FAQ Updated

We’ve updated the FAQ page today. Some of the common questions that have been coming our way are now included.

 

One question included in the new FAQ, deserves special mention here:

 

I registered for the beta invite but never got one.  What happened?

If you registered for a beta invite before August 2007 but never got one, it is possible that your spam filter caught the invite and it never made it to your inbox.

All subscribers to the Beta waiting list were invited to Scrybe by August 31, 2007.

Scrybe is invitation only and any Scrybe user can invite more people.  A Scrybe user forum is dedicated to invitation sharing and existing users can be requested for an invite here.

 

Sabika

 

Long Due Update

Our strengths include generating novel and innovative ideas and building products that integrate these ideas successfully. We are currently capitalizing on these strengths. 

The current build is stable and working well. New bugs have tapered off to almost zero and the service has not seen any downtime. The next version is not just a feature update for the current app. It is a major version update. It has 4 major parts: 

Organizer, that includes new and improved calendar containing lots of features and implementations based on user feedback. A to-do list with more fluidity and organization options, more innovation and improvements in PaperSync, GlobalTimez, additional scheduling features, better image handling in notes etc. The current functionality however will be just one part of the new version. Other parts include: 

Pages, (new)
Tables, (new) and
A desktop widget (new) 

This new version also focuses a lot on collaboration scenarios. Why are we doing this? Because the way people work together is broken, and that is what we want to tackle head-on with this new version.  The current version has sharing, which helps, but we have been thinking a lot on what people need when they work together.  Most of the functionality we have designed maximizes the potential of the web for groups of people working together.  

While the whole application is not going to be open source, however, with the passage of time, we hope to start contributing some of the components as open source and also allow 3rd part developers to build on Scrybe.

The current functionality that is there in the Scrybe Beta will remain free as the Organizer part of the complete offering. The premium versions will be based on a combination of new modules, functionality, storage, and usage of features.

This is Scrybe’s roadmap in a nutshell.

The unfortunate consequence of this is that we cannot quote a hard time line for and there will be no functionality updates for the current version, although we will continue to support any issues you have via our forum or email.

Sabika

It’s a new world

We are working on our biggest update to Scrybe. The beta feedback is now tapering off and I think we have most of the valuable insights we need. Some of the changes were smaller and were rolled out into earlier updates. Some of the changes require a larger effort. Right now we are focusing on the hard to do things. For this update, we have constantly analyzed the data we get from the site traffic and users. We have realized that many a times, the traffic tells you a whole different story then what’s on your mind. I just wanted to quote a few interesting statistics. 

Screen resolutions: Originally when we started working on Scrybe, we had to make a choice between liquid layout and application performance. Due to this technical limitation, we designed the application as such that it is optimized for 1024 x 768 and a higher resolution or two; though, we were aware that hardware prices will go down significantly, and that’s what happened… LCDs became a lot cheaper, high resolutions and wide screen resolutions became common place. Now that we are working on making Scrybe optimized for different resolutions etc. here is an interesting bit of data. 

68% of our users have screen resolutions higher then 1024 x 768. That’s a huge number! Within the users who have resolutions higher than 1024 by 768, 69% users have resolutions higher then 1280 x 1024. And 40% of these users have wide screen resolutions. 27% users are still on 1024 x 768 and only 1.2% of the users are using screen resolutions that are less than 1024 x 768. 

Although we have rolled out some updates earlier which improvedthe experience on higher resolutions, our work on liquid layout is being done keeping this data in mind.  

Browsers: What’s interesting is that Firefox constitutes more than 65% visits, whereas IE numbers are less than 25%. Firefox penetration is growing at a mind boggling pace. In terms of our product, we sure can see Firefox winning the browser war. 

Flash Player 9 Penetration: Another interesting statistic is the rise of Flash Player 9. Its penetration in mature markets is currently estimated to be 93.3% and 93.28% of Scrybe’s traffic has Flash Player 9 or above. There are loads of feature requests by users that are enabled by this player version and we are working on them. I am really excited to play with some of the features running in Scrybe that were not possible to implement previously.

Visits from across the globe: We have users/ visitors from 181 different countries. Though US is still the largest visitor territory, it is interesting to see that traffic is also generating at an increasing pace from Europe, Australia and Asia. 

Multilingual, content and localization, support was high on our to-do list.  Here is a Sneak peek!

  

We will need some volunteers in Jan’ 08 for localization into different languages. If you’d like to volunteer, please send in your details at: sabika[dot]nazim[at]iscrybe[dot]com.
(Right to left scripts are not targeted for this update).

Sabika 

Sports at work

We have a little garden at the back of our new office that, couple of weeks back, some team members turned into a badminton (a racquet sport) court. So now, we play after work. Let me first give you a little bit of background before diving into my observations.

We have recently moved to our new office, from Scrybe’s original birthplace that was a tiny room that barely managed to fit us old lot. I love and miss the old place more than our new one but that’s a story for another time. We moved out to accommodate our much needed expansion.

So the new place has a bigger work area and a nice back garden. Hence a court came into existence. Now observations:

·        Since everyone looks forward to a nice game at the end of the day, the time away from the routine has visibly increased the efficiency and the productivity levels. I guess we can only truly enjoy ourselves when we have wrapped up our work for the day, and enjoy the game we must, so work hard we shall ;). A wise comment I once read,

“If you pace yourself throughout an intense period of work by taking breaks and doing creative activities, not only will you complete the project with energy to spare, but the quality will be much higher.”

Another contribution to this fact would be a known fact that exercise can boost one’s immune system, thus, reducing the chances of loosing working hours to fatigue or illness.

·        I noticed that some of us instead of going home after a good game, go back to our seats and work for an additional couple of hours. I think the break opens up our mind and things that we have been struggling with or are stuck on, magically lose their complexity. For me personally, in terms of definition and designing the application, it has done wonders… when I am not focused on a particular problem, interesting ideas spring up and that’s why I just want to get back to my seat and work on those ideas.
Dr. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist who identified “attention deficit trait”, in his interview to CNET said,

“If you don’t allow yourself to stop and think, you’re not getting the best of your brain. What your brain is best equipped to do is to think, to analyze, to dissect and create. And if you’re simply responding to bits of stimulation, you won’t ever go deep.”

One of my favorite quotes from an article I read on LifeDev is:

“I’ve found that the brain does not like to be told when to be creative. If you tell it to think, it won’t. But if you’re doing a small task that doesn’t require much thinking, you can bet your mind is working overtime, and it’s working on something completely different than what is in front of you.”

·        People are happier. Elle Woods in Legally Blonde sagaciously said,

“Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”

On a more serious note, I think when your productivity is increasing and you have the space to be more creative, there is a significant boost in your tolerance level; support issues, bug tracking, and other stressful activities are managed more amiably.

·        Last but not the least I think it’s the best way to help new people break in and to get to know each other without the day to day hustle bustle of a workplace.  

Earlier, when we were a smaller team, it was an easier job to have balanced levels of work values, passion and objectives amongst all team members and with our recent expansion, considered whether we would be able to retain this. One of the factors that’s helping is having a great team of like minded individuals, who all are working hard and contributing towards the long term vision of the company. This great and simple idea of our evening sports is pleasurably proving itself as a contributor towards strengthening an already strong team and of course, in keeping us healthy and rosy cheeked.

If you’d like to know, I am not that great a player, but am learning!

Sabika

Invited all the beta subscribers!

Today, we have completed sending invitations to all users who were added to the Beta waiting list. Yayyy!!

Beta users can further invite their contacts by sharing calendars, lists or thoughtstreams with them.

Device and Outlook syncing are on their way in the next month. Other than regular updates, we are also working on incorporating some major features and some user feedback for the upcoming Scrybe versions.

Scrybe team has been working towards a long term vision for the company, its users and a number of new offerings. With funding and strategic support from our partners we are constantly evolving as a team and as a company. Though still a small team, we now have footprints in the valley, Boston and Islamabad. Our existing team is energized and our new members are excited and passionate about our next steps.

Sabika

Adding stuff from your web mail!

Wouldn’t it be great to send appointments from within your web mail directly to your calendar without having to leave the page?  Scrybe’s bookmarklet contains a neat feature that allows you to do just that.

Say you receive an email from a friend asking for a lunch date…

Just highlight the relevant text in the email and click Scrybe Bookmarklet.  In the bookmarklet, select Event and click Update.

That’s it!

 

Scrybe automatically assigns the correct date and time by intelligently analyzing the highlighted text. 

Select lists anywhere on the web, click Scrybe Bookmarklet, then Tasks and Update.  Try it out and let us know all about the time you saved.

Saj

Adobe and LMKR invest in Scrybe

Scrybe, Corp. Secures Series A Funding;

Adobe and LMKR Invest in Innovative New Web-Based Productivity and Project Management Tool 

Investment to Accelerate Growth, Fuel Development of Industry’s First Online Productivity Tool to Offer Unprecedented Offline Access

BOSTON, MA (August 8, 2007) – Scrybe, Corp. (www.iscrybe.com) announced today it has closed its first round of Series A funding from Adobe Systems Incorporated and LMKR.  Following a highly successful beta campaign that captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of users and influencers across the globe, Scrybe will use this new injection of capital to accelerate growth in key operational areas and drive new product development initiatives.

 

“Scrybe has captured the imagination of users around the world, engaging customers who share our vision of simple, elegant yet powerful productivity tools,” said Faizan Buzdar, founder and chief executive officer of Scrybe, Corp.  “We’re pleased to have Adobe and LMKR support our efforts to create a world-class organizational and development team that will help build a significant presence for Scrybe in the global marketplace.  Leveraging new Adobe technologies, we will dramatically accelerate Scrybe’s efforts to redefine the user experience for web-based productivity tools.”

 

“The enthusiasm for the Scrybe beta is an indication of the strong desire for a richer user experience with web-based productivity tools,” said John Leckrone, director of Venture Development for Adobe.  “We’re pleased to be working with Scrybe as they continue to evolve their technology platform.”

“The impact Scrybe has already created in the global market for web-based productivity tools is nothing short of impressive,” said Atif Khan, chief executive officer of LMKR. “We are committed to ensuring Scrybe has the appropriate resources to go to market effectively and execute their long term vision.”

About Scrybe

Scrybe is a new online organizer that leverages the innovations of rich internet platforms to bring users a simple, elegant yet powerful experience, designed to work the way users think.  For more information and to watch the Scrybe demo video, please visit www.iscrybe.com. 

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Scaling Up…

I am happy to share today, another major milestone for Scrybe.

We have covered many major milestones in the last few months.

We started this venture, wondering whether one could actually provide the user experience that we wanted to on the web and we are thrilled that we have been able to translate our ideas and vision into a working web app.

Another initial big question was whether we would ever be noticed, having zero dollars for PR. Scrybe got the buzz that it did through our demo video on YouTube, which has actually become a new trend in start-up product launches.  

Before going public with Scrybe the 3 of us would often discuss concerns of how quickly we could scale up if people got excited about the product. This soon became a very real concern as Scrybe was noticed by a lot more than the few thousand people that we had originally estimated. We were delighted that more than a dozen VCs pinged us and some major names queried us about working together.   

The need to raise funds and scale up quickly became core to the future of Scrybe and at least the major part of our focus was directed to this.  We were seriously concerned with the effort required for this very time consuming process, including sifting through multiple term sheets, lengthy legal processes and closing. We found that VCs were generally keyed up only about buzzwords like Ajax or web2.0 and looking to get into something that could quickly be flipped to someone else.It was very important to identify the best suited match in anyone acquiring an interest in Scrybe.  We wanted to find someone who would be aligned with the company’s long term vision and wanted to avoid going back into a fund raising cycle after another few months so we could concentrate completely on the product line.

Today we will be announcing that this concern has also been resolved in a way that I think will turn out to be awesome for Scrybe in the long run.

ZDNet has more details: Scrybe gets venture funding from Adobe, LMKR

Faizan

Last Phase: Rolling out…

Last phase of the beta is being rolled out to all the beta users today. This Phase includes the following:

• Sharing of multiple calendars, task lists and thoughtstreams.
• Importing Contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or Outlook.
  Current Beta users will now have the ability to invite their contacts by sharing calendars, lists or thoughtstreams with them.
• Exporting Calendars to iCal format.
• Ability to manage multiple calendars.
  Click on the grey arrow at the left edge of your Calendar area. Your Calendars display in the Collections pane along with the sharing and management properties.
  Lists can be shared by setting their properties in the Details panel.
  Thoughtstreams can also be shared the same way a calendar or a list is shared.
• Creating Events and Tasks through Scrybe Bookmarklet.
  You will need to remove the old bookmarklet and add it again from the same link.

This build also includes some fixes for the bugs reported in the last two phases. Some requests and fixes have been approved for the next version of Scrybe. 

Upcoming announcements include Outlook syncing, device syncing, beta invitations, and corporate development.

Sabika

Server down at 11:00 AM (GMT)

The server will be down for 3 to 4 hours at 11:00 am (GMT) for a build update. I am going to put up a new entry indicating the changes and updates in the build. 

Please sync your offline data before the server is down as offline data will be rewritten once the new build is updated.

Sabika