Friendster to Timelinks
Friendster blew me away. I remember the first time I heard about it, I was playing poker with a friend who had just signed up. I didn’t need to see it to instantly understand how dramatically the world was about to change. The force of the idea was immense - connect everybody, six degrees of separation, genius. I signed up immediately and with each new iteration on the theme, LinkedIn, Myspace, Facebook, I expected the whole concept to move forward. It never really did, it just became a little more user friendly. And then one day in 2006 the solution hit me, every single human being could be seen as a trajectory leaving a trail of information. That trail knows everything about who you are, what you do, and with whom you interact. That trail could be used to reveal an astonishing depth of information, tell your life story, chronicle your experience, connect you to everyone with whom your life has intersected… I came to the conclusion that the answer was a timeline. I spent the next five years concocting a plan to launch a timeline business. I met with scores of angel investors, VCs, CEOs, and people from Facebook and now my company, International Time Machines is launching our website, Timelinks. The journey of creating this company was, like all journeys through time, multidimensional and multifaceted. In the coming weeks I’m going to tell that story here, discuss the power of chronologies, and keep you updated about the development of Timelinks.me.