this weekend, i was listening to a podcast in which the phrase 'people aggregator' came up, it was a nonchalant mention like "so and so is working on a people aggregator" and i don't think they were talking about Marc Canter but perhaps someone on the Broadmechanics team. I jotted the phrase down on a scrap of paper and went back to it later. I can't remember which podcast i was listening to and it doesn't really matter because they didn't say much- just got my attention with the phrase 'people aggregator'- hearing the phrase made me think of a service that aggregates people and makes them and their assets findable.
which reminds me, i WOULD LOVE to be able to search the transcripts of every podcast i have on my iPod- Surprisingly for someone that like music quite a bit- most MGs on my device are audio podcasts which i keep but will i ever be able to go back to the right place without much frustration? Lifehacker blog gives us a good review of what is available in the search for the perfect podcast including podcast search tools but i haven't had much success with the podcast search tools.
so back to the phrase people aggregator- working for primarily a content aggregator- customers have always asked us to do people aggregation and discovery and not just executive names for sales but also solutions like those that identify government officials, politicians, and the people connected to them worldwide. Aggregating people is not an easy business but we are doing it more and more- providing added value based on the content (premium, web, blogs, govt info) we are aggregating across various content platforms. People entities and the content around them- can lead to very well defined people databases/dashboards- for example companies that have a rich recruiting process or a executive search firm's value is in the data they collect over time- what they know about their employees, those they are trying to recruit etc. I am speaking to a couple of companies that are exactly looking to do that.
so the term people aggregator was interesting but the short time i spent on their site- i didn't get it- but i am sure with more services integrating into it and perhaps some UI work the tool can be useful and indeed act as a self publishing hub.
lucky for me it looks like Marc Canter will be giving a demo at SF Web Innovators Network event which i will be attending tomorrow- maybe i will understand it a bit more after hearing the demo.
1 comment :
Hi Daniela,
Nice ideas, a people aggregator might be scary to folks who constantly worry about what information companies and governments have on them. Do you think "people" will feel any different if the information is only the publicly available info, but just aggregated? I'm pretty sure that some folks will be just fine with it, and that group will continue to grow and grow... until it is accepted as a fact of life.
Jason Malatesta
Post a Comment