Putting Data Into Bubbles
Adding Context to The Internet of Places
Apps solve a lot of inconveniences, but can sometimes also create them with clunky search interfaces and too many results to choose from. Interface Foundry’s bubbl.li aims to solve that with data bubbles that show you only the information most relevant to you based who and where you are and what you’re up to. Internet Week spoke with Founder and CEO Rachel Law to get a glimpse of this experience.
Internet Week:What is bubbl.li?
Law: Bubbl.li allows people to browse and build data bubble services and information pinned to local places and times to see relevant info based on who and where you are and what time you’re there.
Internet Week:What are some of the use cases?
Law: Advertising is the obvious one: knowing, when you go to a shopping mall, whether you’ve been there lots of times or if it’s your first time visiting.
It can show you a map of the space and, if you’ve been there several times, loyalty credits, the last thing you purchased, what you might be interested in. It’s a custom experience based on location and time.
For example, if a mom who works as a secretary visits Staples often for work, the store can’t tell when she’s going there to get stationary for her kids instead. Our system can switch personas between work and personal so she can get more relevant info.
Somehow big data companies think just because they put an ad out there people will see it, and that if someone has a history of purchasing something, they will purchase again just because they see the ad. But what people want is content-sensitive. That’s why who, where and when is so important to us.
Internet Week: How are data bubbles different from beacons?
Law: We can use the same technology but make it the more granular. On a GPS scale, you can only figure out a 150-meter radius of where someone is in the building, but not which floor or area in that building or store. That’s not granular enough for us to make it a super custom experience, but with beacon, you can get 15 meters away from a person and can detect where they are within the store. We can integrate with existing beacon technologies to create bubbles. We keep as open and transparent as possible since we don’t want to fall into the trap where we think we know better than what people want.
Internet Week: What kinds of data do you collect?
Law: A history of all data bubbles you’ve visited. You can create your own profiles, like “this is the route I take to work” so when you visit shops on the way in the morning, it becomes part of your “work” profile. We don’t track people, only profiles. People can go as granular as they like creating profiles for different contexts and see everything in their lists.
Internet Week:What’s the grand vision?
Law: We act like a container so you don’t have to download individual apps, but move from bubble to bubble in seamless transit, absorbing new information wherever you go. You don’t have to download, search or upload anything — we’re The Internet of Places.
It’s fun and random, not based on big data or searching for keywords, but based on who you are and where and when you are in that moment. One of the things we’re working on is threading strings of bubbles together so you can send a route like “these are the top 10 best places to eat ramen in NYC.”
We’re also working on stickers you can leave virtually. For example when you’re sitting on a park bench and want company, you can leave a sticker that says, “I’m here for the next 10 minutes if you want to meet and chat.”
Our vision is to create ubiquitous, seamless experiences that you don’t need to think about. For example, when visiting a new place, you won’t need to consult a map to find out where you are and what’s around you. This helps you avoid paying tourist prices for food. You’d think it’s a simple thing to find out where food is today, but sometimes in a new place it still isn't.
Also, instead of pulling up a map of an address you’re looking for, it’ll pull up the image of the building. Some buildings don’t have numbers, and if you just show me how the building looks, it’s easier to find.
Internet Week: What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered as an entrepreneur?
Law: From a technical perspective, a lot of the stuff we’re doing is new, so we end up doing a lot of R&D. A lot of times in startups there’s an existing framework, you get a couple libraries to a developer to work with and you’re done. But we have to build a lot of stuff from scratch and it eats into our development time a lot.
Trying to hire people is also challenging. We’re a small startup competing with companies like Google and Facebook in terms of salaries and packages and benefits. Everyone wants to get best deal, and college debt is a huge problem and affects how we can hire. I don’t want to pay someone something they can’t live on. But we also get a lot of people who are interested but say, “I’m sorry but wish I could work with you, but I got an offer from XYZ offering me hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
There are also people who just starred programming but don’t want junior developer salaries. Sometimes people who graduate from a three-month coding school and think of themselves as hackers even though they don’t yet know best practices and how to debug. They don’t have enough experience to pass our coding challenge but want senior developer salaries.
Internet Week: What advice would you offer to people considering a startup?
Law: Save as much money as you can before you start your startup. There will always be something that doesn't work out. Your Plan B must have a Plan C and your Plan C needs a Plan D. The longer you hold out, the higher the chances your startup will be successful.
It’s not about winning, its’ about trying to be fair. If we get a bad deal, we think about .. is it bad or fair? For us, fairness is a rule. Fairness translates to openness and transparency. We want to be fair to our users and employees, and it also helps us prioritize which features to prioritize.
Join our newsletter to get your weekly dose of tech news and stories.
Get in touch with story and guest contribution ideas: tips@internetweekny.com
