Guardian Circle

Guardian Circle is a community emergency response network.

2 followers

Guardian Circle is a community emergency response network.

2 followers

A ‘Friends & Family 911’ network that pays for contributing to safety. Friends, family and neighbors protect each other. Available FREE on iOS and Android.

Launch tags:Android•iOS•API

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Great concept, for very simple things such as a pet locked in the house, one missed their car keys or while walking back home in a dark area. However, a liability nightmare in the making. Has this been tested already in controlled/uncontrolled environments? If so, what are the results -- including the negative ones, flaws in the workflow, surprises and "room for improvement"? I was a trained rescuer volunteer when in my late 20s and I can't see how someone without proper training can't touch a person with a potentially serious injury/condition, put them in a private vehicle and take them to the hospital. It is said that "Chances are your network (friends, family, neighbors) are CLOSEST and can help you FASTEST." That's such a dangerous statement. Depending on what the problem is, the time wasted in activating a network on untrained people is crucially taxing on the individual who needs help. Sadly, out there, with fatal results. Friends can indeed act quickly in calling them, but never in showing up to help without proper training for the situation at hand. All of that for a price, it really doesn't get me excited. Quite the contrary actually. What happens when a for-profit organisation is to be liable for triggering an inadequate rescue response, provided by lay people with non-technical training in emergency response, that results in a dire outcome? Plus, there is a huge potential for people flocking around an accident area, blocking rescuers to be there on time and do their job swiftly, disturbing a critical scene instead of helping it. That extra energy expenditure, confusion and commotion management has to happen every single time large numbers of people get to the scene before proper help does. I'm a user of Neighbourly here in New Zealand, which is basically neighbours helping neighbours. The app/service has a direct channel to public services that can be activated when an user reports anything odd or serious. It rarely gets used because, well, people civically report it themselves directly without wasting precious time. The app works as a "be careful with these, watch out for that, if you need help with something" platform and it's great. If this goes anywhere near rescuing scenarios and critical situations, it's a real risk on all accounts. I'm super skeptical, this has been tried many times in the past (minus blockchain) and if I had money invested, I'd be jumpy as.

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8yr ago

@lyondhur These are all valid concerns, and we are well aware of them. One of our close advisors ran 9-1-1 in the State of Kentucky for a decade -- he has wanted to build exactly what we're proposing for years because -- in his words -- "9-1-1 is too big to fix". It HAS to be rebooted from scratch. He knows the existing situation is terrible firsthand -- and believes very strongly in what we're doing. Remember: he IS the '9-1-1 guy'. He was literally in charge of the entire state's emergency response network. Recently, we've seen 'citizen rescue' efforts in HoustonTexas with 'The Cajun Navy' during the hurricane. Without them, many people would have died. They did not have 'proper training', they were simply willing to lend a hand. In India, when a woman is assaulted sexually and calls the police, the police frequently assault her as well. This is the reason why the XPRIZE foundation created the women's safety XPRIZE -- and SPECIFICALLY called for a CITIZEN response. There is simply not another viable option there. In a lot of emergency situations, simply getting someone to the hospital fast is the thing that saves their lives. Strokes, bee-sting allergic reactions -- in these situations, your network IS your best chance of staying alive for this reason. Of course, not ALL situations are like this. In many cases, we will simply provide an Alert Operator who knows your location (unlike 9-1-1, that has no idea where you if you call from a mobile device (see John Oliver: "9-1-1 Sucks!" from a year ago)) and will send an ambulance to your location -- and this cuts down on time-wasted with 9-1-1 busy signals, having to describe your location (and perhaps you don't even know where you are)). Try to think of this as a much-enhanced Alert grid where location-sharing and immediate communications between ALL parties -- Alerter, pro, citizen, and friends / family / neighbors -- is the new thing. The protocols for WHO does WHAT are 'what you are trained to do and no more'. If you're not an EMT, don't try to administer medical aid. We are designing the response protocols of all parties with legal and professional responders assisting us -- we're not shooting in the dark. And we do hear what you're saying and agree that we need to tread thoughtfully.

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8yr ago

@markjeffrey okay, so you got a guy who "was 911". The only thing that separates all these amazing examples that you cited, being Houston, India and virtually all citizen rescue initiatives, is.. money. None of these are for-profit and were done for free, by good samaritans and volunteers. That's not only awesome (I've been there myself way more than a few times), but from a legal perspective, non liable in most cases - depending on the law of the land it takes place. For example, here in New Zealand, because I had emergency training, I'm obligated to provide support if I come across one. I'm liable for my actions. (I'm a designer and project manager for tech/Dev) A citizen with no training is encourage to clear the area and call the authorities. Only. Anything else, they are liable too. If anybody prevents abuse or help out anything on spot -- AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENS -- they are awesome. If anything bad happens, they are still awesome but, because the is simply a gazillion variables in a critical scenario. An investigation will always take place in the unfortunate event of someone dying for example, whoever took part in the line of servicing that person may be liable. People just have to be aware of that. In the event of an allergic shock, often times getting the person help is better than getting the person anywhere.. Imagine this, someone isn't breathing properly and you're sure is allergic. You put them in your can and.. crash on the way to the local hospital or ER. Perhaps less grim, there was just a heavy traffic and you can't clear the road (as a private vehicle) to get there faster. Something happens. How are you not responsible. I'm not saying a private networks of "SUPPORTERS" shouldn't be organised. But the examples you mentioned are all off-spectrum because 1) a natural catastrophe in Texas where any help is precious and 2) intervening with the laws, police force and circumstances of a foreign country like India, for a privately controlled cryptocurrency (money) and without technical training is just too messy and blurred for me mate. I wish you nothing but good luck with the project, as I support any initiative that seeks to solve problems and help. Best counsel I ever received on this was that "The State can afford the painful burden of losing a life while trying to save it; it's their burden. A citizen never comes out of it unscathed." Don't let my utter skepticism about this in particular stop you. I'm just concerned that the "break things and learn from it" principle that we use as builders is just not to be applied in such cases. I assume this has not yet been experimented in the field yet. Correct me if I am mistaken please. Appreciate the response and the interaction. Kia Kaha.

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8yr ago

@lyondhur Right now, we have the 'free friends, family and neighbors. version in the field -- it's out there, worldwide, today :) The paid mechanisms come later this year. And we will take our time and ease into those and be VERY VERY careful with each step. I totally appreciate where you're coming from and appreciate the 'back and forth' as well. :) As to whether this is 'for money' versus non-profit -- our current thesis is that to achieve sufficient density of 'vetted, trained help' it HAS to be for-profit. The responders need to be compensated for every hour they are 'available', and more for when they respond. We need to attract 'response talent'. As we learn, we will certainly change our minds about many things. I *think* we can make worldwide emergency response 500% better 80% of the time -- something like that -- simply through having a better cloud-based emergency alert / comms grid that organizes help faster / better / more of it. But it has to be 'the right help' -- I think that's your main argument -- the threat of 'noise' from lots of people who don't know what they're doing is a danger. I agree -- and the 'response algorithm' needs to create a flash mob of SIGNAL that outweighs or filters out all this NOISE. THANK YOU for your feedback and do I appreciate what you're saying.

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8yr ago

@markjeffrey you’re most welcome mate. It just occurred to me that by paying the “responders force” you also establish a work/labour relationship with them. Best of luck.

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8yr ago

Product Hunt

Hey @hayesdata & @markjeffrey, Can you tell us more about what you've built here and how it differs from other similar products?

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8yr ago

Guardian Circle

Maker

@hayesdata @markjeffrey @jacqvon Hi Jacqueline -- We're the first to put friends, family, neighbors, vetted citizen responders (Uber-ized ex-military, EMT's, Ambulance (in remote villages: "The guy with the truck who can drive to the hospital")) AND professional response (cops, regular ambulance) on a SINGLE shared emergency alert & communications grid. We get EVERYONE relevant on a location-sharing map + chatroom: we organize the response. This cuts down on the 'fog of war' in emergencies -- and gets info FAST to responders ("Mark is unconscious? He's deadly-allergic to bee stings, check for that!"). Chances are your network (friends, family, neighbors) are CLOSEST and can help you FASTEST. We allow Unlimited Guardians, Unlimited Alerts, so add as many people as you like. We're also the first to offer an API so anyone can plug any device or service into our grid. The XPRIZE Foundation has partnered with us on the Women's Safety XPRIZE for this reason. We have 87 contestants in 17 countries building devices that use our API. We've used it ourselves to create an Amazon Alexa Voice App (Skill) so you can just call for help with your voice and this will send a Guardian Circle Alert. We have a CarPlay version in the works as well. Finally, we are the first to introduce a cryptocurrency token, Guardium, as a payment mechanism & smart contract device. This means Guardian Circle is transportable across borders: no matter where you are in the world, push a button: a flash mob of (vetted) help comes. The Guardium blockchain also stores Alert Transcripts (so they are immutable and tamper-proof evidence), and the Alerting Party has sole custody of the encryption keys. Lastly, we provide an Emergency Information Lock Box (also encrypted on the blockchain) (your secret health issue, where the key is hidden in your front yard, etc.) that is only made available when you declare an Alert, and only available to your designated recipients. And one more point: Gifting will be a common activity we believe -- you can remotely sponsor safety in the developing world using Guardium: pay for a beneficiary's subscription service to upgraded protection. Now, because you sent Guardium DIRECTLY, it did NOT go through a .gov or .org or bank, so you KNOW it was not spent inefficiently or inappropriately (see Red Cross in Haiti). Down the road, we will provide 'extreme impact tracking': see how every donated Guardium-penny was spent as easily as you would a FedEx package. Phew. Think I'm done now :) Guardian Circle is released now worldwide. The Guardium-related stuff is still being built (though we have coins and wallets now).

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8yr ago

Raycast

This seems like a product that would be very hard to create an MVP for... what's been the development and design process? Where has the funding come from?

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8yr ago

@chrismessina You would be right about that :) To get the thing to REALLY work well (on iOS and Android, on different carriers around the world, on different screen sizes, etc.) took us a year and a half. Plus all the little UI niceties (the in-app contact manager that senses which of your contacts are already members and 'suggests them') -- do that WELL took time We've raised $160K in seed. That's it. We've sold a lot more that that in Guardium's Token presale, but that was only VERY recently (we've been working on this for 2.5 years). So the ICO route has already been a LOT more effective that the angel / vc route for us, no question. So what you're seeing in release right now is the result of 2.5 years and $160K.

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8yr ago

Raycast

@markjeffrey awesome, very helpful. Congrats on your success so far...! Very curious if you know much about the folks who participated in the ICO and why? Is there anything specific about Guardian that attracted their participation, from what you can tell?

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8yr ago

Overe - Free Microsoft 365 Security Tool

nice vision, good start! @mark_jeffrey , @hayesdata , couple of questions: · Should we consider Guardian Circle a business, a nonprofit... or something else? · Any thoughts on open sourcing it? · Is there any doc regarding API integrations? Thanks and good luck!

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8yr ago

Guardian Circle

Maker

@mark_jeffrey @marcbc Guardian Circle itself is a "for profit" entity that provides reference implementations of applications using the Guardian Circle API. The Guardium Foundation is a blockchain focused entity that is providing solutions for humanitarian efforts and charitable giving on the Guardium blockchain. At the moment we've only opened our API and docs to XPrize contestants for the Women's Safety Prize however that will be changing in the near future. In short we plan on opening things up greatly once we've received some further feedback from the XPrize teams and we feel that things are nicely settled in. We have a small team so keeping things limited in scope is a bit of a necessity right now. Along with the wider release of the API expect accompanying docs and open sourcing portions of the codebase. If you have further questions regarding "dev stuff" email developers AT guardian circle dot com. I'll more than likely be the person responding and I'm happy to talk further via that channel.

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8yr ago

Overe - Free Microsoft 365 Security Tool

thanks for the clarification Chris, will keep an eye on the project!

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8yr ago

Is there/are you looking to add some shortcut way to send an instant alert? Sometimes there's no time to send additional details or you can't openly reach for your phone and start typing out.

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8yr ago

@igoruphere That's what the API is for :) You're right of course -- opening an App in an attack situation is not going to happen. But you COULD push a panic button on a ring -- and if that panic button uses our API, bam! Alert sent. Or you COULD use your VOICE to call for help -- if you had Guardian Circle Alexa Skill installed (this works today).

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8yr ago

This is from an email I send out to Guardium Token inquiries ... reposted here (lots of info and links): ---------- GUARDIUM WINNER: d10e Gibraltar (Nov 2017) (Press Release) Our BlockCON Talk is here:

Pitch Deck: https://www.slideshare.net/MarkJ... Available now worldwide on iOS, Android and ALEXA. FEATURED: Apple's 'Planet of the Apps' Reality TV Show; Upcoming ALEX WINTER (Bill from 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure') Crypto Documentary (Early Spring 2018) WINNER: LAUNCH Festival (April 2016), d10e Gibraltar (Nov 2017) PARTNER: Women's Safety XPRIZE (XPRIZE Foundation), Bee Token (Tokenized AirBnb) GUARDIUM Advisors: William Mougayar (Token Summit) Crystal Rose-Pierce (Sensay) Miko Matsumura (Evercoin, Partner: Pantera Capital) Michael Terpin (CoinAgenda, Transform) Fred Kruegar (Troopcoin) Ken Brook (MetaX / AdToken) Richard Titus (Samsung, BBC, ARK-ICO) GUARDIUM is global decentralized emergency response. It is a worldwide public utility that benefits all, but it especially benefits the four billion unbanked people worldwide with no emergency services. Universal 9-1-1 is a multibillion dollar ecosystem with many niches for emergency response solutions. Guardium Token Sale Links: Token Sale Website: http://tokensale.guardiancircle.com Whitepaper: http://tokensale.guardiancircle.... Japanese, Korean and Chinese translations now available on the Token Sale Website: http://tokensale.guardiancircle.com Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guardium/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/guardiancircle BitcoinTalk Forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.ph... Telegram Channel: https://t.me/joinchat/GEkyk0LXGY... The Guardian Circle App: the Guardium Reference Implementation. http://www.guardiancircle.com Guardian Circle Investors: Jason Calacanis Michael Terpin Eric Poulier Thomas & Khaliya Ermacora / Falkora John Valenti How Is Guardium Used? FIVE WAYS: FIRST: It’s used to form Emergency Response Contracts and as a Form of Settlement. You might contract with Local EMT or doctor Your local security response be that citizen or pro Ambulance or other emergency transport SECOND: Guardium provides for remote Sponsorship of emergency response contracts So you and I can send Guardium DIRECTLY to a beneficiary in the developing world to buy protection services Because it’s direct, no bank, organization or government can use the funds inefficiently or inappropriately THIRD: Alert transcripts are inscribed on the Guardium blockchain Full timeline of WHERE everyone was during the Alert WHAT everyone said WHEN everyone responded or didn’t respond Immutable, tamper-proof evidence The Alerting Party has full control of all access to this transcript (even we can’t get at it) FOURTH: Guardium provides for Emergency Info Lock Box You can create a record that contains all the stuff you only want people to know about if you’re in trouble. Location of hidden key to your house Secret health issues Private keys to cryptocurrency Opened only when Alerter declares Alert Openable only by Guardians FIFTH: Doubles as a Loyalty Program. Earn Guardium when you: Send invitations to Guardian Circle Guard others Respond to an Alert Our COINAGENDA Talk is here: