Ray Ozzie aims to change the way we talk with Talko

SAN FRANCISCO — Stop texting. Stop talking. Stop e-mailing. Because Ray Ozzie thinks he's found a better way for you to stay in touch using your mobile device.

Appearing Tuesday in the Apple App Store is Talko, which uses Voice over Internet Protocol technology to create multiperson conversations that combine voice, text and photos all laid out over an evolving timeline. An Android version is in the works.

The free app keeps conversations for 10 days. An enterprise-focused premium option — the foundation of the company's business plan — will keep threads indefinitely while providing other administrator features.

'What if the net had come before the phone, how would voice be woven into our online experience?'

Ray Ozzie, founder of Talko

"I asked myself, 'What if the Net had come before the phone: How would voice be woven into our online experience?'" says Ozzie, 58, a tech scene legend who oversaw the creation of Lotus Notes and served as chief technology officer at Microsoft a decade back. "The answer to that question is Talko."

A variety of investors are betting on Ozzie.

"Our discussion was very short," says Joseph Ansanelli, a partner at Greylock Partners, who provided early funding for Talko, along with Andreessen Horowitz and Kapor Capital.

"It was a combination of Ray, who is always re-inventing the way we share information, and this idea in particular and how it could impact the way professional people communicate on mobile," says Ansanelli. "Talko is taking these different ways in which we communicate today, and seamlessly bringing them all together in one place."

Ray Ozzie, 58, is the founder and CEO of Talko, a new app that uses Voice over Internet Protocol technology to blend voice conversations with other media such as photos and text.(Photo: Courtesy of Talko)

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Talko blends voice conversations and images along with text messages. When you initiate a Talko conversation with one or more people, those folks also have the option of joining live. The entire chat is then recorded and saved with its attendant media.

During a demo of Talko, two usage examples were touted. One featured a business meeting that overlaid images and texted comments with the ongoing conversation. The other was personal, spotlighting the arrival of a new puppy into the home of Talko co-founder Matt Pope.

"Talko is like a diary of an event as it unfolds," says Pope, who, along with co-founder Eric Patey, worked with Ozzie at software maker Groove networks, which was acquired by Mircosoft in 2005.

The app was beta-tested in recent months at Denver-based private satellite company Digital Globe. A small team there used it to keep in touch during a rocket launch.

'It was tough to break the typing habit, but we quickly found that we made good use of the app's voice feature.'

Ed Locher of Digital Globe, which beta-tested Talko

"Pre-Talko, there would just have been a lot of texts flying around," says Digital Globe marketing director Ed Locher. "It was tough to break the typing habit, but we quickly found that we made good use of the app's voice feature. The difference in terms of how we communicated was fairly dramatic."

Talko is anchored to the premise that we fundamentally prefer to hear each other speak, with other media simply amplifying the conversation.

"Voice can augment our affinity for images," says Ozzie, who says his incessant travel schedule was partly responsible for his epiphany about Talko. In particular, conversation threads on Talko that shared news about a grandchild made the technologist feel closer to his family.

The Talko team started its journey trying to solve what it saw were three problems with the way people stay in touch with smartphones.

"The first issue with texting, which is what many of us do, is the possibility for error while typing," says Pope. "Two, there is a complete lack of emotional context in texting. And lastly, add the simple fact that texting requires you to be always looking down at your phone, usually while you're walking."

One technological challenge involved making sure the quality of the voice connection was high, and reducing the time required for each new item to post "to well below half a second. Speed is immediacy," says Ozzie.

Another priority was making sure the app was utterly intuitive.

Talko co-founders (left to right) Erik Patey, CEO Ray Ozzie and Matt Pope.(Photo: Courtesy of Talko)

"In the past, an enterprise solution that was saving a company money was easy to force people to use," Ozzie says. "But this is an era of high expectations for the natural usability of a product. If it's not obvious, people won't use it."

While the Talko team is eager to see just how many people adopt their app, they're already busy working on new functions, which may include the ability to add video and documents to an ongoing conversation stream.

"I just don't think we're really communicating with each other in a way that fully uses the power of our voices mixed with technology," says Ozzie. "My dream is to change that."

USOC chief calls charges involving Hope Solo 'disturbing'

The unseemly silence that has enveloped the U.S. Olympic and soccer communities since the June arrest of U.S. soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo on domestic violence charges has finally been broken.

"Abuse in all forms is unacceptable," U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive officer Scott Blackmun told USA TODAY Sports in an e-mail Monday evening. "The allegations involving Ms. Solo are disturbing and are inconsistent with our expectations of Olympians. We have had discussions with U.S. Soccer and fully expect them to take action if it is determined that the allegations are true."

Blackmun is not calling on U.S. Soccer to remove Solo from the women's national team roster now. While Blackmun did not say why, it's believed that the USOC is concerned about Solo's right to a hearing and due process under the U.S. Amateur Sports Act while she awaits a November trial.

That said, it would have been entirely possible — and absolutely preferable, considering the nation's domestic violence climate — for U.S. Soccer and Solo to enter into some kind of an agreement in which she would have taken time away from the sport to deal with her personal and legal issues far from the soccer field.

As the NFL has found a way to remove alleged abusers from its active rosters, so too should have U.S. Soccer.

According to documents obtained by the Seattle Times, during an argument at Solo's sister's Kirkland, Wash., home, Solo charged her 17-year-old nephew, punched him in the face and tackled him. When the teen's mother tried to intervene, Solo attacked her as well.

Police wrote in an affidavit that when they arrived on the scene, the nephew's T-shirt was torn and that he had scratch marks on his arms and a bleeding cut on his ear.

Solo has pleaded not guilty to two counts of misdemeanor domestic violence.

Instead of leaving the national team after her arrest, Solo played in a few meaningless "friendly" matches this summer — including one last week in which she stunningly was given the captain's arm band — as concern about the decision to allow her to play grew in the wake of the NFL's massive domestic violence controversy.

When criticism mounted over the NFL's handling of the issue, several sponsors, including Anheuser-Busch, McDonald's and Nike, were notable in expressing their very public and increasingly negative opinions to the league. Anheuser-Busch used the toughest language, saying it was "disappointed and increasingly concerned." McDonald's said it had "questions" and was "closely monitoring" the situation. Nike and the NFL pulled Adrian Peterson apparel from their websites after he was indicted on child abuse charges.

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USATODAY

Domestic violence charges hang over Hope Solo with record near

All three of these sponsors also support U.S. Soccer, so I e-mailed each of them twice on Monday to find out what, if anything, they planned to do or say about Solo and U.S. Soccer.

Anheuser-Busch and McDonald's never responded. Nike replied Monday evening with this statement:

"We are aware of the allegations and that Hope Solo has pled 'not guilty' to the charges. Hope remains a Nike athlete and we will continue to monitor the situation."

Meanwhile, Solo plays on. She will not be banned when the U.S. national team begins qualifying matches next month for the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada.

"U.S. Soccer takes the issue of domestic violence very seriously," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in an e-mailed statement Monday night. "From the beginning, we considered the information available and have taken a deliberate and thoughtful approach regarding Hope Solo's status with the National Team. Based on that information, U.S. Soccer stands by our decision to allow her to participate with the team as the legal process unfolds. If new information becomes available we will carefully consider it."

The cases involving the NFL players and Solo are not entirely parallel, but the common thread of allegations of violence runs among them all. Let's hope that U.S. Soccer and its corporate sponsors are not treating the situations differently because the alleged domestic abuser is a woman, not a man.

The renowned U.S. women's national soccer team historically has stood for the principle of treating women athletes equally. That should be the case at all times, both good and bad.

Prosecutor: Fence jumper is 'a danger to the president'

WASHINGTON — White House fence jumper Omar Gonzalez, arrested with a folding knife in his pocket, also had a car packed with more than 800 rounds of ammunition parked a few blocks away, a prosecutor said Monday in federal court.

The incident at the White House on Friday was the 42-year-old Army veteran's third run-in with law enforcement in recent months.

At the time of his arrest, he was out on bail from a Virginia jail after an arrest in July, when he led Virginia State Police on a car chase in Pulaski County in southwest Virginia. When authorities there searched his car, they found an arsenal, including two shotguns, three rifles and five pistols, and a map of the Washington area tucked into a Bible. The White House and the Masonic Temple in Alexandria, Va., had been circled on the map, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mudd said.

Gonzalez will be held in jail for 10 days while authorities in Wythe County, Va., take steps to revoke his bail in that case. Gonzalez, who stood calmly in court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, will appear in court again on Oct. 1 for a detention hearing to determine whether he will be allowed out of jail.

Mudd called Gonzalez, who is unemployed and homeless, "a danger to the president."

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USATODAY

Secret Service considers new rules; intruder in court

Police in Virginia arrested Gonzalez, of Copperas Cove, Texas, on July 19 after reports from the public about a reckless driver traveling north on Interstate 81 in Wythe County around 9 a.m. A trooper pulled behind the 1996 Ford Bronco and turned on his emergency lights, but the driver didn't stop, Virginia State Police said in a press release. The trooper pursued the Bronco for more than 20 miles before stopping it in Pulaski County. Gonzalez was charged with reckless driving, a felony count of eluding police and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. The Bronco was impounded and police are storing the other weapons, which are not illegal, for safekeeping, spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.

Federal authorities stopped Gonzalez on Aug. 25 by the south fence of the White House, Mudd said in court. He had a hatchet tucked into the waistband of his pants, Mudd said. Gonzalez allowed police to search his car, which was parked a block from the White House at 17th Street and New York Avenue, Mudd said. They found two dogs and camping gear.

When police arrested Gonzalez on Friday for jumping the White House perimeter fence and running into the White House through the North Portico, federal agents say he was armed with a folding knife with a 3-inch serrated blade. He told the Secret Service agent who arrested him that he feared the "atmosphere was collapsing" and he needed to warn the president, court papers say.

Authorities again searched his car, parked nearby on Independence Avenue, where they found more than 800 rounds of ammunition, both boxed and in magazines. Police also found two hatchets and a machete.

Gonzalez's "preoccupation with the White House and his acquisition of a vast amount" of ammunition make him a danger to the president and the community, Mudd argued.

This Sept. 21, 2009 photo provided by Jerry Murphy shows Omar Gonzalez, who was married to Murphy's mother, Samantha, until they divorced in 2012. Authorities have identified Gonzalez as the man who got into the White House after scaling a fence on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Courtesy Jerry Murphy)(Photo: Uncredited ASSOCIATED PRESS)

David Bos, an assistant federal public defender appointed by federal magistrate John Facciola to represent Gonzalez, said he would not dispute that Gonzalez violated the terms of his release on bond from the Virginia case. He declined a mental health evaluation for his client.

Bos said he had spoken with Gonzalez, who "fully understands" the charges and the proceedings.

Facciola, noting Gonzalez's "unusual behavior," ordered him held as a danger to the community.

The incident has raised concerns about White House security and the Secret Service's ability to preempt such security threats. On Monday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it would hold a hearing Sept. 30 on the issue.The committee asked Secret Service Director Julia Pierson to testify.

"The recent intrusion of an individual into the White House is the latest in a string of high profile incidents for the Secret Service, Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement. "These significant security breaches reveal our weaknesses as well as our response capabilities to our nation's enemies."