Stormdriver Guest Slot: StormDriver – the Web’s public space.

The recent alpha launch of StormDriver was a popular event. Almost 120 000 users watched the teaser, and – after some popular technology sites wrote about us – we were flooded with comments and e-mails. Some of them came from readers, some from other social app developers who wanted to find out what we’re about. So, let us take this opportunity to tell you who we are and why you should bother to care at all.

The technology that’s behind it all

Before we tell you in detail what we do, let us give you a quick rundown of how we do it. This should give you a perspective on things. So, we have this server technology we call the Open Web Layer. This patent-pending technology is what makes everything else possible. We call it the Open Web Layer because we think the web as it is today is a closed and lonely place. After all, most of the time there are loads of people around you on any website, but you just can’t see them. It’s a bit like going to an empty pub and leaving post-it notes for other people to see.

The Open Web Layer allows you to see everything that’s going on around you. You can see who is on the page you are on, where people came from and where they’re going. You can suddenly see the life that has always been there but had been hidden from view. For now StormDriver is the only client that enables you to access the Open Web Layer, but we’re planning to develop new clients and also allow third-party developers to develop their own.

StormDriver.com lets you access the Open Web Layer. It’s the Web’s public space.

Since StormDriver is a web app, you access it simply by logging in on our homepage (or on the super-secret alpha test page). There’s no need to install anything. Even better, it is very friendly towards unregistered users. They can still use it with some minor restrictions, just by visiting the page (not necessarily in the alpha testing stage, though). Let’s have a look at the features you’ll find in StormDriver.

Our aim when building the StormDriver web application was to give our users the real time feeling of being online together. When you visit a web page you should be able to see who is there, who’d been there before and where other people went from there. You should be able to find interesting content simply by checking out places you see other people are checking out this very moment. You should also be able to interact with others in various ways on the spot.

With this vision in mind, we created the following features that you will recognize when you visit StormDriver:

1) Surf

Surfing simply means browsing the web through StormDriver. When you open a page, there’s a small bar on top of the screen that allows you to express your opinion about the content you’re watching. However, the real fun begins when you pull the public layer on top of the page. That’s where all the interactions take place and that’s where you can see the web pulsating with life.

2) Stalking

Yes, we know that this sounds scary, but it’s totally harmless. Since StormDriver is a public space, there’s nothing to stop you from following people you find interesting. And we don’t mean “following” as in “reading the messages other people kindly left somewhere for you to read”. We mean “following” as in “following every step of somebody’s activity online”. If you start stalking somebody, you give up your screen real estate to the person you stalk. Whatever that person is doing in StormDriver, you will be able to see it in real time on your screen. Instead of telling people “what you’re doing now”, you can simply show them!

3) Mingle

StormDriver allows you to do a lot of stuff together with other users. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your existing friends. The system concentrates on interaction around content, and the details of your preferences and browsing habits are compared with those of other people in order to help you find likeminded folks.

4) Streams

Streams are content and activity feeds updated in real time. Thanks to these feeds you know who does what and when in StormDriver. Of course you may not be interested in everything that’s happening, so you can shape your stream experience to match it to your preferences.

5) Desk

StormDriver is a great place for exploring content together. But, since there is a lot of low quality material out there, we introduced some mechanisms to get rid of the noise. Desk is one such mechanism. It’s a place where our community editors, users who we know we can trust, based on their level of activity in the system, enhance the content you see in StormDriver by relating it to other relevant stuff and making it easier for you to find.

In addition to these main features we also have all the standard functionalities, such as chatting with anyone on the spot, showing trending pages, notifications about events related to you and much more.

Worried about Privacy?

Some people worry about privacy in StormDriver, but here’s what we think. You can look at StormDriver as the Web’s public space. What you do there is what you would do in a normal, physical public space. We have a few guiding rules that should help you understand what we mean:

1. If you don’t want people to know what you do, do it elsewhere.
2. Behave towards others as you’d want others to treat you.
3. Have fun! Explore the possibilities of interacting with others and visiting places together.
4. Again, if you want some privacy, just open a new tab. StormDriver has no power there.

We hope this gives you a hint of what to expect when you log in to StormDriver. If you’d like to play a part in shaping the StormDriver experience, leave your email here [http://www.stormdriver.com/] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can let you into the system. See you in StormDriver – The Web’s Public Space!

Editors note: Thank you to Stormdriver for guest posting on Technology Blogged.