The new way to get news, information, and free ice cream

In the beginning, Twitter’s aim was to provide a micro-blogging platform for individuals to provide short status updates in 140 characters or less.  If you’ve ever wondered “Why 140 characters?”, it’s simple.  Most phone carriers have a 160 character limit on SMS text messages which (before the widespread adoption of smart phones) is how people “tweeted”.  Twitter reserved 20 characters for the screen name and that’s how we got to 140 characters.

Soon, celebrities, athletes, media companies, politicians, and businesses began to see the value in Twitter not just as a social platform, but as a way to share information in a timely and relevant manner. Likewise, Twitter users are now using the platform as their source of timely news and information.  If you think about it this new model for sharing makes a lot of sense.  It can take hours to write an article about a breaking news story. It can take days to publish a new ad or campaign. But it only takes seconds to publish a tweet.  For example, today a small plane landed on I-85 just outside of Atlanta.  Within minutes this was a trending topic on Twitter whereas it was almost an hour later before an article was posted on CNN.com.

For businesses, organizations, and advertisers, the emerging popularity of Twitter has some important implications.  First and foremost, Twitter provides a simple yet effective platform for businesses to engage with customers and develop relationships. But more importantly, because of the real-time nature of Twitter, businesses can also now provide instant and timely and relevant information to consumers about deals, discounts, new products, etc.  Small businesses benefit the most because of the simplicity of twitter. There’s no need to publish an ad or compete for key words on search engines. 140 characters and it’s done.

Panoramic endeavors to take things one step further by taking the time-relevance of tweets and making them location-relevant.  For businesses and organizations, this provides the ability to expand their reach to an even wider audience. And for Panoramic users regardless of whether or not they use Twitter (or who they follow), it provides them the ability to discover information about nearby highway closures (due to small aircraft landings) as well as the ice cream shop around the corner that’s giving away free scoops for the next two hours. And who doesn’t want free ice cream?

Potomac Tech Wire. 08/18/2010 <http://www.potomactechwire.com/2010/daily.htm>

o DC Startup Citrrus Launches Location-Based Mobile App 

Washington, DC — Citrrus, a DC-based startup developing mobile applications, said that it has launched a new mobile app designed to better connect users with the people and locations around them. The free iPhone app, known as Panoramic, lets DC-area organizations push locally relevant and timely information directly to the mobile devices of users near the locations and areas they serve. User-generated content also can be created and linked to specific locations or geographic areas. Citrrus was founded in late 2009 byJason LaFollette and Lenny Pham, who both have backgrounds in custom software consulting. The self-funded company is hoping to become profitable within 6-8 months, and plans to soon expand its app to other cities as well as to other platforms such as the iPad, Android and Blackberry. 
http://www.citrrus.com  
http://www.getpanoramic.com  

Just Outside Your Virtual Window

You can do some pretty amazing things in the virtual world:

• Video conference with someone on another continent 
• Buy almost anything you can think of with the click of a mouse
• Share pictures with your entire social network 2 minutes after taking them

Technology has enabled things we could have barely even dreamed of just a few years ago. Where should it take us next?

How about out into the world. Out from behind the computer. Into the fresh air where we can touch, smell, and taste. Where social networking happens over a meal or a drink and emotions are expressed with smiles instead of smileys.

Panoramic wants to bring everything that’s great about the online world into the offline world. We’re going to help you connect with everything around you in new and meaningful ways. We think you should be able to to access interesting and relevant information about your location, pay for purchases with your mobile device, and access location specific services all by just being there. We’re starting small, but we’ve got a big plan and a strong platform to build on. We want to connect you to your surroundings so you can get more done, never miss something great, and have a little more fun out in the world.

We’ll get everything hooked up for you, but we need your help. Show your community, local government, and businesses that you want them to connect with you. Download Panoramic