shopping