On the history of the original idea of APOOS. In 2003, I was traveling more often and became more and more concerned with the subject of websites. The proportion of sophisticated websites was rather low on the market and usually limited to one topic.
Content
The Problem
With the keyword Shopping, Dating or Community you will usually come up with a website. This website then specializes in a topic. That means for the user the more functions he would like to use on the Internet, the more accounts he must create. This has several disadvantages:
- It’s a lot of work.
- Many different providers have my data.
- Need to remember multiple passwords and logins.
- The seriousness of the providers and the quality (including security aspects) of the websites is mostly unknown to me before.
The solution
My approach is the following. On the one hand to offer all important functions on one platform. On the other hand, they also have to be combined. The whole should then be controlled with a profile. A user only needs one profile. Through the Privacy Center, the member determines in which area his data is visible. Creating this platform as a community provides additional benefits.
- A login and yet professional tools in all areas.
- Sell everything in one place, from the plane to the real estate to the bike and thus at the same time find more interested parties and achieve better prices.
- With an active social media profile, there will be less scams than with any X login.
- Providing a profile to all areas without having to re-enter their data is user-friendly.
- Comparable tools ensure a good orientation in all areas.
I am particularly proud of the idea of the „data protection center„. Here the user can determine which of his data, in which areas are visible. That is self-determined privacy pure. In addition, the linking of the profile can be saved. In addition to the areas, there are also user groups.
In „My Home„, the user should be offered the opportunity to clearly adjust all areas of the project. Personally, I find it terrible to have to search long before finding the right attitude. Here one recognizes the interest of the offerers, that users might not even find or switch off certain functions.
The Name.
Originally the project should not be called „APOOS“ but „WeOn7“. The name „Weon7“ was based on the fact that users of the platform live on 7 continents (Antarctica, North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia).
After the first development start, this name was replaced by APOOS.
APOOS comes from the English and stands for:
All People On One Site
People could also be replaced by Products or Projects.
The development of the concept
In addition to the marketplaces, various „books“ were in discussion at that time.
Streetbook
The streetbook should be basically a collection of house views. Each member takes a photo of his house and so you should in the Streetbook digital whole streets can watch.
Google then perfected this principle later than Google Street View and put it on the market.
Numbers-Book
The Numbers Book was once designed as a member book or business directory.
Both the Numbers Book and the Street Book have become the streets of APOOS (English: Streets of APOOS) over time. This is a more modern concept with POIs, real estate and projects pursued.
Video-Book
The video book should give users the opportunity to upload and watch videos. Since – until my second development start in 2011 – the YouTube brand has already perfected this concept and spread very quickly, I later rejected this idea.
Crime-Book
At the first attempt in 2008, I thought about creating a crime book. Crime and missing persons should be introduced in this area.
To speed up investigation work through a community, I found a good idea. I tried the police Hamburg to win for the project. Unfortunately, you did not realize the potential of a community:
„Thank you very much for your inquiry, but unfortunately I have to inform you that the Hamburg police are not interested in your offer, because we have been publishing our search requests on the Internet for years.“ Thank you very much. „(free translation!)
Difficulties in the first development start and the negative attitude of the police Hamburg. These points led to the rejection of the concept for the crime book. Instead, in the course of conception, I have put more and more emphasis on fraud prevention. Talk about ways to keep scams to a minimum.
For Weon7 and APOOS, I launched two development launches in 2008 and 2011. For details on this you in the corresponding posts in this blog. The concept was just revised again in 2017 and now takes up current problem solutions and innovations.