Alexandre Solleiro the CEO of Manybots discusses user-centric ecosystems, the IoT as a type of rallying cry, and data activity streams and their control & ownership.
This is the eleventh segment in the Postscapes Interview Series with some of the top people influencing the Internet of Things.
Interview:
Can you give us a little background about yourself?
My name is Alexandre Solleiro. I’m 30 years old and currently live and work in Lisbon, Portugal.
I’m the founder and CEO of Manybots, a personal intelligence platform. I began working on the platform in late 2009, and since 2010 I have been fully dedicated to the task of giving our personal data a new life, and giving ourselves a new life through our data.
Prior to Manybots, I was a Partner at Quodis, a premier web boutique, where I also co-founded Liberdade 229, Lisbon’s first coworking space. Further down the timeline, I worked at companies of different shapes and sizes, doing different things.
How do you view the term “Internet of Things”?
The term itself feels like an invitation to rally, as if it represented a movement, rather than a system. The movement, for me, is about the Internet of Everything, hopefully the Web of Everything.
Where do you see the Internet of Things and its technologies creating the most impact?
Well, where did the Internet have a minor impact so far? No stone will be left unturned, again; the direct connection of our objects with our digital workflows is the what the Internet will do next.
Within the Manybots universe, we use the Activity Streams format to represent data. Real world “Things”, like any other digital “thing” in Web 2.0 (eg: people, posts, comments, photos,videos, etc.), are the actors, objects or targets of our actions.
The transformation of real interactions into digital information, and the creation of real interactions from digital information is powerful, powerful, magic. Connecting our things to Manybots enables a range of use cases that have the power to change our lifestyle. It’s a fantastic outlook.
What are you currently working on or are most excited about?
I’d say our partnership program. We’re building an ecosystem where our users can make the most out of their information.
We are approaching potential partners, businesses and organizations of all walks of life, showing them the platform and asking questions like “Hey, how will you respond to a smarter customer that knows this much about their business relationship with you?”, or “what could you build and offer people if they allowed you to get detailed contextual information about them, such as this?”.
Even though our objective is very pragmatic — we want as many as possible to create or integrate their websites, apps and devices on the platform –, we end up having the most fascinating conversations as we try to spread the idea of a user-centric ecosystem.
Shout-outs: Any sites/people/articles or books that have inspired you lately?
I’d encourage people interested in the IoT to look at two projects that inspire us at Manybots:
- Activity Streams
- The VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) project
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
