Microsoft Vine

Feedback from our beta users

2009-07-14T22:15:00Z

Just over two months have passed since we shipped the Microsoft Vine beta. During that time, we have received thousands of questions, ideas and suggestions. We’ve been inspired by your stories and, equally important, your feedback is helping us make Vine even better.

Here are a few examples of how people are using Microsoft Vine today, and how people would like us to improve Vine in our next release.

Connecting with family every day, and when it’s urgent.

· “This is a great way to communicate with family.”

· “This tool will only add more value to the emergency plan I have put in place with my family.”

Staying informed about the places that matter.

· “Microsoft Vine is a very useful and amazing program. It is pretty much what I'd call, "a community bulletin board.”

· “I'm finding Vine useful for its localized news for my places.”

Reaching the people I care about when it’s important, with Vine alerts.

· “Love that you get alerts via email and especially via SMS. Makes staying in contact easy in case of emergency.”

· “Very useful for contacting people when you have an announcement, instead of going through the trouble of emailing every single one.”

Downloading the Vine client is cumbersome.

· “Please make this work without having to install an application.”

· “My daughter, to whom I would like to send an alert, is probably not going to go through the trouble of downloading the software.”

Make it easier for me to invite other people.

· “A way to sync Vine emergency contacts with Windows Live contacts would be very useful.”

· “Would be more useful if it was able to automatically get my contacts’ information.”

These are just a handful of the comments that we have received. In the near future, we’ll publish a blog post with details about the priorities for our next release. Your input is very important in helping us to determine those priorities.

So, please keep your comments coming. You can interact with others users in our forum, or submit an anonymous suggestion through our online feedback tool. Either way, you’re helping Vine do more to improve peoples’ lives.

Thanks,

'Grapevine'

Step by step guide to getting Vine set up

2009-06-10T00:17:35Z

Here's a quick tutorial to help you do more with Microsoft Vine. If you haven't downloaded the Vine beta and installed it, you'll need to do that first. Visit the Vine Web site to request an invitation if you aren't already registered.

Create your vitals card. Log in and then click "Vitals" in the upper-left corner of your Vine dashboard. Vitals is where you can enter your contact information, and do a few other notable things. For example, you can:

Change the e-mail address at which you receive Vine alerts.
Add a cell-phone number for sending and receiving SMS (text) alerts. Your mobile carrier's standard message charges apply, see terms and conditions.
Add a social network. Click "Edit my social network" in the Vitals drawer, then select the social network(s) you belong to, like Facebook. This enables the people you care about on Vine to view your social network sites and see your Facebook status updates.

Add places you care about. Click "Places" from your Vine dashboard. Then click "Add a Place" in the bottom-left corner of the Places drawer. Enter an address to receive information about this place from 20,000 news and public safety sources.

Invite people to join you. Think of who you want to be connected to when it really matters. Invite them by clicking "People" from your Vine dashboard, then click "Add People" in the bottom-left corner of the People drawer. Enter their e-mail address and they will receive an invitation via e-mail. If you don't know their e-mail address, invite them with this postcard (PDF). (Address book integration will be added in the future but for now you can cut and paste any comma or semicolon delimited list.)

Create your groups. Organize people into groups so it's easy for you to reach them all at once – the sports team you coach, people who live nearby, family far away. Click "People" from your Vine dashboard, then click "Create a group" in the bottom-left corner of the People drawer. You'll see "Emergency contacts" as the default group.

Send an alert. Use Alerts to reach people quickly. For example, if you're stuck at work and need someone to pick up your child at school, send a Vine alert to your emergency contacts. You can send and receive alerts via e-mail, text message, or your Vine dashboard. To send from your Vine dashboard, click the "Send Alert" button to begin. To send via e-mail or text message, print this emergency card (PDF) for instructions.

Post a report. Share information with the people you care about –details of your upcoming adventure; an event in the neighborhood; breaking news for family and friends; and most important, that you are safe and well in any situation. Click "Post Report" from your Vine dashboard to choose from a set of pre-populated reports or to create your own.

How do you use Vine? Send us feedback. We are looking for more ideas on how people are using Vine to share with others.

Thanks,
'GrapeVine'

Setting up a neighborhood group on Vine

2009-05-26T21:14:00Z

One of our early adopters was gracious enough to share with us how she got her neighborhood setup using Microsoft Vine. I thought it was clever and that some of you might find it helpful to know how to get connected with people that live around you in a new way.

Sally, one of our beta testers in Seattle shared this with us; she wanted to get her neighborhood setup so this is what she did:

She sent an email out to the neighbors that she had an email address for, it read:

Subject: Our neighborhood

Hi neighbors,

Have you heard about Microsoft Vine? I'd like to test it out in our neighborhood. You can learn more about it on www.vine.net but, here's how I think we might use it with each other…

We might "Send Alert" to rely on each other when we need help or there's a crisis.
When we go out of town or on vacation, we might "Post Report" of upcoming plans so that we know to keep an eye on each others' houses and how to reach each other if we need to.
When our cars get broken into (a semi-frequent occurrence in this neighborhood), we should "Post Report" of suspicious activity, so that we all know what's happening. The car prowls around here usually come in waves and it helps minimize the impact when we know to be extra careful.
And most importantly, we can use it for the last minute BBQs. Of course, we will walk over and knock on each others' doors first, but if you're out and about we can send an alert to reach you. Since the sun rarely comes out in Seattle and it doesn't stay long, this is key.

Microsoft has a lot to learn about how people, neighbors for example, want to use this, what works and what doesn't. So whatever we learn during this test in Seattle, Microsoft can help neighborhoods all over.

Of course it starts with a bit of preparation – you will need to download the application, set up your "Vitals", add the neighbors you want to be connected to and create a neighborhood group. I am going to send you an invitation now so that you can get started. It will come to your email from Microsoft Vine (and hopefully not end up in your Junk Mail folder). So, stay tuned.

Thanks!

Then she invited her neighbors from Microsoft Vine. She clicked on People, clicked Add group and named it "Neighborhood". Then clicked on Add people and added the email addresses she had and selected the "Neighborhood" group.
She didn't have all of her neighbors' email addresses. So, she also printed out the email (or you can print out the generic postcard we created to help Sally spread the word from http://www.vine.net/static/pdf/postcard.pdf), wrote a handwritten note and then dropped it off to them. The note said:

I sent this email to our neighbors, but didn't have your email address. It would be great to include you. Just send me email at emailaddress@domain.net and I will get you connected.

Sally would like us to make it easier for her to get connected with those neighbors she didn't have email addresses for and we are working on taking her feedback. In the mean time, Sally was very resourceful and came up with a great way to reach out and start getting connected in her neighborhood. I hope you all can benefit from this and that it helps you get going as well!

More later,

'GrapeVine'

Places where you might (and might not) get Vine to work

2009-05-23T02:05:43Z

If you requested an invitation to the Vine beta by visiting our web site and submitting your e-mail address, you'll be happy to know that we have started sending out invitations. We will continue sending them over the next six to eight weeks, so we can increase our user base steadily and learn as we grow.

For those already using the service thank you for all the great feedback you are giving us on our forum, in facebook and twitter. Keep talking and sending feedback; we really want it and plan on taking as much of it into consideration as we can in our v1 release.

One thing I wanted to address though. We have received feedback and questions from folks outside the US who have reported various problems. We did not plan on having beta users outside the US because some of the key features like SMS messaging and News content won't work at all right now. We will need to partner with non-US wireless carriers and content providers in order to get the full functionality to work in other countries. Since we didn't have that in place we decided to beta test in the US only. What we did not expect was that some of you would see more serious problems with Places and causing the client to crash.

We want as much input as we can get but we need to be upfront and clear that if you install the client and use it with non US-EN versions of the OS there may be unexpected problems including crashes. Since we didn't expect to support the client outside the US we have not done extensive testing and we are not sure what all might happen. If you choose to install it anyway we just want you to know that problems you report may not be something we can address prior to adding international support. We will add support for other countries, locals and languages in time.

Thank you for your comments. Please keep them coming!

Practical uses for Microsoft Vine

2009-05-14T09:40:00Z

Checking back in on a subject I think many of you would be interested in reading. There's been a lot written in the press lately about how people will use Microsoft Vine. Many of the articles, like this one, talk about Vine's potential to help people in emergency situations.

Helping people and communities in times of crisis is an important part of our mission. But we built Vine to be useful in everyday situations, too. We believe that the only way you'll ever use Vine during an emergency is if you're already familiar and comfortable with it in your everyday life.

With that in mind, here are a few of the examples of how we envision people using Microsoft Vine during our Beta:

Get help with childcare. Imagine you're a parent and your child needs an early ride home from school because she's sick. You're stuck at work, so you need to quickly find someone you trust to give your child a ride home and look after her.

You could start calling and emailing people you trust, maybe leave a few messages and wait for someone to get back to you. Or, you could send one Vine alert to all your emergency contacts and have the message delivered via email, text message and through the Vine client. And, when one of those contacts replies back and offers to pick up your daughter, everyone sees the reply so they know that the situation is resolved. It's a lot faster than using email or a phone tree. It is also better for the people you reach out to; if your neighbor is in a meeting they would probably rather get a text message than having the phone ring. They can see what is needed and reply without stepping out of the meeting.

Connect with trusted neighbors: When you go out of town or on vacation, use to Vine to "Post a Report" of your upcoming plans. Ask trusted neighbors to keep an eye on your house and let them know how to reach you while you're away.

Vine provides many pre-populated reports to choose from. For example, when cars get broken into, you can post a report of suspicious activity. Or, you can report an upcoming event, like a backyard BBQ. If you are wondering how to get your neighborhood setup we have good news. One of our early adopters shared a way to get your neighbors on Vine and I'll add that to our blog soon.

Report a last-minute field change. Warmer weather means lots of outdoor sports. But when there's a last-minute change, like a softball game getting rained out or a soccer game changing fields, notifying team members can be a real challenge. With Vine you can send one alert to team members and have it reach them via text message, e-mail, and via the Vine client. So whether they're at work, en route to the game, at home or elsewhere, your message has a better chance of reaching them in time.

Of course, each of these scenarios requires some preparation. You will need to download Vine, set up your "Vitals", invite the people you want to connect with, and then add them to a group (i.e., emergency contacts, neighbors, softball team). If you need help at any time, you'll find lots of useful information in the Vine forums.

These are just a few of the ways that we planned for people to use Vine in their daily lives during our Beta. We still have a lot to learn about how people want to use it, what works and what doesn't. How do you want to use Vine? As you use it, we hope that you'll take a moment to share your stories and ideas, so we can learn from you and make Vine even better.

More later,

'GrapeVine'

Vine only for PC user?

2009-05-03T19:02:15Z

There have been some jokes, comments and even concern about Microsoft Vine being a PC-only application during the Beta. It is true that during Beta the full and best experience will require a PC (they are still pretty popular…) but the service does allow you to Send/Receive Alerts to People you care about from any SMS device or Email client. Consumers need a PC to get registered and setup but if you don't have access to one at work, home or school you can use your Mobile device or email client on a Mac or browser etc. to get informed or to reach out for help from your contacts, without a PC.

After Beta we are planning on adding other platforms and user experiences that include Mobile apps, Facebook, a browser-based client, regular phone services, pagers, GPS devices, billboards and well, the list goes on and on. So, is Vine only for the PC users you care about? No….we plan on adding what people need in order to stay connected with one another.

Tell us what you need and we'll listen and adjust as necessary. Our only request is patience and understanding that we cannot add everything at once.

Thanks,
'GrapeVine'

Visit the Microsoft Vine Facebook page

2009-05-01T07:32:00Z

Visit our Facebook page and become a Fan!

Thanks,
"GrapeVine"

Twitter on Steroids?

2009-05-01T02:56:00Z

I wanted to post a message to clarify some comments about Microsoft building Vine to compete with Twitter, Facebook and other Social Network sites and tools. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Microsoft Vine was conceived and built from the beginning to allow people to continue using their favorite social network while allowing others to have a consolidated view of the people they care about the most. This isn’t new or even that novel an idea; it has been done by several startups and technology companies….”social network aggregators”. We just aim to take it one step further – to include all people using all the tools available. We want to include every person and allow them to participate through whatever technology they choose - email, text, voice, Instant Messaging, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or whatever people want to use next.

Microsoft Vine is not just another Social Network site or tool. It provides a way to keep track of places you care about, your friends and family and ask for and receive help. We aren’t going to compete with these other tools and we sure don’t think of ourselves as Twitter on Steroids J.

Thanks again,

‘GrapeVine’

Getting into the Beta

2009-05-01T00:02:00Z

First, let me thank you all for taking the time to come to the site, check out our videos, the demo and for registering for the Beta! Thank you for all the interest!

The buzz after announcing Microsoft Vine has been exciting, humbling and I can’t wait for you all to get a chance to try out the service. There have been a lot of questions posted around the ‘net and in my inbox asking how to get invited into the Beta. The answer is the same for everyone (Microsoft employees aren’t even getting special treatment) we will start sending out invitations to the broader community on a first come, first serve basis over the next two months. Right now we are focusing our attention to ensure that our Pilot customers are up and running.

We will be adding more and more users over time and I don’t see any reason why the people who’ve taken the time to register their email address with us won’t get in with time. Thanks for your patience and understanding through this beta testing phase. I know it may seem strange that we are controlling access like this but our main goal is to make sure the application works for the scenarios and people who were instrumental in helping us design the feature set first. With that information in hand we want to hear other points of view, ideas, gripes, complaints and hopefully praise from a larger audience.

Thanks again, stay tuned for more updates and information about Microsoft Vine.

Signing off for now,

‘GrapeVine’