PrintWhen eSwarm was launched in 2004, the co-founders moved from Palo Alto, Calif., to Boulder to research the fundamentals behind swarm theories in nature -- how animals use "strength in numbers" to their advantage. The crew wanted to apply the theories to humans and created a Web site to "harness the human potential in swarming."
After years of development and beta testing, eSwarm.com officially launched last week. The Web site was created as a means to improve current forums and social networking sites by allowing its users to "swarm" together and have conversations in a variety of topics. The Camera chatted with co-founder Matt Etlinger about the new company
1.
What is eSwarm?
ESwarm.com is the most simple and organized piece of technology on the Internet that allows friends and other like-minded people to have conversations that matter. The technology was built for the purpose of improving the existing social networking technologies on the standpoints of simplicity and organization and ease of use. But what we realized in our private testing is that people wanted to use eSwarm to have a voice in a relevant dialogue.
2.
How does this differ from existing social networking sites and online forums?
Let's take Twitter for example. Because Twitter asks you what are you doing, that's the question behind Twitter, the users are going to reflect content that is a reflection of what Twitter asks you. They say things like "I just woke up from a nap," or "I'm just leaving the game" ... the point with Twitter is that they're one-sided statements. With eSwarm, it truly is the most organized way to have a conversation at one time, simultaneously have conversations that matter because we ask you: "What do you think?"
3.
What were people's behaviors in the recent beta testing of the technology?
ESwarm mimics human behavior, it mimics conversations we find in human behavior. At eSwarm, we don't tell you what conversations should matter to you ... it just so happens that people who traditionally have voices in the real world that get riled up about political issues, sports and most contemporary issues that are hot, people are using eSwarm to have a voice in those same issues. I'd say what's hot in the news is what's hot on eSwarm.
4.
What are some of your near- and long-term goals for eSwarm?
In the near future, our goals right now are to continue to develop and hone the swarming experience so that we stay as the leader in user experience on the Internet when it comes to having a conversation with your friends and other like-minded people. As soon as possible, we hope to launch the PDA applications so on any Internet-ready cell phone you'll be able to stay connected to conversations.
5.
Do you have a grander vision for the technology?
I hope that eSwarm empowers anyone and gives them a voice in a relevant conversation in a conversation that matters. I also hope that this is extremely fun to use. We ultimately want to build a piece of technology that makes people's lives better. The long-term vision is for eSwarm, within two years, to be viewed as an unfiltered way to find out what's going on. But ultimately I truly believe that while this is just a simple piece of technology that allows friends to connect and have a conversation that matters ... The same reasons that birds swarm, the same reasons that ants swarm for food, that insects swarm for food. ...We have built a piece of technology that will make someone's life better.
-- Alicia Wallace
