Most people still use their phones to connect on a person-to-person basis: Dennis connects with Artie; Artie connects with Chris - just as we did when the phone was first invented.  The future (available now) is to use our phones to connect on a person-to-network basis (network of hundreds of family, friends, associates, sports partners, etc.) for multiple purposes never before possible: Dennis connects with Artie, Barbara, Chris, Amy, Ken, Kevin, etc.   

“Multiple purposes never before possible?”  To quickly understand what this means, picture those phone commercials on T.V. that show a huge network of people following one mobile phone user wherever he/she goes.  In the commercial, the people are symbolic for the network engineers that maintain the phone products and services.  But, for our purposes here, imagine those people are your family, friends, associates, neighbors, etc. (constantly expanding as you befriend new people).   Imagine that wherever you go they literally move along with you, quietly waiting behind you to do whatever you ask of them! 

If this funny scenario were possible (in effect, it is – details below, so play along), how would you engage this network of people; what would you ask them to do from day to day? 

You’ve never thought about it before, but there would be many uses and benefits to you, such as:

• You jog regularly, though always concerned about safety or boredom, so you turn, face your network, and shout, “Does anyone want to jog with me tomorrow morning?” 
• “I’m looking for about 5 more folks who want to play beach volleyball this Saturday.”
• “Who knows French and wants to converse with me 2 days a week on Fri/Sat? I’m studying the language.”
• “Hey, who wants to come to my surprise pool party for my boyfriend on Sunday?”
• “Who drives into town on Mon, Wed and Fri and wants to carpool to save on these gas prices?”
• “I’m going to have some cool stuff at my garage sale next week, how many of you will come?”
• “Who wants to get wild and go dancing with me Friday night?”
•  “Can any of you drive me home, my car broke down?”
• “Who wants to join my basketball team?”
• “Who wants to form their own teams, so we can play each other on Saturdays?” 

The list grows with your imagination.  In addition, people in your network can be proactive, and invite you to do things, too:

·        “I’m going to the fitness center this afternoon, do you want to work out with each other?”

·        We’re having a golf skins tournament, want to participate?

Even more, you also have the option of walking past other traveling networks of people and shouting out requests to them, too, and vice versa!  

 Ok, that would change our lifestyles, fitness and social lives in a positive way - always plugged into whatever fun/healthy activities were going on within and without our network.  But, it’s impossible to get everyone to follow us around all day - think of the logistic issues!  So how can the new technology really make all this work efficiently, even if no one is physically trailing us? 

(If you don’t care how it is done, you can stop reading and just enter our website that already offers all this technology at:  http://www.sportsmatchmaker.com .)

What makes it all work is a combination of mobile phone and Web technologies (for the tech minded).  Bottom line is that the you can use the Sports MatchMaker® website or your mobile phone to key in a Match Request™ to do anything, on any date/time/level, location.  Let’s say you want to play tennis next Sat. and need 3 more for a doubles game.  When you push the request submit button, you’re match request details are automatically recorded on the website and sent to everyone in your network via email and/or text message to their mobile phones (to those who opted in).  Your request can also be found and joined when people outside your network search for match requests, like yours, on the website, if you choose to have it displayed.

This Match Requesting amounts to your SHOUTING out to your network walking behind you, in the examples above.  Then folks in your network can answer you by simply replying on their mobile phones with one keyword: “Join” (they do NOT even know your mobile phone number), or they can use the website to “join” with one-click. 

In either case, their join is recorded automatically on the website, and an email and/or text message is sent back to you, notifying who has joined.  This amounts to your network SHOUTING back to you - your RSVP system.  

Then you can “accept/deny” anyone who joins via your mobile phone or on the website, in the same simple manner.  All are automatically notified.  When you have accepted the 3 players (in the case above), the match is automatically closed and anyone who tries to join after that point by mobile, is immediately informed the match is closed. 

Connecting spontaneously to a large number of people in a network is useful ONLY IF all responses, cancellations, etc. are handled and recorded automatically and efficiently by the system.  This is the backbone of the Sports MatchMaker® proprietary technology that makes it all possible.  We call it P2N (person-to-network) calls, as opposed to the term person-to-person calls.  

With the tennis match example above, if you did everything via your mobile phone and were to look at your Matches page on the website, you would see you have a tennis match with the 3 people (with their pics and links to their profiles).  Anything done over the phone is recorded on the website instantly.  The system even sends you and the other players an automatic match-reminder via email/text message one day before each match. 

Welcome to the future! - http://www.sportsmatchmaker.com 

No false advertising there, wouldn’t all our lifestyles improve if our cell phone became our sports matchmaker, automatically alerting us of perfect matches to be played after work with sprite contenders?  With a simple “join” reply you’re in the game - all you do on the phone is reflected on the website!

Serious competitors:  time you widen your competition 

Couples:  there are more of you than singles…get out with the lively ones.
Singles: you’re sporting, not dating…unless you want to ;). 

Teams:  practice, practice, practice. Managers email/SMS all teammates with a click.

Companies: help your workers play together & stay fit - can search by company. Learn more

City/Gov: allows staff to network, set up matches with each other, stay healthy. Learn more

Sports/Athletic Clubs: allows your members to match-up with locals & bring to your club. Learn more

Fitness Centers:  allows your members to match-up with locals & bring to your club. Learn more

Hotel/Resorts/Time Share:  allows your guests to set up matches & play at your facility. Learn more

Sports Pub/Restaurants: allows your customers to challenge others at your establishment.  Learn more

Students/Colleges:  networking & notification whenever anyone/group does anything.  Learn more

This is our first post as founders of this site.  The concept for Sports MatchMaker® (SMM) was actually hatched many years ago in connection with a non-profit, youth sports academy we co-founded.  The academy needed a player-development tool for setting up regular matches for its members with others in the community at defined levels of ability. 

Realizing the concept was novel and needed, we redesigned and expanded it, including all sports/activities people engage in (users expand our activity list). SMM is now a hybrid of matchmaking and social networking.  It is open to all, regardless of marital status, with all the standard online social networking tools, plus users can efficiently create and join offline matches with each other.  Therefore, virtual networking expands real-life networking, and vice versa.

It’s more efficient than the standard online matchmaking services, as the purpose for matchmaking on SMM is NOT limited to “dating” for singles, which understandably requires a digital courtship period before a “date” is considered safe or acceptable.  Except for the fortunate few, many who have been through this process know that an extended virtual crush can quickly end in disappointment in the first offline (real) meeting.  Tired of repeating the same ‘ole, expecting different results?

SMM offers singles all they need, and more, by simply changing the purpose of meeting offline from dating to engaging in healthy, sporting activities.  For this purpose, we all can meet immediately at a public facility, either in group or private matches, with nothing more than a review of a profile and one click of a “join” button.  Whether or not there are sparks on the court - you just had a healthy workout, did some sweating, and improved your game for your next match, right?  Isn’t it the magic of interaction that really holds the promise for a lasting union?  Reality vs. ‘Virtuality’:  which do we really want?

We were pleased to see the NY Times tech writer, David Pogue, reviewed SMM and expressed his appreciation for the site concept.  It was the first national media publication that received SMM information from us, and it was an honor to receive Pogue’s recognition, realizing how many services and products must cross his desk routinely.  He didn’t like our 8-character registration password and the prose leaving SMM open for a subscription (pay) business model in the future.    

We took Pogue’s password advice and changed (at least for now) our required length to 5 characters.  Maybe we did this because we’re more concerned with user-friendliness than security, or perhaps to prove that we don’t take ourselves too seriously, as he suggested.  Could that mean we’re too sensitive and insecure?   Dang, maybe we DO need more security.

Concerning the free/pay models, we fully agree and have designed SMM to give the “infinite components” of SMM (primary matchmaking/social networking services) away for free, with the intent of charging for the “scarce” ones (advertising, sports products, ancillary services, value-added services…).  That said, however, our business model also includes the possibility of entering a type of strategic partnership, which could require a change in subscription policy.  The best we can guarantee is a Free Lifetime Membership for all who get in before any such partnership is consummated.

The NY Times article can be found at:  http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/a-new-site-to-find-sports-buddies/ .  

Many of our proprietary features are unique and essential for efficient sports/activity matchmaking. The SMM home page has a full listing.  We hope you enjoy them all and feel free to contact us at anytime with your thoughts and suggestions on how we can further improve the site. 

Get fit or quit, loser.

Look forward to a lot of good posts here as well. We will do our best to blog regularly about new features, upgrades, maintenance, the social network industry, etc. You will hear from our developers, owners, and more as the days pass.

For now, enjoy SportsMatchMaker.com! Join now and receive free lifetime membership!