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No More Writer's Cramp: Online Journaling
Jamie Millis, Scroll Staff WriterThe world of print is evolving. From newspapers to books, computers and the Internet are changing the way people interact with print media, including personal journals.
In 2006, BYU-Provo students Jeff Harmon, a senior studying business marketing; Benton Crane, a senior studying economics; and Neal Harmon, a BYU alumnus, created an online journaling company, Pyxlin’.
After trying out Memory Press, an online site where members can create different types of memory books, Crane and the Harmons decided to create a business that would be specific for online journaling.
Paul Allen, founder of www.myfamily.com and www.ancestry.com, encouraged Neal to start Pyxlin’.
“He was a mentor to me,” Neal said.
Also, when Neal and his wife were expecting their first baby, Michael, they wanted to collect and save the stories from Grandpa Harmon.
Pyxlin' was created to preserve memories but also make journaling easier.
“People in general just have a desire to keep journal. Using the Internet simply makes journaling way easier,” said Jeff.
Janelle Ivins, a freshman studying photography, is an avid journal writer and doesn't miss a night.
“I've thought about trying it [online journaling], but I like writing with the journal on my lap. But I think it's great; it's smart. It's a way of doing it easier,” Ivins said. “I think it will help get some people who don't write in a journal to write. I think it's great for those who like computers. At some point everything is going to be on computers, so why not start with a journal?”
Neal said that people are changing their attitudes about putting private things online.
According to the company's Web site, www.familylearn.com, Pyxlin' takes privacy and security very seriously. The site does not allow advertisers or spam, and every journal is password-protected.
In a survey conducted by Pyxlin’ of over 3,000 people, 37 percent of journal-writers had lost a journal due to accidents or misplacements. With Pyxlin’, all journals are backed up with multiple servers, so if one server fails, the journal won’t be lost.
Since the creation of the company, Neal said that membership had reached 700 the last time he checked.
“We get probably 100 new subscriptions every month,” Neal said.
Monthly memberships cost $4 per month, or a year’s subscription is $1.67 per month.
For those who would like to hold their finished product, Pyxlin' will publish an archival-quality copy and guarantee binding for life.
