Poken FAQ

poken |pōkən| verb [trans.]
to touch two poken devices together, exchange data and make, keep and cultivate human connections. noun (plural same) trademark

1. any poken product: pokenSPARK ™, pokenPULSE™, pokenHUB™; the poken website: wwww.poken.com

2. the actual company behind the whole thing.

1. is it another social network ?

no. poken is a tool for social networking that can be used across many social networking platforms. we do not want users to have to change social networking sites, or to have to re-connect with all their friends. there are many great applications available on existing social networking sites, and we believe users should continue using the ones they are used to. Poken will simply tie into any one of your social networking accounts and make it easier for you to connect with new people, by letting you connect immediately when you are physically in their presence. we want to save you the hassle of having to search for new friends later, when you’re sitting in front of your computer. your time is better spent socializing in the real world, or using great tools online to improve your social life.

2. what is the advantage of using a poken to connect with my friends and new contacts?

our core offer is built around some very simple new concepts that bring a whole new dimension to your social networking:
• you connect to people in the real world, when and where you meet them: what’s more natural than linking up with a new friend on the spot? don't scribble your email address or phone number on a paper napkin or search for them later on Facebook. just 'high-four' to connect instantly

1. poken is your social business card. scrap the paper business card! your poken card is far more comprehensive. rather than handing out a piece of paper that shares just your basic contact information such as company, address, phone, and email, with poken you can include your social network profiles as well. when you associate a social network to your Poken identity that social network's favicon appears on your poken card. if you are connected to your friend on that social network, then they can click the favicon link to instantly view your social network profile. if you opt not to be connected on that social network, then they will simply see the public-search version of your profile
   
2. we record the time at which you connect to people. and since you’re connecting in the real world, it’s a valuable piece of information that lets you view your networking chronologically. so, when you’re wondering what’s-the-name-of-the-person-you-met-two-weeks-ago-when-you-were-with-bob-at-his-cousin’s-party, instead of tediously going through your whole alphabetical list of contacts, you can simply "scroll back" to see who that person was.
   
3. why do I have to carry around an extra gadget? isn't there some way to do this in my phone?
   sort of but not really. since the beginning of mobile phones and PDAs there have been myriad proposed solutions to easy sharing of contact information or "replacing the business card." to show our age, several members of Poken's staff fondly remember beaming vCards in infrared between our Palm Pilots back in the day. however, nothing has ever emerged as a standard for a couple of reasons. the first inhibitor has been hardware/OS/application fragmentation--basically different phones often can't talk well with others. recently there have been more and more hardware/OS/application-independent phone solutions for contact exchange via BlueTooth or visual codes. however, these also have not really caught on. we believe that it is because the user interfaces too unwieldy, requiring the user to type in codes, launch applications, etc.
   our solution is meant to address these issues by providing an extremely simply mechanism for contact exchange: the high-four. it is natural and it mimics the way we interact with other humans every day. the security is built into the hardware so there are no codes to enter and no risk of someone stealing your information. it requires a small, extra hardware device to carry around so we've designed that device to be cool and fun--something we hope you would like to carry around with you anyway. perhaps we're tilting at windmills by trying to create a social replacement for the business card, but we really think we're on to something!