Scott McNealy has never been shy about sharing his opinions; now he wants everyone else to do the same.
The former Sun boss launched his new company this week, and it's a long way from the enterprise IT business he ran for most of his life. Called WayIn, it's a social gaming service that lets people post a photo online and create their own quick poll, asking friends and other members to "weigh in" with their opinion.
The subject can be anything. "Just point, click, shoot, and ask for unlimited opinions on everything from the cute stranger to your right to the concert you saw last night," WayIn says on itswebsite。Clicking on a response shows how everyone else voted.
The service is accessed through a free app for iPhones, iPads and Android-based devices, and through a Web browser.
麦克尼利邀请记者到小启动仪式在本周他的家在上面硅谷的山丘。他描述WayIn为“脸谱一点点，微博的一点点，和SurveyMonkey的一大块。”
It's designed to be fast, fun and addictive, he said. The questions posted so far range from enlightening to goofy. "Which first lady eats the most?" asks one poster. "Is Obama being straight with his answers?" asks another. McNealy's include: "Would you allow Amanda Knox to baby-sit your kids?" (No, he says, along with 65 percent of other respondents).
The intended audience is consumers, but WayIn's real target is big business. It hopes to amass a vast database of consumer sentiment, which it will then sell to businesses along with the analytics tools to parse the data, for marketing and other purposes.
Businesses can also pay to slip their own questions onto the service. For example, if Ford needed to choose a design for the grille of its next Mustang, it could post two photos and ask people which one they liked best. "We can give them an answer in two hours, and it will be statistically significant," McNealy said.
A friend approached him with the idea about a year ago, he said, soon after Oracle took control of Sun. McNealy is the company chairman and the biggest investor in a group that has raised US$6.3 million in funding. He recruited a team of former Sun Java engineers to build the service.
WayIn also has an interactive TV component, the part McNealy seemed most enthused about. "We've solved the interactive TV problem," he declared.
玩家可以进入论坛，在那里的人聊天和现场活动，如奥斯卡或一个大的体育赛事答题。这有助于广播公司，根据麦克尼利，因为它会鼓励人们观看现场直播的活动，而不是记录他们在第二天和跳过广告。
If they don't watch live, they can't answer questions about the event, which means they can't win points toward cheap tickets for next week's game, for example, or discounted merchandise.
WayIn has signed three partners to begin with and says it will name 20 more in the coming weeks. The first are the LA Kings hockey team, the Republican National Committee and Playboy.
"I predict Playboy's Frisky Friday voting is going to be huge," McNealy quipped, adding hastily that it will be the "PG-13" version.
Brands are struggling to get value from their followers on Facebook and Twitter, he argued. "There's 10 million people following Obama on Twitter. But how many people love him and how many people hate him? Twitter doesn't know that," he said. "We can post a picture and ask 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down."
玩家可以提供自己的位置数据，所以WayIn可以卖“地理热图”展示的意见如何分散在全国各地。这可能有助于共和党，例如，决定在哪里进行选举之前最难的竞选活动。
Companies can use it internally too, McNealy said. "Imagine the employees follow their CEO. At the end of the week he can ask a question -- did you have a great week? A lousy week? Then we give him a heat map across the entire U.S."
WayIn面临大量的挑战。它需要吸引数百万用户的编译的情感数据库。并有一个沉重的社会方面的服务，这意味着它的竞争与Facebook和Twitter的用户。小蓝WayIn的标志将出现在博客文章的底部，并在其他网站上，McNealy说，就像他们对Facebook和Twitter做的，所以人们可以轻松的话题权衡英寸
互动电视part requires users to have their smartphone or iPad on the couch with them. Television is a "lean back" medium, and it's still not clear if people want to interact with the shows they're watching, even if the technology is made easy.
But McNealy brings a lot to the table. One of Silicon Valley's longest-serving CEOs, he has always been a savvy marketer -- every one of his "giant hairball" rants against Windows was covered by the press (not that they harmed Microsoft much, in the end). And he has connections: Most of WayIn's board members, partners and investors are friends and acquaintances from when he ran Sun.
“我们有，因为他所有的合作伙伴关系;对于启动，这是一个巨大的加速器，”公司的首席执行官Tom Jessiman说。
The service is live now. McNealy can be followed atScottMcNealy。看他起来。他不会避讳什么，他的思维。
詹姆斯Niccolaicovers data centers and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow James on Twitter at@jniccolai。詹姆斯的电子邮件地址是james_niccolai@idg.com