Although the recent emergence of online tools such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter has significantly improved the world’s communication and collaboration capabilities, the World Connect team believes that there is much more that can be done.  The current architecture of most social networking and media distribution sites puts the user on the inside of a very complex and dynamic system.  Users are often constrained to continually travel from one profile to another, read a concatenated summary of their networks’ recent actions, or view a subset of media questionable in relevance.  There is no concept of a global view on these sites and it is not easy to get a sense of the actions and sentiments of the overall user community.

World Connect seeks to fill this gap by creating a live media collection and distribution network with a community focus.  The main visual structure of World Connect will be an interactive Google Earth style world globe.  The user will have a score of media filter options in which they can select which types of live media they would like to tune in to.  Each current media broadcast will be visualized by a distinct ray of light emanating from its specific location on the earth.  This will provide the user with an intuitive visual aid and an ability to see the entire live media network at one glance.  The user will then be able to virtually ‘fly’ and tune into any specific broadcast that they choose.

Broadcasts will consist of almost any form of live audio, video, text, or graphical media that can be recorded and transmitted online.  For example, a live piano recital in Moscow, Russia could be broadcast on World Connect by simply using a microphone, World Connect media sharing software, and a computer with an internet connection.  Church sermons, poetry readings, sporting events, news blogs, and almost any other form of media will be available for World Connect sharing.

Additionally World Connect will introduce a unique community visualization system that will allow each user to monitor the actions of the rest of the World Connect user body.  Each user will be represented as a flying orb appearing in their current virtual browsing position over the Earth.  This feature will allow any one user to immediately view the distribution and movements of other users around the World Connect globe.  At a zoomed-out distance, a large number of orbs ‘flying’ in close proximity will appear as a cloud representing a high density viewing zone.  The most popular broadcasts will be immediately evident as well as the communities’ movements between broadcasts.

This global community perspective will allow the user to look down onto the system rather than being trapped inside it.  It will also create an association between popular media and geographical location.  Users in the United States who consistently tune into popular Iranian, Chinese, or Russian broadcasts will develop a sense of interconnection and familiarity with those regions from which the broadcasts originate.  Traveling to concert halls, university classrooms, and living rooms for live shows will become routine and will encourage an attitude of cultural acceptance as users become more familiar with distant locations.  We believe that this type of global media sharing network will directly contribute to Goal 8, Target 8.F of the MDGMonitor initiatives.  World Connect will make available the benefits of unprecedented live information and communications abilities through use of the private sector.  Not only will World Connect provide an international platform for media and cultural dissemination, but it will also engender a deep sense of world-wide community and connectivity.

In addition:

My partner just won the NetSquared Change the Web Challenge for his social action map.  He has a background in web application development, and previously worked at Microsoft as a Program Manager.

My background is in aerospace and mechanical engineering as well as business strategy.

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