ECHOER, A New Breed of Social Connectivity

Echoer is an app for iPhone (and soon Android) that enables you to see what other people around you are experiencing and thinking, not only in your social circles, but also in your immediate geographical area. The most recent and popular content becomes the most prominent, as it is "amplified" by others.

While Echoer is really just getting off the ground, I had the opportunity to ask Daniel Cowen, one of two co-founders, a couple of questions.

• JR: How did Echoer come about?
• DC: My co-founder and I have always been into tech, social media and location services, and it struck us as ironic that no matter how many friends you had on Facebook, or people you followed on Twitter, that you had no idea what people in the same place or watching the same event as you were thinking and experiencing. In other words: “location + realtime” was untouched.  We were also frustrated by the review space was, with outdated reviews and a cumbersome user interface. That's when we came up with Echoer. 
• JR: What is your vision for Echoer?
• DC: The vision for Echoer is to make it easy to see what other people are thinking and experiencing in the places around you. We are solving the problem of working out which thoughts are worth hearing; elevating the most recent and popular content above the noise. And its been designed to allow you to easily make an impact, either by adding your own voice or amplifying others.
• JR: Do you see Echoer as a social media or something else?
• DC:  In terms of social media or not... we see Echoer essentially as local discovery crossed with experience sharing.  There's an obviously social element to that which we will build out in due course, but the social side of things is not the priority right now. The priority is helping you discover the best and worth of what the people around you are saying.

 If you're interested in getting in on the ground floor of this new flavor of social media and connectivity, the following are methods of gaining information: Echoer's website, Teaser Video on YouTube, Demo Video on YouTube, on Facebook, on Google+, and on Twitter.

All photos on this page are screenshots from my use of Echoer on my iPhone.