manage my ideas

Several updates have taken place in this release. Below is an explanation of the major changes:

Public Ideas - Share your ideas with the world. As always, you can keep your ideas private; however, you now have the option to share thoughts, opinions, and ideas for everyone to see. Other users will be able to comment on your ideas, so that you can hear what they have to say. ManageMyIdeas is the first web application to offer such flexible options for idea sharing - keep them private, share them with selected associates, or publish them for the world to see.

Idea Summary - This new feature allows you to type a brief synopsis of your idea, so that when searching through your idea list you can remember the general concept behind each idea. If your idea is public, then the summary will serve to attract users to click on your idea and view it.

Idea Profile - Each idea now has its own idea profile page. Want to link to your idea from another website or your blog? Each idea profile has a unique and permanent URL. In addition, sharing and commenting are included on the idea profile. For returning users, you may notice that your idea formatting appears different (without any paragraph breaks). Just click the edit button and then hit save - your paragraph breaks will be corrected.

Toolbar - Download our toolbar for your browser (IE or Firefox). The toolbar includes a link for you to enter a new idea, so that whenever you have an idea come to your mind you can record it in ManageMyIdeas. The toolbar also has a feature for you to submit any website you are viewing to your favorite social bookmarks like Del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, and others. Also included is a dropdown tasklist. This post-it note type feature lets you list the things you need to get done. You can color code your tasks for different priorities.

Design - The design of the site is very important to us as it adds to the experience and provides the user interface. As such, we have made and will continue to make changes to the site design to improve usability.

Insert a URL - Now when you type a web address into your idea it will show up as a clickable link.

Brand - In an effort to have a more uniform and unique brand, we have changed the name of our service to ManageMyIdeas. ManageMyIdeas is a place to record and organize your ideas. Keep them private, share them with selected associates, or publish them for the world to see.

Feedback - Your opinions are important to us. Let us know what you think about the design and features of ManageMyIdeas.

Visit www.managemyideas.com

In the coming days, you will see some changes to the site (including this nice new blog).  We are working with the site design and we have added some new features.  Please be patient as we make these updates.  I will post additional information once we go live with the changes.

On February 19th, ManageMyIdeas was listed on EmilyChang.com, one of the premier directories for web applications and social software. In addition, Chris Gilmer from Web Worker Daily gave ManageMyIdeas its first public review on February 21st. We would like to thank Emily and Chris for their support. Due in large part to the publicity of these two sites, ManageMyIdeas is now being used in 73 countries and all 50 U.S. states.

ManageMyIdeas now has a more recognizable web address: http://www.ManageMyIdeas.com.  You should update your bookmarks and links to point to this new URL.

ManageMyIdeas is getting visits from people all over the world: France, Denmark, England, Spain, Poland, India, China, Egypt, Canada, and 19 different states in the U.S. Invite your friends to use ManageMyIdeas. It is a fun way to share thoughts and ideas. To invite people to share your ideas, you can use the “Manage Associates” link under the “Sharing” tab. Just type in the email of the person you wish to invite and wait for them to accept the invitation. It’s easy!

On January 7th, 2007, we released a new version of ManageMyIdeas. Here are the major changes:

1) The login screen has a new look which will hopefully appeal to new users and give them a little insight to the features of ManageMyIdeas.

2) The “My Ideas” section had some major revisions including an improved description box. Previously, when a user typed in a description and clicked “Update”, the description would return without any formatting and the user would have to click “edit” to make any additional revisions. In this release, the description box is always in edit mode and when the user hits “Update”, the description returns with all of your formatting and ready for the next edit.

3) Also in the “My Ideas” section, you will notice that there are now three tabs attached to the description box. The first tab is “description” - that’s where you can write down your thoughts. The second tab is “sharing” - you can now invite people to view your thoughts and ideas (more about sharing in #4 below). The third tab is “comments” - this is where you can write yourself a note about your idea or if the idea is shared, you can leave comments to each other about the idea (more about comments in #5 below).

4) Sharing is one of the main purposes of ManageMyIdeas. When you first click the “Sharing” tab, you will see the name of your idea at the top, a section that reads “Share with”, and the words “You have not shared this idea with anyone.” In order for you to share your thoughts, you must invite people to be your Associate. To do this, you click the link titled “Manage Associates”, type in the email of the person with which you wish to associate and then wait for them to accept your invitation. Once they have accepted, you will see their user name in your “Share with” box. Select their name and click “Update.” Now they can see your idea. Once a person is in your “Share with” list, you can decide to share ideas with them or to keep an idea private. All ideas are private unless you specifically choose to share them with someone. You can share the same idea with as many people as you like.

5) Comments are a nice way to leave yourself or an Associate a note about an idea. You simply click the idea, then click the “Comments” tab. You will see the name of the idea at the top and a place to type in a message. Once you type your message, you can click the “Add” button, or you can hit enter on your keyboard to submit the message. Each comment is date and time stamped and includes the username of the person who made the comment. Comments can be deleted if necessary.

6) We are experimenting with a Chat feature. On the main navigation bar, you will now see “Chat”. This allows users to communicate in real time with other ManageMyIdeas users. This feature is still in development, but we put it in to test it out. Let us know what you think.

Thanks for your continued support on this project. Several users have provided useful feedback by using the feedback tool at the bottom of each page. New users are signing up from all over the United States and Europe. Invite your friends to sign-up! Brad and I will continue to develop new features, so check this page for updates.

Today marks one month from the time that we released the ManageMyIdeas website. As of today, there are 173 ideas recorded in ManageMyIdeas. Not too bad for our little website!

Brad and I are designing and developing more improvements to the site. Updates include: a new login screen, improved description box, the ability to share ideas, and more. Brad has done a great job developing these new features! They rival anything available commercially. Included in this next release will be a tool that will allow you to invite your associates, friends, and family to sign-up for ManageMyIdeas. Once they sign-up, their names will show up in an “associates list” and you will be able to share ideas and comments with them. Collaborate on a group project, coordinate an upcoming family event, or share a business idea. Let us know how you use this tool, so that we can share with others.

As always, please feel free to use the feedback forms available at the bottom of every page to let us know what improvements you would like to see in ManageMyIdeas. Enjoy!

Idea sharing! Maybe you have a business idea, a group project at school, or a work project…all of these involve groups of people that share ideas with one another.

Currently, ManageMyIdeas is set-up so that an individual can quickly create and develop ideas. A future update will allow users to share ideas with one another by forming groups. Users will have the option to keep an idea private or to share the idea with a group. Private ideas will only be visible to you, while group ideas will be visible to all the members of your group. More details about idea sharing will be provided once we get closer to releasing the feature.

On a side note, we are grateful to all those who have joined ManageMyIdeas over the past week. We want you to add as many ideas to the site as possible, so that we can test the site stability, speed, and database size. Thanks to all those who have used the feedback tool. The feedback will help us make the site better, so if you see something you like or dislike just let us know. Enjoy!

ManageMyIdeas began on October 12, 2006. ManageMyIdeas has gone from idea to reality in about 30 days. My brother, Brad, and I needed a place to track our ideas, so we made ManageMyIdeas. ManageMyIdeas works well for us, so now we are sharing it with you.

Brad lives in California and I live in Utah. We call each other and talk for hours about our business ideas (a skill that we learned from our Dad). Well…after hundreds of ideas (some of which are pretty good) we finally created a tool to help us list, develop, and evaluate our ideas.

ManageMyIdeas is still being developed. There are several ideas that we have for the site, but we would like you to try it out and let us know what you like and don’t like. We have a feedback link on each page that you can use to communicate with Brad and me.

Brad and I will be using this page as a blog to keep you posted on our development. Enjoy!