Avanoo gets major new push, sets big goals

Filed under: Fun, Internet, News, Web services, Social Software

Avanoo gets major new push, sets big goals

by Grant Robertson May 23rd 2007

It was just a little over a week ago that we took our first look at Avanoo, and invited a big group of Download Squad readers to peek behind the walls of the Beta to have a sniff around. This week Avanoo is on the rampage, declaring that they seek to accept 100 million 'deposits' from a diverse set of communities over the next 100 days as well as, re-branding to the tagline "Community Wisdom Bank", a phrase that does an adequate job of explaining what Avanoo really aims to do.

The concept is simple but brilliant; Ask enough people simple yes or no questions with knowledge of the demographic data of those you ask and you create an extremely useful resource. Offer those same people access to the data they've helped build and you've taken market research into Web 2.0 territory; Let those same people define the questions they're asked and you've created a self-propelling phenomenon that taps the wisdom of diverse communities.

Our favorite bit of Avanoo mined wisdom so far? Ok, admittedly it's trivial but, "100% of non-believers think Paris deserved the jail time... compared to 71.4% of Christians and just 50% of Jews." Sure, we could have lived without knowing that gem of wisdom but, why should we have to?

Take the leap to read Avanoo's full press release. Leave us a comment to snag one of our few remaining invitiations to Avanoo's beta!

Gallery: Avanoo

AVANOO OPENS WORLD'S FIRST COMMUNITY WISDOM BANK:

SEEKS 100 MILLION DEPOSITS IN 100 DAYS

New site offers total access to the world's most precious resource: wisdom

May 23 , 2007 – Avanoo announces the opening of the world's first community wisdom bank. Beginning today, people can "deposit" wisdom into Avanoo, and get returns in the form of unprecedented and relevant wisdom from any of millions of customizable communities. To ensure that people get the best return on their wisdom, Avanoo seeks to accept 100 million deposits from a diverse set of communities in the next 100 days.

Here's an example of how the Avanoo's community wisdom bank functions:

1.Alice seeks wisdom by asking this question: "Do you approve of Bush's job performance?"

2.Thousands deposit wisdom by answering "yes" or "no".

3.Bob taps into never-before-available wisdom from Christians over 65 and from Christians under 18. He finds out that Christian seniors are three times more likely to approve of Bush than Christian minors.

4.Cathy taps into never-before-available wisdom from men and women living in California. She finds out that California men are 15% more likely than California women to approve of Bush's performance.

5.Bob and Cathy both share wisdom in the form of comments made available for all other depositors to see.

"What's exciting about Avanoo's community wisdom bank, in contrast to banks that store money, is that the accumulated wisdom can be accessed by anyone, and can never be depleted. Thus, in return for a single wisdom deposit, people get access to a vast wealth of wisdom," says Dan, president and co-founder of Avanoo.

"If Avanoo gets 100 million wisdom deposits in our first 100 days, depositors will have undreamt of access to wisdom from millions of communities – the goal being to represent the world's wisdom," says Wilford, chief technology officer and co-founder of Avanoo.

To start creating and sharing the world's most precious resource, check out www.avanoo.com.

About Avanoo

Avanoo was co-founded by Dan Jacobs and Wilford Sage in January 2006. We received an angel round of financing in April 2007, led by Morten Lund (first investor in Skype), Jeff Bader (EVP Entertainment at ABC), Sam Bronfman (Bronfman family), Glenn Fielding (CEO of public IT company), Eric Gerritsen (Principal, Global Seed Capital), and Brooks Fisher (EVP Intuit).

Tags: Avanoo, community sites, CommunitySites, wisdom of communities, WisdomOfCommunities

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Laura said 9:11AM on 5-23-2007

I would love an invite--thanks so much!

Brian said 9:31AM on 5-23-2007

Can I please have an invite? I never received one last time and would love to try this out.

Chad said 9:48AM on 5-23-2007

Woohoo! Invite please! DownloadSquad you rock!

Scott-O-Rama said 9:59AM on 5-23-2007

I'd love an invite please!

Jonathan said 10:10AM on 5-23-2007

Seems like a fascinating concept. I wonder how Avanoo is doing SPAM comment elimination. If it works very well, this could be a fascinating source for the "untapped", unpolled, individual. Of course, one sector, internet users, will always be polled by Avanoo.

--Jonathan

Brad said 10:25AM on 5-23-2007

I'd like to give it a try.......

Ryan said 10:33AM on 5-23-2007

I'll take an invite! Thanks!

Todd said 10:48AM on 5-23-2007

Actually, Avanoo is really disappointing. I spent several days last week playing around with it and discovered that the data is presents is really pretty much worthless. First, questions and answers are often presented in a leading fashion or with inadequate choices for responses. Even if you get past that, you're basically getting answers based upon what the media has been feeding the population. All this site provides is insight into the current "group think", not real answers to real questions.

Adam Carson said 11:23AM on 5-23-2007

I think that the idea of 'harnessing community intelligence' and 'benchmarking' oneself is great!!!

People love to benchmark themselves against others...especially in their same demographic!!

Would love a invite to the beta...

xavier.davis said 11:27AM on 5-23-2007

I'd like to try it out. Please throw me an invite.

Aaron Hallam said 12:00PM on 5-23-2007

I seem to have missed out on the last round of invites, so I'd love to get one this time around.

Dan Stucke said 12:25PM on 5-23-2007

Would love an invite, I'm a Maths teacher and this could be a fantastic tool to use in the classroom.

Jitaroo said 1:15PM on 5-23-2007

i'd like to have an invite please.

rinks said 2:14PM on 5-23-2007

I'll play around with it. Toss an invite!

J5892 said 10:31PM on 5-23-2007

I'd like an invite.

penny said 1:36AM on 5-24-2007

Avenoo invites? really? oh, yes please!

Mikael Mannberg said 9:01PM on 5-24-2007

I'd love an invite! This looks like such a brilliant idea!

blueskyman said 8:07AM on 5-29-2007

Sounds really interesting. I'd love an invite.

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