The Difficulties of Capturing A Smile

Milo is six weeks old now, and he's just started to smile. His smile shows up in the mornings, mainly, particularly after he gets a fresh change and has a chance to look at his mobile. Nobody will believe it, however, because it is quick and camera shy. As soon as he smiles, one of us runs for the camera. By the time we are ready for his closeup, he is done.

Tomorrow morning we will have the camera ready while we are changing him. Wish us luck!

Interview with Take The Leap

The folks at Take The Leap decided to interview me. Here's a link to it:
http://taketheleap.creativehub.com/jason-olim-take-2-with-sleep-this-time-maybe/

A Retraction & an Announcement

Milo is four weeks old today; I have been a father now for four weeks. I love it. My heart bursts every time I see my little boy. I officially retract every time I've ever analogized or used a metaphor relating starting a company with birthing a child. There is no comparison. Perhaps someday I'll reduce that difference to words. For now, I can only relate my experience: Milo fulfills me in a way that nothing ever has before.

I am excited because Wee Web has become an integral part of my life as a father, a family member and a friend. Teresa and I have joined our power users now because we can see the value we get from using it. Our family members have been commenting up a storm, watching Milo grow every day, in words, pictures and videos. Everybody is in on the fun in a way that we couldn't have experienced without the site.

Yesterday, at the request of my mother, we launched a new feature that allows users to share albums with non-Wee Web members (as long as the parents have turned on "Family members can show pics and videos to their friends" on their "Settings->My Family Info" page. And this morning I got a call from an old friend with whom I'd shared a video of Milo offering advice on dealing with "cradle cap," an affliction that our boys seem to have in common. That's useful knowledge! It also reminds me that Wee Web can create the kinds of intimate connections that we (or at least I) crave.

Try out the sharing feature with your non-member friends. Let me know if you get the same value out of it that I have.

Publicity and Privacy (Welcome Milo!)

Last Friday in the wee hours of the morning, Teresa and I welcomed little Milo into the world. He's a dream - he's perfect, sweet, lovely, amazing. I now know that there is no cuter baby in the world than your own.

The first thing a proud daddy does is to share the news with family. We called our parents and our siblings. Of course, they wanted photos, so we took a few with the iPhone and uploaded them to Wee Web. We uploaded a favorite to each of our Facebook profiles as well.

We remembered to bring our fancy camera and our new Flip camcorder with us, and we had a gazillion photos and videos from the hospital of the three of us bonding and becoming a family after the birth. And then we realized just how useful Wee Web is.

We are avid Facebook users (especially Teresa), but most of our photos were not appropriate for public consumption. Many were a bit too candid for our taste: our bedraggled, exhausted faces and our messy little naked alien weren't properly composed for acquaintances.

Just last week I came across this article where Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, opines that privacy is a thing of the past:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_zuckerberg_says_the_age_of_privacy_is_ov.php

I disagree. There are many things that are too special, too candid and too true for the public. Things that are only appropriate for family. Including our most special photos of Milo, Teresa and me.

Waiting

Teresa just uploaded a batch of photos of the nursery. It's ready, our bags are packed - there's nothing else to do but wait. So we wait and try not to dwell on it, but we are very excited.

To pass the time, we've been updating some of our album-handling features. Many of you asked for the ability to reorder your photos in your albums - it's now available. Just click and drag on the images in the album and they reorder themselves. You'll notice some other fun album-handling features over the next weeks as well, including the ability to keep track of your favorite albums in a "bookshelf" and the ability to copy pictures from one album to another.

Please let us know how you like the new features and if there is anything else we can do to make Wee Web a better way for you and your family to share.

The Ordinary Extraordinary

Working at Wee Web has been an affecting experience for me.

Although we have a few weeks to go until the little one arrives, I have already fallen in love with its kicks and hiccups. It's the most amazing feeling, something special, wondrous and very personal.

Yet over the last few weeks, from conversations with you, I've come to realize that this extraordinary feeling is actually pretty common. And I've been enjoying my family and friends' kids much more since I've developed this surprising appreciation of my own.

Your feedback hasn't just triggered emotional growth for me - it is helping us to improve the site. You might notice that we've resolved our most common complaint: the 140 character limit on updates. Now, you can make your updates as long as you like! We are working on some navigation changes to make the site more intuitive for people who are following only one or two families and we will roll it out to our user panel shortly. (If you would like to join our user panel and get access to new features early, please email chris@wee-web.com and let him know.) We are also working on an iPhone application.

As always, I invite you to share your experience with using Wee Web. I'd love to hear how our service has affected you and your family.

Surprise! Sharing The Baby Shower.

We celebrated Teresa's baby shower last Sunday. It was a surprise for her. (We were also surprised that we were able to keep it a secret from her!) Because much of Teresa's family and friends live far away, we had to share the event with them via photos and a story on Wee Web. Here's one of my favorite pictures: a Billy's custom cake that was as delicious as it was beautiful. I'm wondering how we could share pieces of cake with family through the site - I'll have to get some books on new technologies to see if it's possible. Maybe Google has an applet for online cake sharing?

NB: You may notice our "working title" for the baby written on the cake. With all of the advice and opinions we've received from our parents on names, we decided to give them a good fright. After months of hearing us call it "Professor Beyoncé," they'll love whatever name we pick!