It's all relevant

When you're developing a product (especially a piece of software) its always important to be clear about how you are different from the other guys. There is a lot of cynicism out there and people can be quick to dismiss an idea because they don't wait to hear the details.

But as they say, the devil... is in the details.

Imagine when Google was just starting up. One could have been forgiven for saying "The world does not need another search engine." - There were plenty of them. But while Google's service looked like every other service out there (a search box on a page) their implementation and resulting value proposition changed the world. What if an incoming link was a vote of confidence for a page? What a thought!

For us, we were concerned that people would confuse us with a Widget, or worse, a Gadget/Widget platform. Another concern was that people would confuse us with a Feed Reader.

But in the end, one can only plan so much - public reaction will always take on a life of its own. When that happens, you just have to clarify your message.

Judging from the TechCrunch reaction most people seemed to understand the power of Touchstone and its Personal Relevancy technology. I don't think Widgets or Gadgets were mentioned once!

But there are always those people who missed the key details that make it all unique and interesting. So I thought I would take the time (again) to answer the two biggest concerns (as far as I could tell).

1. "Why would I use Touchstone if I have already love my Feed Reader"
2. "How could I possibly be expected to configure all the keywords I want to filter"

Well..

1. For users who like their Feed Reader of choice, Touchstone does not replace it. It is a companion. You can read your news in your feed reader, and you can glance at Touchstone while your not in your feed reader. For many, however, using Touchstone as a way of staying informed while they work on their real job (a job that is probably NOT in IT) is more than adequate for their needs. Besides - RSS is not just about news reading.

2. Touchstone is not a keyword filter. It is an Attention Management Engine using Personal Relevance and Alerting as the key technology and presentation style. It can (with your permission) scan your computer (periodically) and create an automatic profile for what you care about. This information, along with other factors, allows Touchstone to RANK items; not Filter them. Because items are ranked, you/we can do much more interesting things with them than just filtering them out. Things like measured disruption.

Feeling the Crunch

One of the nice things about getting 'TechCrunched' is the resulting feedback from fellow information junkies and software enthusiasts who understand and appreciate the work you're doing.

So I thought I would share some of the best public comments made so far - there have been many more private emails but I don't want to quote them without permission.

First from Marshall from Techcrunch itself - his review was very generous and his enthusiasm for what we are doing was greatly appreciated (of course can't forget Ouriel who brought it to Marshall's attention!).

"I love RSS, I love IM and I love the concept of Attention Data. Wrap it all up together and put a just-in-time bow on top and what do you get? The Touchstone Attention Management Engine. I love it."

Next is Michael Mahemoff on his blog:

"Props to the Touchstone team for receiving funding, getting a glowing TechCrunch reception and generally heading in a positive direction... this is exactly the kind of situation where it makes sense to inject funds and build something big... There’s no standard like Growl on Windows, and Touchstone has every chance of becoming that standard - it would allow Growlish behavior and a whole lot more."

Some comments on the TechCrunch article itself.

From Tygh

"I have been lucky enough to get a sneak peek at Touchstone (gotta love the invite system!!) and so far it is unreal!! I subscribe to a heap of RSS feeds from various locations, and find it effective in terms of only notifying me of what I want!! I can’t wait to see what they do next (and I hear there is heaps more in the pipeline too)."

From SuperHelix

"If the Touchstone application is truly a “thinking” system with built-in AI and can create its own content filters based on observing keystrokes/site visits/tagging/email content/RSS feeds/preferences/etc., it addresses a legitimate need in the market to manage information overload. I could even see my folks getting excited about that, which = scalability"

Of course there were some questions about the viability of alerts for full-fledged RSS consumption etc but I think most people have understood the idea that Touchstone is a companion (not a replacement) to your feed reader and other full-screen applications. It's for those times that you're being productive - but you still want to stay informed.

Thanks to all those who have commented publicly and privately so far, and thanks to those who have signed up to our mailing list or registered as Adapter Developers (look forward to giving away that XBOX) - Will be interesting to see what comes next!

Round of funding for Touchstone Announced

As you may have seen on TechCrunch, we have announced that the Touchstone team has accepted a round of Angel funding from a local investor. I'd like to thank Marshall, Michael and Ouriel from TechCrunch for being so kind and generous with their time and giving us so much praise in the post!

We are very excited about the possibilities of Touchstone to help people filter their incoming information and stay informed while they work. By closing this round we will be able to accelerate our development and strengthen our position as the first client-side attention management platform.

Here's the official sounding press release for your reference.

FYI "Faraday Media" is the name of the newly formed parent company.

Faraday Media announce significant local funding for Touchstone development

Faraday Media today announce they have accepted significant funding from a local investor to accelerate development of Touchstone, the first Client-Side Alerting and Attention Management Engine.

Touchstone is designed to allow users to manage what information is important to them and how that information is displayed.

The recent trend towards web-based/social software and syndication via RSS and Atom has resulted in many users suffering from information overload. Touchstone helps to filter the noise. The application can model a user’s interests and then compare incoming information against their personal profile. In this way they are only interrupted by personally relevant information.

“Touchstone offers an opportunity for RSS to hit the mainstream by delivering information in a way that makes sense to the average user.” said co-founder of Faraday Media, Chris Saad.

The funding comes amid testing and collaboration by early adopters in a variety of industries including media, financial services, application development and attention management. The common thread is a desire to empower people to stay informed without getting overwhelmed or distracted.

“This is uncharted territory when you consider we are combining both alerting and attention management on the client-side.” says Ashley Angell co-founder of Faraday Media. “We are gratified that our efforts are being recognised by users globally and local investors alike.”

About the Company

Faraday Media Develops Touchstone – the first Client-Side Attention Management Engine. It is designed to simply and effectively cater to a diverse range of customers.

For Individuals Touchstone helps users tune out the noise so that they can focus on what matters while they work.

For Publishers and Application Developers Touchstone helps publishers and application developers reach their audience and users so that they can alert them to new information in real-time.

For the Enterprise Touchstone helps management to deliver messages to staff and customers in a way that bypasses the spam filled email inbox and allows staff to keep track of important industry information and competitor analysis.

Please contact me if you have any questions at chris@touchstonegadget.com

OPML is just a contents page

I was just talking to my good friend Marjolein on skype and we were talking about how people are focusing on OPML as a great way of describing someone's attention.

I was trying to explain our Personal Relevancy engine and how it's Attention Profile differed from straight OPML when out of nowhere a quick metaphor popped into my head. I thought I'd share.

OPML is like a contents page
Touchstone indexes the whole book

Win an XBOX 360 or one of four iPod Nanos

Today we are announcing a competition for developers who might be interested in writing an Adapter for Touchstone.

We are going to give away an XBOX 360 and 4 iPod Nanos to the most popular adapters developed over the next few months (as voted by the community).

Check out the competition page for more info.

Please spread the word to all your friends and colleagues and any forums/blogs you might have access to (without spamming of course) – it would really be appreciated!

Competition Page

Wallpaper fun

Some wallpaper fun for the peeps.

The Audience has left the Building

There is no more audience. There are no more users. There are only participants. Participants do not passively consume what an author, creator, director, developer, editor, critic or media outlet has to publish. They do not accept the authority. They do not sit silently ready to have their eyeballs converted into cash.

Participants participate. They create their own original information, entertainment and art. They remix their own version of mainstream pop culture - copyrighted or not. They post their thoughts, publish their fears and fact check every announcement. They share with their friends and discover the quirky and interesting making it an instant blockbuster – at least for 15 minutes.

Participants are no longer eyeballs to be converted. They are ideas to be declared. Individually they are a market of one. Collectively they are a trend, a publishing powerhouse and a voice to be heard. A voice that has something to say.

Anecdotally participants have changed the way media is published and interactions are monetized. But more broadly and importantly than that, they have changed the flow of global information from top down to bottom up. They are changing the tone and tempo of the conversation.

Elvis? Who is he? It's the audience who has left the building. All that's left are fellow participants. We are all authors, creators, directors, developers, editors, critics and media outlets. We are a million voices saying one thing - listen to me.

Are you paying attention?

Microsoft entering our market is great news... Bullsh#t!

I have heard a number of podcasts recently where feed reader vendors are asked the question "How do you feel about Microsoft including RSS support in IE7 and feed reading in Outlook.

And the answer is always "Oh we are very happy because this helps to bring feed reading to the mainstream and it will only help us grow the market together".

Sorry but this is crap.

I agree that a universal subscriptions store in IE7 is great for the entire RSS ecosystem on the client side, however integrating feed reading into Outlook 2007 is basically the death nail for 90% of use-case-scenarios for 90% of users in the 'reading feeds like email' space.

I think it spells the beginning of the end of the smaller vendors and the marginalization of the bigger players. Sure Outlook's feed reading features are no where near as good as Attensa or Feeddemon right now, but give it a little time.

Like with all of it's marketplace battles, Microsoft does not need to release the best product, only the most tightly integrated out-of-the-box 'good enough' solution.

The answer to the Microsoft question cannot be "Oh it's great, it grows the market". That's a lie. Because the question is not the size of the market, it's the size of the opportunity. And the increase in market size by Microsoft results in more Microsoft customers, not more opportunity.

We are working hard to release the first Beta and we will then be announcing features/extensions that will further differentiate Touchstone (The Attention Management Platform) from feed readers and gadgets/widgets (as if it needed more).

Now THAT'S customer service

Google sent a blogger a bottle of Aspirin because he had blogged that they were giving him a headache.

Classic.

Attention Context Zones

Mike Gotta has a great post about the need for various tools (including filters) that help users to get a better, content sensitive awareness of the information that matters to them. He calls it Thinking of Communication in Terms of Context Zones.

His diagram seems very similar to our diagram in terms of the message it's trying to convey.

I'd love to have people like Mike in our Advisory Group.

The challenges of entrepreneurship

I just listened to another great podcast by Cameron Reilly on The Podcast Network that really resonated with me. In the latest G'day world he talks about the challenges in finding good business and strategic partners, good people and even investors that follow through on their promises.

Most of his observations really resonated with me and I know that my own similar experiences have really stifled and frustrated me no end in my entrepreneurial activities.

So if any of you think you might be interested in listing to podcasts, or perhaps want to put your brand in front of a substantial audience - consider listening to or advertising on Cam's TPN!

In semi-related news... I've had the radio bug big time since doing my interview with Cameron - I need to record something.

What if the 'Rocketboom Incident' was a stunt

Wouldn't it be funny if the Rocketboom Incident was their equivalent of the purple cow.

Many credit them as the pioneers of Video Blogging but recently they had become just one of many video podcasts out there. This incident sure has helped them get back into the headlines and even on MSNBC etc... So maybe it was one big publicity stunt?

After all Amanda still owns 49%.

Hmm..

I'd like to take this opportunity to Tell my partner Ashley and all our fans out there that I quit Touchstone... *sits by the phone waiting for MSNBC to call*

New media is Now

New Media is an old word to describe the changing media landscape. But you know New Media has arrived when the oldest form of measuring the old media (Neilsen) - starts counting new media in its statistics - Welcome Anywhere Anytime Media Measurement.

Via Attention Trust

Making something meaningful

Lately I have been thinking a bit about making something meaningful. Coincidently I just stumbled across a great article by Anil Dash that Touches on that subject.

I particularly like this quote:

Does this product, service, feature, or message enhance and improve our quality of life? Does it help us protect, filter, create a meaningful connection?

Now That's Feedback!

Chris Pirillo provides great feedback to the Windows Vista team. While I'd hate to have that many items on our todo list, it's always great to get this sort of detailed feedback!

Update: Oh wait -we do have that many items on our todo list.

Production, Distribution, Search/Filter

Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine was recently on the Media Center Show and he mentioned that the long tail has been made possible by virtue of 3 factors:

1. Production has become easy for the general public.
2. Distribution now costs nothing (shelf space is a database entry).
3. Search is now very, very good and brings a geographically diverse audience to niche content.

The long tail is something I have been very interested in for many years but Chris' conversation about filters being the next most important aspect of making the long tail possible got me thinking. He mentioned that services like YouTube were still only showing part of the picture and that search engines like Google still showed what was popular rather than what was personally relevant. He suggested that a better, more personalized filter was needed.

Imagine a Personal Relevancy Engine that lived on the client-side instead of the server side. A smart agent that could have a meta view of your interests by tracking your clicks across websites, RSS feeds, documents you read and conversations you have and could help you discover and filter niche content by allowing you to:

1. Subscribe to sources you care about
2. Set rules for what's important
3. Get a heads-up-display while you work

I think that's a great idea. I will call it Touchstone ;)

Touchstone on the 2web Podcast

Cameron Reilly from The Podcast Network and the 2web crew and I had a chat about Touchstone tonight, You can catch the podcast on the 2web crew podcast page.

Listen to it here.

Thanks to Cameron for the opportunity to have the chat - always great to 'meet' like minded aussies!

One to Make Aaron Sorkin Proud!

Sometimes, American politicians confuse me. How do some of these polititions they get enough votes to get into office. Perhaps my expectations are set too high by the banter of Josh Lyman and Jed Bartlet (you know the guys from everybody's favourite political drama).

But every so often you hear something from people like Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) who like to give us meaningful reasons of why he voted against Net Neutrality and "gave an amazing primer on how the internet works".

There's one company now where you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.

But this service isn't going to go through the internet and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.

So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this internet to communicate and we aren't using it for commercial purposes.

We aren't earning anything by going on that internet. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discrimnate against those people [...]

The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the internet". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time. [?]

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Now we have a separate Department of Defense internet now, did you know that?

Do you know why?

Because they have to have theirs delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people.

[...]

Now I think these people are arguing whether they should be able to dump all that stuff on the internet ought to consider if they should develop a system themselves.

Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day.

It's not using the messaging service that is essential to small businesses, to our operation of families.

The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a viloation of net neutraility that hits you and me.

Oh, so THATs how the Internet works?
Perhps someone should show the Senator which "pipe" google is in. It might help him string a sentence together.

Blogger Fatigue

Is it just me - or has there been some sort of slow-down in the blog-o-sphere. I know that a number of the 'second tier' bloggers (that is individuals that don't necessarily do it for a living but used to do it a LOT) have become quite infrequent in their posts.

Including me...

I know for me it has been because we are busy with Touchstone and trying to really hammer home the public version. It has also been a lack of other posts to riff off.

Maybe it's just my perception - I am sure there are metrics out there to prove me wrong.