TALKiT, the innovative, Palm Coast-based social media application whose developers say will revolutionize the way individuals and institutions communicate in real time, got its formal introduction to the Flagler County Economic Opportunity Advisory Council Wednesday morning.
TALKiT CEO Curtis Ceballos walked the nine-member panel through the application which, being unique–and untested in the market: it launches on Memorial Day–required a lot of assumption-clearing explanations so the council members could wrap their minds around the idea. In the end, Ceballos got the endorsement he wanted: “This is cool,” one of the council members said. “I just downloaded it.”
Originally profiled here in January, TALKiT seeks to bring talking back in a texting culture. Just as texts are snippets of brief communications that get exchanged billions of times a day, TALKiT would fill a niche with the same concept, but with texts made of voice rather than characters on a screen. Users’ messages consist of two or three sentences three to five seconds in length that would be sent out on a network where participants can choose to listen or not. The TALKiT streams through the network like a news feed, and stays there several hours before it vanishes, unless the user chooses to save the snippet to his or her profile. The message can be a private communication between two individuals, or it can be a message from an institution–a school, say, to its employees–or a message from a celebrity to a group of fans.
Ceballos said the Flagler County School Board is already on board to use the application, as will be the St. Johns County School Board. TALKiT will be available to users in a free version as well as a subscription version. The free version will include ads, providing a revenue stream to the family business: TALKiT’s core is Ceballos, his son and his daughter, who share various responsibilities depending on their strengths.
Naturally, the council was excited by the prospect of adding another company to the county’s growing stable of innovative firms. TALKiT, Ceballos said, will initially employ 20 people and will be located either on Hargrove Grade in palm Coast, where he hopes “to create a campus atmosphere,” or at the old Federal Aviation Administration training facility on Palm Coast Parkway.
James Ulsamer, a member of the council and a retired businessman, was curious about TALKiT’s projected market. “You can drive yourself crazy if you don’t limit yourself to certain markets,” he said, understanding that, once it’s out there, the application can have uncontrollable appeal among unexpected groups. “Who are you going to focus on?”
Ceballos said that other than institutions such as schools, businesses or local government agencies, artists, celebrities and older people tired of texting could all be potential users. But, he said, while the primary target is 18 to 25 year olds, “you can’t really put a demographic on it.”
Texas based software and app development company Rocksauce Studios has been coding the app since the beginning of the year. Rocksauce has worked with companies such as Disney, McDonald’s, Autotrader, GNC and much more. “TALKiT is the type of idea that comes along and you immediately realize it has ‘game-changer’ written all over it,” said Q Manning, CEO of Rocksauce. “Rocksauce was excited to help bring the concept to life. You’ll love this app,” he added.
TALKiT has scheduled its “International Release” as a special event on May 31 at Central Park at Palm Coast’s Town Center from 6 to 9 p.m. Meanwhile you can visit the app site here.
Jerry M says
When are they going to close this economic advisory committee down. Helga and her team have shown no progress. I think soon we will be approaching the $2,000,000 mark on money spend on this committee since it’s start.
Stephen says
Agree, what a waste of taxpayer money, just a trumped up position, this is Flagler County we are and have always been a nice quiet area. Our county commissioners spend our money and put us in debt, they are self serving and have become too powerful, along with most of our unqualified elected officials, ITS ALL ABOUT wHO YOU KNOW, open your eyes Flagler County, pay attention!!!!
VOTE
PC Dad says
Have to wonder how many Sunshine Law violations there have been by politicians using apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram and others such as this where private messaging occurs?
anonymous says
Is it me or has this been done many times before?
http://readwrite.com/2012/05/23/5-push-to-talk-apps-that-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-walkie-talkie#awesm=~oDBZBu9VoBFzGq
Will says
Hey, Jerry, there has been progress, and if you choose to look, you can see it in AVEO and some other efforts. European visitors were here just yesterday looking at airport sites, too.
This story can give you a hint of more, and of how open the process is. Go to a meeting someday to see for yourself. With apologies to Flagler Live, it came from another source today. http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20140507/NEWS0402/140509662/1045/ARTICLES?Title=Flagler-economic-board-to-hear-partner-reports
Anonymous says
Jerry,
No progress you say, well since 2011, Helga and her team has;
• Attracted/expanded six new companies (Coastal Cloud, Designs for Health, Gioia Sails South, Aveo Engineering, TBD Partners, WP Rawls)
• Created hundreds of new employment opportunities
• Laid the foundation for new facilities to be constructed
• Partnered with the University of Florida and the county ag extension office to develop and implement an Agriculture Business Retention and Expansion Program
• Developed and implemented a Manufacturing Business Retention and Expansion Program partnering with SCORE, the Chamber and Career-Source Flagler/Volusia
• Co-hosted Industry Week’s Roundtable in the South, a site selector program, accessing leading international industry reps, for two years
• Sponsored Entrepreneur Night with Office Divvy and the SBDC Business Assistance Center
• Obtained a $600,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield grant in collaboration with Bunnell and Palm Coast
• Recognized by the governor’s office for successful economic development, with two personal visits.
• Recognized locally and statewide, by JaxUSA, Florida High Tech Corridor and Enterprise Florida as a leader in economic development.
I say that’s some progress…
The Truth says
I personally do not believe this will take off, but I hope I am wrong. It seems a lot of time has been put into this and I hope that it turns into something very big.
FB Wave Watcher says
Impressive, Curt! Now if I can just find the app . . .
anonymous says
Is it me, or has this been done before?
http://readwrite.com/2012/05/23/5-push-to-talk-apps-that-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-walkie-talkie#awesm=~oDBZBu9VoBFzGq
Brad says
This is an interesting concept. I don’t think it has long-term sustainability on it’s own as it’s own social network. Where this has great possibilities is being integrated into the major social networks or as emergency alert system similar to the system schools are using now for landline phones now.
I think it will have some challenges for widespread sustained adoption if there isn’t a visual component. Smartphones are screens, and every network platform right now is moving in creating more visual designs. And that is because the data consistently shows that visual has far more impact and creates interaction. The difference between telling and showing. The message is always more impactful when it’s enhanced with a visual component.
I think they are on the right track, but they’ll need some tweaks:
1. ANDROID – This is an iOS app only out of the gate. Android is 51% of the market.
2. If you are a tech company then you need to show you are a tech company. Using a free web service without a unique URL and Yahoo email addresses for the company does not say “tech”.
3. Be prepared to move quickly with updates, evolution, and social issues that naturally come up (i.e. inappropriate uses). Without an in-house development staff right from the start that appears it will be a challenge.
I wish them the best. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this, but as an Andoird user I won’t be able to use it at launch unfortunately.
Brad says
The app you are linking to is actually different. “Push to talk” type sof apps are direct connect real-time communication like an actual walkie-talkie.
It is a bit confusing what this app actually is to be honest. They keep referring to it in what appears to be an alternative to “texting”. But then they refer to “newsfeeds” and the “social” piece which leads me to believe it’s another social network with short voice clips. But I don’t believe that’s the case because the messages apparently are automatically deleted within “several hours” which I’m not understanding why that is. Unless it’s meant to be like SnapChat.
I think it’s interesting, but it is a bit confusing what it actually is and how useful it really will be.