As social networking sites like Facebook have soared in popularity over the last decade, it has become very easy to make friends and acquaintances online. In that same time, real-world venues that were once social hubs have suffered. As society directs more and more attention to the online world, it has actually gotten harder to meet people at coffee shops, bars, parties, and public places. These days, many people look for new friends on the web, and save the physical world for socializing with those they already know. We aim to counteract that trend. Our mission is to do for the offline world what social networking sites have done for the online world. We want to help people meet and strike up conversations in real life. And, we want to give people an easy and comfortable way to stay connected after their first conversation. Specifically, we want to eliminate the awkwardness that many people feel when exchanging contact information with someone new. Towards these ends, we are introducing a concept called the "whimword." A whimword is the real-world analogue of an online screen name. It serves a double purpose: it is both an icebreaker (a conversation starter) and an address (an alias where you can receive messages). Participating in the Whimwords system involves these four steps: 1.Choose a word or a phrase that says something about you. That's your whimword. Reserve it by sending us a text message or visiting our website. You can change your whimword whenever you like, and you can have more than one. 2.Reveal your whimword to people you meet. Wear it on a t-shirt, name tag, pin, hat, bag tag, etc. Mention it in conversation. Identify your whimword by putting our logo next to it: 3.Discover the whimwords of others around you. Look for whimwords on display. Attend a Whimwords-themed event. To strike up a conversation with someone in a crowd, ask them if they have a whimword. If they've got a word, ask them how they chose it; if not, tell them what Whimwords is all about. 4.Connect with other Whimwords participants face-to-face, as you encounter them in the real world, then reconnect by sending whims. A "whim" is a message sent from one whimword to another, via SMS or our website. You might send a whim to offer someone your contact information (no need to exchange it on the spot), or just to say hello. Whims work differently from conventional messages (emails, IM's, postal letters, etc.), in that they are only delivered when there's mutual interest. Two people must send whims toward each other before either whim is delivered. This novel approach to message delivery means that the Whimwords system is both spam-free and risk-free. You can never receive an unwanted whim, because you'll only receive whims from the people who you reach out to. And when you send a whim, you can be sure that it will only be received if the other person is interested in continuing a conversation with you. So, feel free to give out your whimword to anyone you meet, and send a whim to anyone you like!

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