Highlight’s Paul Davison And The Immediate In-depth Connection
March 13, 2012
The modern age strained connections, partly because we are no longer as reliant on the family and friends. Though I'm sure this last recession has been a reminder to all of the importance of those unbreakable bonds.
One idea that's fascinated me, and has been something of an odyssey for me in my travels from the UK, CA, WA, Boston, NC and back, has been culture and the ability to connect with people.
Some say we've become less connected through modern life, yet then the web appeared and it threw a spanner in the works of a lack of connection.
Now, some say we are more connected, but there's less depth to those connections.
There maybe an answer to that lack of depth with Highlight.
Highlight is a social discovery app and the app created a lot of buzz at SXSW.
Quickly: The idea is that by merely signing up for the app, setting privacy settings, you can find and share information with people around you. Highlight automatically finds people and their connection to you in real-time, and near you as you walk around the world.
Check out this video, where Alexia Tsotsis from Huffington Post interviews Highlight founder Paul Davison, who gives a very thoughtful story of his app, ideas, and the future of a world where we can connect to strangers.
I'm particularly interested in the ability to find and share information with people nearby, because I'm reminded of the idea, VRM from Doc Searls, that’s the idea that people use tools provided by companies to manage their relationships with companies.
Yet, in the video, Paul Davison does a good job of not worrying about the business model immediately and focuses on how he wants to push his app’s technology and design forward to make it more useful to discover connections as we walk in the world.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google all give us tools to find and make connections with people through the web, but, that's often behind a closed door, and not immediate.
Highlight makes the connection, but it’s immediate, and you can reach out to speak in person with your new connection.