Situation #1: You just met a roomful of people you want to stay in touch with.  You want to add them to your social circles on Facebook and LinkedIn, but there’s not enough time left for you to write everyone’s name down on the back of a napkin and, frankly, you’d be too worried about not being able to spell their name correctly or read what you wrote once you’re back at the computer.  And you’re sure that everyone else has the same problem, because they’re all social butterflies like yourself.

Situation #2: You’re at a meeting with a few prospective clients for some Internet-oriented startup.  How do you swap information quickly and easily without digging through your pocket for a business card?

What would you do in these situations?

Solution: Get yourself a Poken and use it.

It’s not often  that anyone finds themselves in a situation involving the need to mass-share information (actually, I can’t think of a single time that’s happened), and it usually takes getting to know and trust someone before most people make the jump from “acquaintance” to “friend” (which, by custom today, probably includes the indication of friendship on a social site).

A new startup called Poken (sharing the name with their product) doesn’t seem to believe in there being a such thing as an “acquaintance.”  Or, at least, they view social networking friend lists as a gigantic list of people you’ve ever been stuck in the same room with.  And to alleviate either of the situations above, they’ve designed a device that you simply touch to another to instantly trade your social networking information with each other.

As much as the company would like to say it isn’t targeting them, I find it hard to believe that anyone other than a teenager would want to possess one of these things.  However, the website backing the service (at this point, anyway) seems to suggest they’re aiming for a professional market.   Honestly, what professional wouldn’t feel at least slightly embarrassed about pulling an anime-styled panda out of their coat pocket to “high-five” their counterpart’s frog?  While the dongles are quite obviously child-friendly, I’ve yet to meet the teenager who wanted to share their had a LinkedIn profile, and the lack of MySpace support (*gulp*) probably gives even more reason for the young to avoid.

Ridiculous nature of the devices aside, there’s also the issue of acquiring them.  They’re not available individually in the United States (yet?), but you can order them in packs of twelve (and then share the humiliation with eleven of your friends) for the low cost of $180 per dozen.  For the math-challenged, that’s $15 for each adorable social electronic animal.

The website that makes everything work could also use a little help in and of itself.  As I mentioned, the only services you can link to your Poken are Facebook, LinkedIn, and what appears to be a Swiss social networking site called Usgang.  It’s plagued with URL generation problems of the same sort Facebook had early on in their interface replacement (I wonder what http://www.doyoupoken.com/[...]/logout.jsf?panel=statsdetails is going to do… ) and hands you reward points (redeemable towards discounts on more Poken if you save enough) for trivial tasks like logging in.  Yes, I’ve earned two points simply by logging into the dummy account I made.

I think the Poken solves a problem that never existed in the first place.  Consider most cell phones made within the past few years, and PDAs even older than that.  Almost every device you can name includes an infrared or Bluetooth-based way to share your information (or somebody else’s, should there be a reason to, but presumably it would be best used on your own) with someone else, the methods for accomplishing this have long been standardized, and the transfer of information can also be completed without handing anything to a third party.  Also, given the fact that everyone from teen to the technologically-enhanced power-businessman has a phone capable of contact sharing these days (also with these technologies, and dozens more besides), there’s a pathetic niche at best for which these devices actually serve a meaningful purpose.

Also, there’s benefit to getting the information on paper as opposed to letting one of these devices handle it.  If you’re the businessman handing out cards, you can write any other relevant information on the card, and it’s physical evidence that you met.  Ditto with getting the names and numbers on a napkin.  I’d love to see you do anything like that with a metaphorical handshake.

From a security standpoint, I have to raise the flag when it comes to giving everyone the ability to play “Six Degrees” with your friends list.  Sure, it’s a necessary part of social networking, but seeing as Poken isn’t a direct social networking site (and I’ve already given you a few alternatives, thank you very much), is this really necessary?  Perhaps Kevin Bacon would appreciate the idea, but beyond that, I’m hard-pressed to think of a single situation where posting your information in more places than required is a good idea.

There is one thing that I do believe is covered well, or at least deserves credit for being considered, and that’s dealing with creeps you’d rather not share your information with, but you still want theirs.  You can activate a “discrete” mode when you share your information with someone, and all they get is ghost information about you until you can investigate their profile more and then approve their ability to see your identity.  As they mention on the Poken site, it’s “better than memorizing a rejection number.”  Apparently they’re expecting guys to go crazy asking females they know to share information so then they can mark themselves as a couple on Facebook so then there can be drama when… *RESET*

However, my cynical rant seems to be in the minority; the original post that prompted me to write about this is in awe of the service and the potential it could provide.  What do you think?  Are you ready to “high five” (or rather, “high four,” as the Poken hand only has four digits) everyone you meet with what could very well amount to your contact information, or would you rather take the more conventional paper/PDA/phone route?