According to a CES recent report, at the end of 2013, about
50 billion mobile apps have been downloaded.
ABI Research predicted it to be 56 billion
while Portio Research’s forecast was 82 billion. Both project that, in 2017, there could be
200 billion downloads.
In a world where the number of mobile cellular subscribers
total 6.835 billion globally, the mobile apps have defined what our planet is
and will be.
In search of gadgets, apps, and technologies
that could be considered “Miracle, Magic, or Mind-Boggling”, I attended the
2014 International CES in Las Vegas, Nevada as I have done over the past ten years.
What makes my last CES trip distinctly significant and most
satisfying was the discovery of a new mobile app called SocialRadar. It is seemingly ordinary software but when
applied and adopted by ordinary people, it gives them extra-ordinary powers
that they could never have imagined. Its
extensive usage could actually revolutionize the way they think and live.
Only launched on Thursday, January 30, 2014, I
was lucky to have participated in Beta Tests conducted earlier, so I have been
privy to its capabilities and features albeit on a limited basis. But as I heard and listened to the
explanation and demonstration of Michael Chasen, the company’s founding CEO,
and as I get to test the app, I have no doubts about its potential and its
ability to attract the number of users that social networks have successfully
done.
In their press release, SocialRadar is described as “an
innovative iPhone application that gives you real-time information about the
people around you.” It combines real-time social network information with geo-location
data in an app that is easy and fun to use.
When you walk into a room, enter a restaurant,
attend a conference, or go to an event, SocialRadar tells you who are there,
how you are connected to them and what they have been up to. Isn’t that
amazing?
This could happen because SocialRadar unlocks the location
information from your smartphone, listening to your social network chatter to
deliver the important and relevant information you need about the people around
you. And it does so while giving you full control over your privacy, enabling
you to share information publicly, with friends only, anonymously, or be
entirely invisible. It sounds like magic, doesn’t it?
This mind-boggling technology actually works by
merging data from all of the top social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare and Google+ with live location information from
your smartphone to empower people to make smarter real-world connections.
You are already making your profile, photos, status updates,
tweets, location, and other information available online either to the public,
to your friends only, or to your friends’ friends. In turn, you also get similar or more limited
information. What is more important is
that you get them wherever they or you are, and in real time. Is this a
“miracle” or not?
SocialRadar CEO Michael Chasen projects
that "In five years, there will be
5.6 billion people around the globe using smartphones who can broadcast their
locations and today 3.9 billion people have social profiles online.”
He also reiterates “our vision was to create
technology that combines the smartphone's location and the power of social
networks, empowering people to walk into a room and be aware of the people and
connections around them.”
Indeed, we can all find so
many uses for SocialRadar.
 |
In a few days, I will be attending LegalTech 2014 in
New York. I will be using my iPhone and
the SocialRadar app. As I join the others in the sessions, around the exhibit
floor, or in any of the events, I would not be surprised if I recognize several
lawyers I know, some former work colleagues, a few from American University,
George Washington University, San Beda College of Law and De La Salle
University – my Alma Maters; and even some old high school friends from
Huntington Beach High in California or Rosales Municipal High in the
Philippines. I will also know what
sports some play; one’s job or who has a new one; and other info that my
SocialRadar could intelligently provide as sourced from the social networks.
In a city that never
sleeps, I should no longer worry about where to look for my friends in the
evening. I expect SocialRadar to help me
on this one!
I am always interested in meeting new people.
SocialRadar should be able to help me meet people with common backgrounds,
hobbies, causes or interests. Given its
features, SocialRadar could be a portable icebreaker, confidently empowering me
to make connections with people in an unfamiliar place.
In many other occasions,
SocialRadar can help you remember how you know someone across the table that
you are sure you have met before. It can
pull relevant data about the person.
The timely launching of SocialRadar would certainly
help me in the LegalTech 2014 New York conference.
In an article on Social
Revolution, James VanHise, wrote, “Revolution is not something that is created
by political elites, but rather by ordinary people when they change the way
they think and live.”
In a mobile and digital world where users and consumers
change the way they act, behave, and live as new technologies and apps
correspondingly affected their way of thinking.
To ordinary people, the effects could be “miraculous, magical or
mind-boggling” but revolutionary nonetheless.
And social changes would be inevitable!
I have several reasons why I think that
SocialRadar would find social acceptance in the mobile and digital world.
First, the app empowers the user. It is revolutionary and
capable of changing user’s ways.
Second, it combines and integrates data and
location that users have already made available to the public or to certain
personalities in the top social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Instagram, Foursquare and Google+.
 |
| Michael Chasen, SocialRadar CEO |
Third, its leader, Michael Chasen, has a proven success
record. Armed with a Computer Programming
Degree from American University, and an MBA from Georgetown, he pioneered the
E-Learning technology – Blackboard. It became the standard for more than 30,000
universities worldwide. Selling it for
about $2 billion, he is now entering into a new venture no less challenging but
more revolutionary in a planet with billions of downloaded apps.
Fourth, the new venture is backed by a group of
successful IT Entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists who are as convinced of
SocialRadar and Michael Chasen’s vision. Just to mention a few of them: Dave
Morin, Steve Case, Kevin Colleran, Dayna Grayson, Dan Mindus, and Joshua Bogart.
Last, but not least, Michael Chasen is surrounded by a
competent, experienced, efficient and
effective Management Team.
(a)
Ghafran Abbas is the Chief
Systems Architect and co-founder of SocialRadar. Ghafran was the Chief Architect at TenPearls and Principal Engineer at
Time Warner Cable. He has received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in
information systems from Johns Hopkins University
(b)
Kevin Alansky is the Chief Marketing Officer and a
co-founder of SocialRadar. Kevin spent
12 years at Blackboard where he played a key role in integrating social media
into the corporate marketing strategy.
(c)
Shana Glenzer is
the VP of Social Marketing at SocialRadar. Before joining SocialRadar, Shana
worked as an online marketing and advertising consultant at R2Integrated. Prior
to that, she had an eight-year tenure at Blackboard.
(d)
John Fontaine - VP Google Glass. John leads
SocialRadar's Google Glass and developer partnership team. Prior to joining
SocialRadar, John pioneered core Internet technologies at Blackboard. He was a principal author of Blackboard
Learn, the hybrid and distance learning.
Let us join the Social Revolution!
Download the app from the Apple Store.
It is FREE!
it's not available here in the Philippines yet...:(
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