Biznik - Business Networking that Doesn’t Suck

If Joe McCarthy realizes his vision, future generations won’t think “fearmonger” when they hear his name. That’s because this Joe McCarthy, unlike the 50’s communist hunter remembered recently in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” has made it his business to connect people with information, not divide them with fear. In fact, he took the title “connector in chief” when he left behind cushy research jobs at Intel and Accenture to found his own company, Interrelativity. Its mission: to help people relate.

I met Joe a few weeks ago for lunch at the Seattle Public Library. The first thing I noticed about him (after we fled the place so we didn’t have to whisper), is that he’s a great listener. I realized at the end of lunch that I’d been talking my head off, while he listened very intently and actively as I shared my excitement about starting Biznik. But I’ll get out of the way now, and let Joe do the talking. Because what he’s got to say is really interesting, and it could revolutionize the way people relate in public places.

Q: Your profile states that “Interrelativity designs, develops and deploys integrated hardware and software solutions to help people relate to and connect with others in shared physical spaces.” Can you give us a scenario of how people might use this in real life? And is this product in use anywhere today?

People have already used our proactive displays– large computer displays that show content from people’s online profiles (e.g., name, affiliation and an image representing some interest or passion) when they are nearby, at three events: a 500-person conference, a 50-person workshop and a 40-person holiday party. The proactive display applications, which currently use a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to detect RFID tags inserted in name badges to figure out who is nearby, have resulted in some interesting, and sometimes unintended, social interactions at each event.

Our primary goal has been to help create conversation opportunities for people who don’t already know each other, and – fortunately – that has happened numerous times at each event. But many people have also learned interesting new things about people they already knew (”I never knew you were also into kitesurfing!”) and even the simple act of showing a person’s name on a large plasma display nearby helps those of us with poor memories for names save face by not having to glance down at the name tag of a person whose face we recognize. People have also used the proactive displays to stage what might be considered mini-performance pieces, by adopting personas that one might not typically associate with the actor, er, I mean, the person wearing the tag (of course, some might argue that we are all always performing, with varying degrees of awareness and intention, and the proactive displays simply help magnify the performances).

Q: What inspired you to found Interrelativity? Also, tell us a bit about your background, and how that prepared you for what you’re doing today.

I have a fundamental belief that we are all kindred spirits, with valuable insights and experiences to offer and/or receive from those around us. Most of us (including myself) rarely risk being open and vulnerable enough to truly engage with other people, and are far more isolated and disconnected than we need to be, to the detriment of us all. I don’t believe that everyone is going to want to share everything with everyone else every place they go, but I do believe there are places (e.g., coffeehouses, networking events, workplaces where there is a high degree of trust) where many of us would be willing share something more with those around us if the opportunity presented itself. Interrelativity is all about using the simplest possible technology in the least intrusive way to open up those opportunities.

I spent the 8 years prior to forming Interrelativity as a researcher at Accenture Technology Labs, and then Intel Research Seattle, exploring how technology can augment spaces to enhance them in ways that benefit their inhabitants. One of my favorite earlier projects was MusicFX, a system that adjusted the music playing in a fitness center to best suit the people working out at any given time, democratizing the music selection process (and I could tell you all kinds of fun stories about that system, which was in daily use by hundreds of people at a corporate fitness center over a three-year period). In addition to what might be called domain knowledge, other important factors that helped me prepare for pushing this technology through an entrepreneurial channel include passion, unbridled optimism and perseverance.

Q: Do you think people will ever get tired of typing in their name, address, uploading a photo, etc., to create profiles for services like yours or even Biznik for that matter, and just have a chip implanted with that info so it’s instantly accessible? Is that scenario very far away?

This is an excellent observation – I do think that people are already tiring of creating profiles on all the various social networking systems. Marc Canter and others are pushing for open standards for online identities (http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=12412_0_1_0_C) to simplify the transfer or reuse of profiles. The mission of Interrelativity is simply to provide the conduit between the richness of people’s online representations of themselves (e.g., via weblogs, photoblogs, and other social networking services) and their presence – in certain, explicitly “approved” places – in the physical world. We are currently providing a standalone profile registration capability to get this venture off the ground, but eventually we want to adopt open standards and/or facilitate the use of existing profiles (e.g., on Biznik or Flickr) wherever possible.

As for the implantable chip scenario, to quote William Gibson: “the future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed.”VeriChip Corporation, which has long produced implantable RFID chips for non-human animals, now offers a version that can be – and has been – implanted in humans. The VIP Baja Beach Club in Barcelona offers members the option of using either a magnetically striped card or an implanted RFID chip to gain access to – and pay for drinks at – the club (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3697940.stm). The Mexican Attorney General, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, and 160 people in his office have also had these chips implanted for a similar reason, to control access to restricted areas (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5439055/); U.S. officials have considered similar policies, but so far, no one I know of has taken the plunge (http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/verichip-thompson-no-implant.html).

We could certainly adapt the sensing module for proactive displays to detect implanted chips – though the VeriChip devices have a range of inches, rather than the more conversational distance of 12 feet or so we get with the tags we currently use. We will probably wait until the use of implanted RFID chips reaches critical mass.

Q: One of the things I noticed right away after meeting you is that you have a lot of passion for what you do, which seems to spread to just about everything you talk about. Do you think it’s important for anyone starting a business to share that quality?

As a researcher, the coin of the realm is “interestingness”– the way to get papers published is to report on interesting results that add knowledge to a field of study. Some researchers are passionate about what they do, but some are intentionally dispassionate, either because of a belief that any deeper level of engagement can disrupt the scientific process, or because they have compartmentalized their heads and their hearts. There was a time in my life when I was happy doing things that were simply interesting, but for better or worse, those days are past. I can only be happy when I am fully engaged in doing something that I believe offers benefits well beyond increasing our knowledge … something that increases our connectedness and sense of kinship and community … something about which I am deeply passionate.

In entrepreneuria, the coin of the realm is “marketability”– will people pay for the product or service I’m offering? Unlike academia, it’s not enough for the offering to be something that is “nice to have”, it has to be a “got to have” in order to sustain and grow a business. Enterpreneurship is supremely challenging: the success rate for entrepreneurs is far lower than for doctoral students, or faculty members seeking tenure, or businessfolk progressing in more established companies. I was talking about this issue with John Castle, with the Center for Technology Entrepreneurship at the University of Washington, who remarked that entrepreneurship represents the closest approximation to a meritocracy of any human system he knows of, which helps explain the unparalleled willingness I’ve witnessed (and directly experienced) of entrepreneurs to help each other out – the political posturing many people seem to feel is necessary for success in other realms just seems far less important in this realm.

Aside from extreme helpfulness, the other key feature that I see in nearly all entrepreneurs is passion. It may not be an absolutely necessary ingredient, but it sure does help one persevere through numerous challenges.

Q: What’s the most important piece of advice that you’d give to anyone starting their own business today?

One of the things I learned in my experience in 12-step programs is not to give advice. I am happy to share my own insights and experiences, but try to avoid the presumptuousness of giving advice. And so, in my experience, I have found that getting very clear about my mission – helping people relate to one another – helped me develop enough gumption to let go of a well-paid, stable and interesting job to risk pursuing something that I passionately believe will offer great value … without knowing exactly how I will be able to support myself and my family in doing so.

I have also found ever-increasing value in being open and vulnerable – admitting what I don’t know and asking for help … and (surprise!) often receiving it … though not always how, when or from where I might expect it. I’d like to share a quote here, often attributed to Harold Thurman Whitman, that helps keep me going:

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Joe’s blog is Gumption: Ruminations on inspiration, aspiration and perspiration.