How do you pronounce it?

'Sho' rhymes with Yo!

So...what is i-Sho?

I-Sho is a Free software application that’s linked to the internet that you download to your PC. It organises all the photos, videos, documents, music and other files into a timeline that we call a Channel. Channels can be shared with other people.

Its Like a Digital Diary then?

Exactly, think part filofax part folder, you can have lots of channels and thousands of different files in each channel. All the files are organised along a timeline making things easy to find.

I’ve heard it mentioned as a Lifecaching tool, what does this mean?

Our digital lives are getting more and more cluttered. From phones to videos, cameras to pcs we can all create a constant stream of graphical and textual information. Right now most of us just file it somehow, somewhere. We don’t often use it, back it up or archive it, generally we cannot share it because there’s too much and we cannot organise it easily.

i-Sho takes this soup of personal digital info and arranges it so that our lives can be viewed, accessed and shared in a personal and uniquely compelling way.

Peoples lives can be viewed in parallel streams alongside each other, giving fascinating snapshots of weekends, parties and children growing up.

How do I share stuff?

Channels can be published to the Hub, this is a central server, where friends and colleagues can download and access your channels.

Is this also a social networking tool?

Yes, In many ways this is about the original concept of social networking though, one in which the network exists because everyone benefits. They may be networks of one or two close friends, eight colleagues from an office or just a close family. However they may be wider networks that coexist around schools or clubs, hobbies or interest groups. Some of these groups may overlap or join with one another. I-Sho is all about close knit groups of like minded people, not massive expanding ‘web communities’ of profiles. 

Is it 'Safer' than Social Networking websites?

We believe it is, users themselves control the permissions they set on channels. We don't have channels with content that can be viewed by everyone. This means that a user may decide to give their close friends or colleagues 'full' permission status, whereas strangers are given a 'view only' permission so they cannot contribute content.

In a school specific people can be given specific permission and therefore because its a closed group, i-Sho  creates a much safer network.

Does everyone need the software?

Yes, anyone who wants to see your channels and organise their own files will need to download the Free software.

Why don’t you just use a website like all the others?

Because there are many restrictions, for one thing our software looks and performs like no website you have ever been to.

You can’t manipulate, organise, store and share files using a simple website the way you can with i-Sho

Our software is a really incredible desktop tool that lets you view everyones channels in a way that is unique.

You can drag and drop files between channels as simply as if it were within windows.

You are severely limited by what you can upload and share on a website.

You can’t find and organise all the files on your PC using a website.

Finally, our method is safer than a website for individuals, schools and business.

I use email at the moment what’s the advantage if all I want to do is share pictures?

Emails great if all you want to do is share one or two small snaps, it won’t work at all though if you want to send a selection of 40 pictures from the weekend or if all the other friends want to show you their pictures as well.

File sharing sounds a lot like P2P

This is not P2P you choose where your files are stored, either locally (on your own PC) or centrally on the Hub (where anyone you choose can see them).

So this isn’t just another public photo-sharing web site like Flickr or Fotolog.

No, this is for the majority of people who simply want to share things with people they already know like friends, family and colleagues, and not just pictures remember!

Not just Photo’s then?

This is the real difference, with i-Sho you can organise and share anything you like, whenever and wherever you like.

Is it like a Blog?

In some ways yes, but its for everyone who doesn’t eally care about blogging but does care about communicating visually and collaborating. It has a blogging element in that you can attach notes to days with comments for others to see.

Give me an example.

Ok, lets say you are a mum or grandmum with grown up children or grandchildren. With i-Sho you can have everyone in the family contribute pictures and videos, whenever they want. Then you can all share a visual diary of everybody’s lives, Mum can watch the children as they grow. Best of all the pictures are all stored safely, so that they can’t get lost or damaged. Everyone in the family wherever they are can add documents as well.

How does it organise my files?

All digital files have some kind of timestamp on them, with pictures and videos its when they were taken. With documents its when they were written or changed. Our software arranges the files so they appear in a horizontal timeline. This way you can see the pictures in the day they were taken, you can also view all the pictures in a week or a month or a year. Don’t forget this applies to every other file type as well.

So if I can organise and view all my files by time why is this better?

Because, we humans are not very good at organising things by titles and folders and hierarchies. If I take a great picture of my son, how do I file it? What do I call it, Where do I put it? And finally how do I find it? Each question demands a decision from you. With i-Sho no decision is required. you take a great picture, it puts it in the day you took it, to find it just look for the day, if you can’t remember the day look in the month or year.

Is this a completely unstructured organisation system?

Not entirely, because you can choose to have multiple Channels (timelines). These channels can be categories. For instance a small architectural practice may have a channel for every client, a school may maintain a classroom diary for every year, a home user may have different categories for different interests and hobbies.

Is i-Sho Free?

The software is completely free, not only that but we also give you 250MB of storage for free as well!

How much is 250Mb of storage?

This will depend on the size of your pictures, videos or documents. As they all vary its impossible to detail. But as a guide it will let you store 250 1mb pictures or 10,000 pages of A4 text.

Does this mean I can use it as an off site back up tool?

Absolutely, depending on how you decide to use it, back up can be part of the ‘DNA’ within the software.

How do you make money?

Right now we don’t, i-Sho has been set up by us the founders in our spare time as an experiment, see our vision.

These are early days and when you download the software you are taking part in an early beta phase test.

Because servers and storage are expensive we will have to charge a nominal storage charge for anyone requiring more. We also have Adsho’s which are tiggered when you do searches. If you want to support us please click on the adsho’s or upgrade your storage, we’d really appreciate it.

Can we give you feedback and suggestions?

Yes please, we really, really want to hear from everyone, good bad or indifferent.

We like suggestions that will improve the software usability.

Suggestions for features that will make it useful in specific areas or generally.

Bugs that really bug you, and issues that infuriate you.

We also need to build up a picture of how the software is being used and in what context.

We are sure that i-Sho can be used in ways that we haven’t even thought of, so let us know.

Are there any Rules?

I’m afraid so, i-Sho is for everyone and for that reason we have had to ensure that the usual rules apply when posting content. What you store in channels on your own PC is your business but Channels that are published to the Hub and shared with others will need to conform to our software Terms and Conditions.

What is your Privacy Policy?

We take your privacy extremely seriously. We never monitor content and we never share your personal information with anyone whatsoever. Take a look at our Privacy Policy

What if I don’t want anyone to see the channels I Publish to the Hub?

Then no one will, If you don’t set permission for anyone else then only you can see it. You can also ensure that your channel won’t come up in any searches.