Scrapboom Blog

My sisters, dad and I. Waco, Texas — 1976. Bring pictures and...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:28:12 -0800

My sisters, dad and I.

Waco, Texas — 1976.

Bring pictures and keepsakes like this out of the dark and into the minds of the folks who are part of your life — with ScrapBOOM.

On the first day of September in 1966, I was born and soon taken...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:47:00 -0800

On the first day of September in 1966, I was born and soon taken back to this home in Garland, Texas. This is when and where my life began.

I was nurtured, fed and taught the ways of my family here. I learned to walk and talk and play here. I cried and made a mess here, too.

I wasn’t the only thing happening here in 1966. My folks were also living their lives, working and going to school, taking care of this home and each other.

This place in time still belongs to my family and me.

With ScrapBOOM, my relatives and friends can pin their scraps of what happened in this home in 1966 to this home in 1966.

My dream is to visit this home on December 25, 1966 — my first Christmas — after every related scrap has been pinned to this place in time. I don’t remember this day, but I know that there were many people taking pictures, exchanging gifts and enjoying family recipes.

Imagine gathering your family and friends together to grab and distribute all of the scraps that have been created by all of you. Collectively recreating places in time with bits of history that you’ve since forgotten.

This is the ScrapBOOM vision and I can’t quite contain my excitement about delivering it to you, soon.

The most popular camera on Flickr is not a DSLR, but an...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:39:05 -0800

The most popular camera on Flickr is not a DSLR, but an iPhone.

iPhone will also be the primary tool to capture scraps for ScrapBOOM. Android and Windows Phone to follow.

Here’s an iPhone 5 picture of a print from December of 1959. That’s my mom at the first house I ever knew — Garland, Texas.

ScrapBOOM Sponsors The Torrey Pines Falcons Midget Cheer SquadMy...

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 06:15:00 -0800

ScrapBOOM Sponsors The Torrey Pines Falcons Midget Cheer Squad

My daughter and I just returned from the Pop Warner Super Bowl of Cheer where these shirts were worn by the squad and cheer parents. The girls didn’t win, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort and determination.

With ScrapBOOM, all of the pictures and scraps from this event can be stored right when and where they happened — early December, 2012 at Disney World, Florida.

ScrapBOOM Update No. 1

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:03:00 -0800

ScrapBOOM’s first official web page is now live — click here to visit.

In a few weeks, an early test version of the ScrapBOOM iPhone app will be released to a small group of my relatives and friends. When we’re all happy that the app is working and flowing properly, ScrapBOOM will open to the public.

Invitations to ScrapBOOM will come from this first group of members and those who they invite to become members, and so on. Each tagged scrap can also serve as an invitation to relatives and friends who are not members.

I don’t want ScrapBOOM to become a place where scraps are stored away and forgotten, but a place where they are shared and discovered again and again. ScrapBOOM is being built to encourage this kind of experience.

I’ll be sharing more about ScrapBOOM here at the blog as the launch date approaches. If you’d like, you can receive an email each time a new post is published — click here to subscribe.

If you’d like to be notified when ScrapBOOM launches, please submit your email address at the top of the ScrapBOOM web page.

— Kurt

"Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch..."

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:00:29 -0700

“Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.”

- Tennessee Williams

Scanning My Life

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:53:00 -0700

Scanning My Life:

Excellent Wall Street Journal article about a journey to digitize a lifetime’s memories.

But, except for emailing some scanned letters, the author of the article has only moved memories from isolated boxes and albums to an isolated hard drive.

Now she needs ScrapBOOM.

Don't Be Sneaky

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:21:00 -0700

In about sixty days, ScrapBOOM will launch to a small group of my friends and family members. These are folks I care about — including the good folks at Jacob Tyler Creative Group who are building the ScrapBOOM platform.

When we’re confident ScrapBOOM is working for us, we’re going to open it up to you.

The ScrapBOOM Don’t Be Sneaky ethos includes things like:

We won’t trick you into posting publicly;
We won’t trick you into automatically posting to sites like Facebook and Twitter;
We’ll make it easy for you to download personal content; and
We’ll make it easy for you to cancel your membership.

We’re building a platform that treats you the same way we would treat our own loved ones.

We won’t be sneaky.

"Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us."

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:18:00 -0700

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”

- Oscar Wilde

This is ground zero for ScrapBOOM — from here will flow the...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:02:00 -0800

This is ground zero for ScrapBOOM — from here will flow the first invites to those who are, and have been, a part of my life.

Inside these containers are memories from probably everyone I have ever known and loved — photos, movies, notes, ticket stubs, news clippings and other keepsakes. Every single item is a link back to moments that exist in the darkness of my brain, just waiting to be illuminated.

I may have some of your memories, too, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

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Think Big — Slide from a presentation that I will be making at...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:54:00 -0800

Think Big — Slide from a presentation that I will be making at ScrapBOOM’s kickoff meeting this morning.

ScrapBOOM Is Seeded

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:08:00 -0800

I’m excited to announce that ScrapBOOM Inc. has received initial seed funding from my longtime friend, and partner and co-founder of Trovena, LLC, Christopher Paul Van Slyke. Welcome aboard, good sir.

ScrapBOOM has also engaged the Jacob Tyler Creative Group to develop mobile and web applications. I look forward to a fun and productive relationship with the folks at Jacob Tyler.

We’re moving forward so you can look back.

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Est. 2012

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:27:00 -0800

Say hello to ScrapBOOM Inc., established January 20, 2012.

We’re just getting started.

Follow ScrapBOOM at Facebook, Twitter or via RSS.

Seeds Of ScrapBOOM

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:14:00 -0700

Seeds Of ScrapBOOM

Do You Remember?

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:22:00 -0700

When you’re really young, you just don’t have that much to remember — and the stuff you can remember didn’t happen very long ago. So, your memories are typically less valuable when you’re a kid. This is the basis for my hypothesis of why middle-aged folks, like myself, suddenly and acutely start cherishing the past.

Experience gives our memories weight and meaning. The difficulty we have finding the most distant memories makes them scarce and gives them value.

My 44 years represents about 250,000 waking hours of life, and I’ve filled those fairly well, I believe. Every moment, from my first kiss to a critical one-second pause at a just-turned-green light that saved my life, is stored somewhere in my brain. But, accessing some memories can be challenging.

Our links to the past include old friends, older family members, music, scents, scenery, words and photographs. Like a wildfire, one memory spark can quickly light up large regions of deep history within our brain. These powerful emotions that spring forth from remembering are what ScrapBOOM is all about. Since I couldn’t find the tools that I needed to help me in this regard, I decided to build them myself, with the help of the best folks I could find.

I’ll keep you informed about the coming development of ScrapBOOM right here, and I look forward to delivering to you the best tools possible for keeping your brain fresh with fond memories.

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