This article was taken from the January 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Alex Asseily thinks the social graph is a little basic: "We want to elevate it to a more cerebral level -- the opinion graph." The co-founder of Bluetooth headset manufacturer Jawbone is launching a new venture,
State, which aims to connect people -- not based on who they know but on what they think. "The idea is you get to state your opinion, in a simple way, but you get counted for it," he says. "So you can see what the world is thinking."
Internet forums 2.0, then? "Forums are unsexy. It's a global opinion network," says 36-year-old Asseily. "We're trying to create a metaphor for a town square where people can say what they think, but are also accountable for what they think. So it's not just,
'what do people think of the riots?', it's 'the people who thought the riots were awful, they also like Coke.'" State will tie users to a single identity as they weigh in across topics from David Beckham's new shoes to fiscal policy. State has Tim Berners-Lee as an adviser, and will launch in 2012 from its base in Notting Hill, London.
This is a change of direction for Asseily. After civil war forced his family to flee Beirut for England, Asseily went on to study product design at Stanford. His senior thesis evolved into Jawbone, the consumer tech company he launched in 2006. It now has 200 employees and $162 million (£100 million) in backing. Jawbone makes hands-free headsets and the Jambox, a wireless speaker; in July it launched Up, a life-tracking wristband and app. So where does State fit in? It's the latest step in Asseily's "drive to improve communication".
Name: Alex Asseily
Occupation: Founder, Jawbone, State
Location: London
Need to know: He's harnessing public opinion and fusing it with captured data
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
