AKA (or AlwaysKnownAs.com). A kind of nickname based Plaxo without the spamming? Set up an account with nickname, enter all your contact details and distribute nickname so people can keep up with you when you change jobs, homes, names, sex or whatever. These services are great if you spend a lot of time moving around from place to place, but for boring stick in the muds like me? Not really. Actually I have a sneaking suspicion that a Skype name may end up being the most important contact data you’ll need in the future.
Share your AKA with friends and colleagues. Now they can always look up your current contact information at AlwaysKnownAs.com, whether they are a member or not. And if they’re an AKA member, they can enter your AKA into their address book or PDA to retrieve and stay current with all your contact information.
AKA means ALSO Known As not Always…
Sorry… just being mean…
Heh, very true. :-) Acronym fever?
Nigel,
Thanks so much for your post on AKA. I just wanted to follow-up with a couple thoughts on our vision for the service.
We�re optimistically hoping that AKA can become the universal ID for subscribing to other people�s information. Of course, we�ll need to achieve a critical mass for that to succeed. But you can imagine, even if you don�t move or change your information often, your friends and colleagues possibly do. It�s a way for you to easily keep track of them. Once their AKA is entered in your address book, you�ll be permanently connected.
Also, we�re imaging that in the future sites like eBay or Amazon may accept your AKA as a part of your registration, so if you change anything, then your online accounts will also be automatically updated. And because the idea is that you allow people to subscribe to your information and you control the permissions, then AKA could eventually become a universal tool for allowing access to shared network space or who knows what. In other words, AKA becomes a tool for assigning permissions on a person by person basis.
One comment about the Skype name analogy. You have a great point. But 10 years ago you may have said the same thing about an AOL screenname (well�maybe not�but you get the point). Things change. I may be in touch with you today via Skype, but in 5 years you may have moved to a different platform and again, we�re disconnected because your Skype name is tied to that specific platform. AKA tries to solve this by being independent of any other system or application. If I have your AKA today, I�ll know you�re a Skype user, a mySpace member, and a Yahoo Chat person. In 5 years you may have switched all those online homes, but via AKA I�ll know where to find you whether it�s in the physical world or in cyberspace.
Again, thanks so much for the mention. We�re getting great response to AKA.
Take care,
Terry Anderson
Co-founder, AKA
Terry, thanks for the vision, and I do see what you’re getting at here. And it makes sense. :-) Perhaps I’m just being a little cynical because of the bad experience with Plaxo over the recent past. They really did sour the single ID location experience for a lot of people. But this looks to have some interesting features which may create trust again. I’ve signed up anyway, so let’s see what happens. :-)