First in a series
A recent technology conference held in The Park highlighted the enormous amount of talent that exists in this tiny space we call home.
“It’s amazing what’s developed here over the last decade,” says Fikret Kartal, President and CEO of KartalTechSolutions. Kartal’s company brought the Verifyzer™— a device that helps Animals distinguish between news and entertainment—to The Park three years ago.
“When we started, we had no real competition,” Kartal says. “Now, there are times when we feel like we’re just hovering.”
Consuela Tapir, who runs the tech rumour web site, TikTekTok, understands the feeling.
“It’s an industry that’s just exploded over the last few years. I remember when these ideas had trouble getting off the ground. But these days, it doesn’t take long for them to soar,” she says.
So, just who are these new technological wonderAnimals and what great feats can we expect from them?
Tapir gave us a list of five to watch. Today, we highlight the first:[pullquote]I felt like a rare Bird at times. — gaggle founder Kawena Palila[/pullquote]
1. gaggle
The tech genius at the core of this new social media site is Kawena Palila, an alumna of BirdBrains, The Park’s first Avian mentoring programme, which was founded by the late Cesar Emilio Gander.
Palila calls gaggle the “social networking site with a difference.”
“All the other social sites focus on the individual and try to get you to connect with other individuals. Gaggle is for groups—families, charities, even educational institutions. We want to serve the collective community in whatever form,” she says.
The minimum number of members a group must have to join gaggle is five because, Palila says, “I don’t like even numbers. They’re so restrictive and they make Animals feel left out.”
gaggle itself took five years to launch, partly because it was difficult to get outside funding.
“I felt like a rare Bird at times,” she says. “It seems unbelievable now, but I had a hard time getting Animals to understand the concept.”
Up next:
2. FoodFinder
