You may also know of Ray Ozzie, the creator of Lotus Notes who went on to create Groove (another amazing collaborative application) that was later acquired by Microsoft.
Ray was named chief software architect at Redmond in 2006, ultimately taking over software strategy from Bill Gates, who stepped aside in 2008. Ray left Microsoft in 2010.
Well it seems Ray has been hard at work on his third startup Talko. Talko is a fascinating new app for the iPhone. Take a look at how Ray introduces his new baby here Welcome to Talko! - especially this segment (may emphasis in bold):
I passionately believe that there's immense latent potential in voice -- to convey tone and emotion, to quickly resolve issues, to make decisions and to get things done.
There's simply no faster and no more effective way to express essential emotions such as urgency, anxiety, understanding, confidence or trust.
Quite simply, amazing things can happen when we just choose to talk.
Credit: Welcome To Talko by Ray Ozzie
Looks like Ray and I feel the same about the power of voice and of the importance of conversation :-)
This is how TechCrunch describes the app:
Talko ... replaces your usual conference line with VOIP, cloud-based calls between team members. The app records the entire live conversation to make it accessible to those who can't tune in while it's going on. It also enables users to create bookmarks within the conversation and tag other users with action items.
Perhaps most importantly, the conversation doesn't end when a particular call is over. Any member of the team can start a new call or add voice-based follow ups to the conversation, and they will be shared asynchronously with the rest of the participants. By doing so, it makes certain that everyone is on the same page, whether they were able to call in or not. Users in a group can also add text and photos in line with the conversation, which get shared with all participants.
Credit: TechCrunch
I have many great tele-conversations with people and have long wished to record them in a useful way to play back later and reflect on the ideas and insights that surface and that are so often forgotten. Talko seems to be a great way of doing this and so much more.
If you have an iPhone - connect with me - I need a few people to chat with to experiment with the app.
