where are you?

I'm trying to put together a simple little event. A salon, if you will. It used to be so easy. You chose a venue, and then you sent invitations.

Now it's way more complicated. Do I tweet you? SMS you? Get your attention on LinkedIn? Facebook? Your work email? Your personal email? Snailmail? Do I even know where you live anymore? Where are you?

Many of the current social platforms, although nominally "free," have a hitch: if someone you want to invite or contact isn't on the same platform, you can't use it to reach them. And everyone seems to be on a different platform. Which means you need to use all of them: Facebook, Gmail, SMS, Twitter, etcetera.

Meanwhile, if I use a broad platform event-planning technology, like Evite in the old days, well, I run the risk that I'm not using the trendy app, and you'll ignore me.

It's time for aggregation. Someone's gotta be funding this. So that all I do is choose YOU -- your name, something identifiable about you -- and my communication will reach you in the way you most want to be reached.

The current dis-integration is not only frustrating, it's wasteful. Of time, intention, resource, attention, and of privacy too. It creates an illusion of intimacy or safety. When really, it's just a hassle. All the data is still out there, still public.

Arghhh.