Kundi.com was a spin-off venture from Paul Allen's Interval Research Corporation. It began in 1999 as a fast-track research project to explore interesting commercial opportunities relating initially to webcams, whose usage had begun to explode. We found that webcams and streaming media had a search problem unique for the Web: time. Search engines were not equipped to find events as they happen. Kundi developed an alert infrastructure, whereby people can alert other people in real time to encourage propagation. Kundi means flocking, herding, or swarming in Swahili.

When Interval closed its doors in April 2000, Kundi was one of the projects that continued to receive support. We launched a beta site in February 2001 and demonstrated the concept, but in April 2001 our support stopped.

Between 2003 and 2004, all three patents were allowed. The patents are for “quantifying”, “normalizing”, and “alerting” “items of current interest” “via a network.” They include any item, not only video or streaming media (e.g., recent blog entries, info about parties, sales events); and any network, not only Web or Internet (e.g., mobile phones). Central to the IP is the “hot now” button, i.e., a means by which users can send out conscious and explicit “this is hot now” signals.

Though the IP extends beyond video, a large-scale video scenario can be found here.

As we say: It's very Warhol.


Credits

Michael Naimark, Instigator

Stephen DeBerry, Founding CEO

Core Team: David Lubensky, Ignazio Moresco, Camille Norment, Veronica Rocha, Emily Weil

Principle Advisors: Aviv Bergman, Baldo Faieta

Consultants: Diane Schiano, Rob Shaw, Meg Withgott