By Monica Alleven
Friday, August 1, 2008
Gemini Mobile Technologies CEO Scott Driggers plans to attend this month’s Olympics in Beijing, but this time he’ll be a spectator, not a participant.
Twenty years ago, Driggers was in the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, as a member of the handball team. For those not in the know, the sport is somewhat like water polo on a basketball court, he said. The objective is to put a ball into a goal using only your hands.
This year, Driggers will not only be able to watch his sport in China, but he can also see his company’s technology in action. Earlier this year, Gemini made its 3D mobile social networking platform, eXplo, available for the Chinese market. China Unicom offers a college campus-oriented version of eXplo in which users live in virtual dormitories, blog, send e-mail to each other and post events on a shared bulletin board.
China is the first market with the second generation of eXplo, which was first introduced in Japan. The hope is to be in four additional countries, including the United States, by the end of the year with the second-generation version.
As for those Olympics? Driggers said this year’s location is one he’s been thinking about for a long time because unlike some previous venues, China has an opportunity to prove its status to the world.