Kyle
While we try to manage our hashtags on Twitter every now and then we find that we deviate to make sure the umpteen hundred hashtags for events, startups and the like are all hit to gather the same news. When we’re at an event, conference or convention, those hash tags get worse.
Take the International Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas every January for instance. At this years CES there were people using #CES #CES2012 #CES12 #EurekaPark #CESLasVegas #CESLV and several other variants. What’s Shakin handles that problem.
What’s Shakin is able to manage the social media throughput at an event, or venue by location. Now it’s not about the tag but rather the location the tag was created in, providing people are using geolocation in conjunction with the tags.
Now if you wanted to keep up with the social activity at the One Direction concert you don’t have to track 20 different hash tags, just one location with What’s Shakin.
We got to talk to Chris Hashley (I know great last name for this right?), about What’s Shakin in the interview below the break.
What is What’s Shakin and Blue Sphere?
What’s Shakin’ is the first mobile product we developed internally, not for any particular client use. Its purpose is to be able to follow places instead of people, as is the case for many other social media apps. Blue Sphere Solutions was the incubator. Blue Sphere is a software development consultancy in business for 13 years.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Blue Sphere founders are myself (Chris Hashley) and Steve Goulet. Backgrounds are here — http://bluesphereinc.com/
About_Us/Leadership.aspx?p=2& b=4
What’s Shakin was founded by Me and several members of our team, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blue Sphere. Its purpose was to deliver the product incorporating Lean Startup methodologies?
Where are you based?
Grand Rapids, MI
What is the problem that whatshakin solves?
Too many hashtags. As an example, I was interested in the Microsoft announcement earlier this evening. As the event excitement built up, the hashtags ranged from #MicrosoftAnnouncement, #MicrosoftMystery, etc. then the show started and they announced what it was so the hashtag changed to #MicrosoftTablet, #IpadKiller, etc. Then they announced what it will be named #Surface
On What’s Shakin’, all I needed to do was follow the venue – Milk Studios in LA – and I got them all, assuming they were geo-tagged tweets, from those I follow and those I don’t. Some with hashtags, some without. In every circumstance of interest when I use it, I inevitably find a few new people to follow, because they are interested in the same things I am interested in at that point in time. So, it complements the Twitter hashtag system in cases where the hashtag holds geographical significance.
Secret sauce is that you can use the app, in read-only mode, to listen upon any geographical area. E.g. parents that want to maintain some semblance of monitoring their kids safety or whereabouts, without kids being ‘uncool’ because their parents follow them. If you want to post, you have to create an account.
Additional sauce is that we are actively looking to incorporate many networks, not just Twitter. You can cross-post to Facebook, though their interface for geo is slightly clunkier to work with.
What’s one challenge you’ve faced in the startup process
Twitter Search API being broken, for geo-results, for several months, during development. Then fixed, then broken, then fixed. They haven’t been able to get it dialed in.
What is next for whatshakin and BlueSphere?
We are currently our own consumers for our own API, to get it dialed in. Next up is a “Detroit Tigers” version, should hit the app store approval process within a week – to prove out the possibility for third party developers building upon it. Secondarily, this experiment will also seek to prove the market’s ability to want to pay to follow an entity. In this case, a sports team. The same model, if proven successful, could expand to following a band, an event (Olympics, WWDC, etc), or a league (NFL, NASCAR).
Linkage:
Find out more about What’s Shakinhere at this link
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