Editor’s Note: KoPoint offers select underwriting partners the opportunity to participate in content-appropriate sponsored audio interviews and blog posts about topics that are tightly related to the product vertical. These posts are clearly marked as underwriting, though the content is relevant, sincere, and organic . We hope you enjoy the podcast and post.

The following is a sponsored audio interview and blog post with Bonfyre co-founder and CEO Mark Sawyier, and  co-founder and director of communications Raymond Gobberg.

Bonfyre co-founder and director of communications, Raymond Gobberg

Bonfyre App ditches newsfeeds and brings relevant, private chat and photo sharing to your fingertips, election-day 2012
By: Raymond Gobberg, Bonfyre Co-Founder and Director of Communications

Pew research recently released a study that found the average Facebook user has more than 200 friends on the network. But does anyone actually hang out with 200 people on a regular basis? Unlikely.

Those 200 friends are really an accumulation of everyone you’ve ever met. While that Rolodex is a powerful way to share something with everyone, or see what people are up to, the reality is that these connections become less relevant over time.

Enter Bonfyre, our free mobile app for iPhone and Android that answers the question: How do I share better with the people that matter? The platform is built on the simple concept that sharing around experiences and events rather than through decaying connections, static circles, or noisy newsfeeds is a better reflection of real life.

For a relevant example, consider election-day: every person has unique political opinions, but not everyone wants to discuss them with their entire Facebook or Twitter network. Many just want to discuss the presidential election-day drama among close friends. While this appears to be a fairly obvious statement, deeper reflection uncovers some of the larger impacts of social networks and digital sharing as they have become ingrained in our daily lives.

Over the past decade as social media has evolved, it has become easy to connect with a wide audience, instantly sharing location, activity, photos and opinions without pause. And while this unprecedented level of connectivity has enabled revolution (Egypt), aided those in need (Hurricane Sandy) and fostered democratic process (election-day 2012) it has uncovered an interesting dynamic where consumers are increasingly exploring ways to share with a limited audience, versus the status quo of broadcasting everything to everyone across their social graph.

Broadcast as a default, while useful for certain situations, inevitably creates a challenge for individuals traversing the personal data environment: how do I keep anything private in an age when it is difficult to predict where my information will ultimately end up? Personal worlds that previously could be managed and segmented – work, family, friendships and personal secrets—become harder to keep apart in this reality.

Some innovative and well capitalized organizations have recognized this need and launched products that attempt to deal with facets of the issue. Over the past few years, private sharing apps and services like Path, Snapchat, Google+ and Everyme have emerged to offer users a more private compliment to broadcast sharing networks.

While these platforms address portions of the problem, Bonfyre is focused on developing a holistic solution and is fueled by an obsession to deliver a simple, elegant alternative to the challenges introduced by the default broadcast sharing.

At the most basic level, Bonfyre offers users private arena to plan, capture and share experiences with the people that matter. Other platforms force you to plan in one place, chat about the event in another and gather all of the photos from the experience to share in yet another. This produces a disparate experience to say the least. With Bonfyre, you can plan the event, coordinate before during and after and organize everyone’s photos from that event in one private place.

So whether it’s a night out with friends, a family vacation, a couple’s weekend, a music festival or election-day, Bonfyre is a dynamic social network that travels with you through life’s journeys. No news feeds, no static circles or groups – just you, your experiences and the people that made each one memorable.

For election-day 2012, we are hosting an official election watch bonfyre, where some bloggers and political aficionados will be discussing returns. If you are interested in participating in the election-day conversation:
https://www.bonfyreapp.com/events/electionday2012

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About Bonfyre
Bonfyre, launched to the public on October 2, 2012 at DEMO in Santa Clara, CA, is a mobile app to plan, capture and share experiences with the people that matter. Bonfyre is one private place to create and relive many aspects of an experience – from setting up an event to group chats, photo sharing and a group photo stream. Bonfyre redesigns the sharing experience by focusing on being relevant to your real social sphere, being private, being easy to use, and being mobile.

For more information on the private photo sharing app, go to
http://bonfyreapp.com
Follow us on Twitter at @bonfyreapp and like us at
http://www.facebook.com/bonfyre
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Download Audio: Underwriting Post: Bonfyre Makes Conversations & Photosharing Relevant and Private

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