“Ripplex” - the address book software that 'grows' automatically

By reading Ishitani-san's entry titled “Ripplex, an interesting address book software that 'grows' automatically,” I’ve got some curiosity on it, so I tried the software.

In fact, I’ve heard the name “Ripplex” before, but I didn’t look into it because it looked a bit complicated.

On the blog entry, Ishitani-san said:

Then, submit invitation to Kogure-san. At that point, you can decide how much information you disclose to him. This means that I can find Kogure-san by searching with his Skype ID, and also let him know about my Twitter ID and e-mail address.

Thus, I somehow got the feeling that I should try it since my name was being mentioned.

So, I installed the Mac version of Ripplex.

At this point, however, I had no idea what the “'grows' automatically” means, or what it is all about.

When I launched the software for the first time, I was asked to register my friends by providing their e-mail addresses, Skype IDs or Twitter IDs.

Now the software began to fetch the related data of each registered users from the server. At the same time, a connection was formed through Ripplex.

Until this step the software looks just like the user list of Skype/Twitter, but here things go much more interesting.

On the list, there are some names of people who are already using the Ripplex, like this one.

By clicking the name of listed user, you submit the invitation to the user. When she/he accepts the invitation, a "connection" would be formed between the two.

Moreover, you can specify how detailed information you disclose to each user. This is the main advantage of Ripplex. Merely making conncetions doesn’t disclose any information to your partner.

For example, you can choose to:

- disclose my cell phone number to Ishitani-san
- provide only my e-mail address with Mr. X
- let my Mixi username be known only to those who know me well

And here is the important feature: You don't have to keep the data updated - the data is maintained by your partners themselves.

It means that when you receive an e-mail messge, “I changed my cell phone number”, you don't have to update that info in your address book. With Ripplex, any change made by someone would automatically be reflected in your list.

I couldn’t get the point for the first time but then realized that it would get more and more convenient and useful as the number of user increases.

It is quite bothering to manage and update the address book every time I got the change notification. Indeed, usually I ignore most of the changes in cell phone numbers and/or addresses.

Especially, entering e-mail address is annoying. Glad that Gmail input them automatically. I seriously want to be free from such “maintenance” stuff.

In this sense, I think "the address book software that automatically updates its data" is a wonderful concept!! All I have to do is to disclosing my information.

Translated by Hayashi
(original post on May 1, 2008)