Software cracks whip on high technology

FORT COLLINS — Northern Colorado’s newest software firm is built for speed.

SoftOlogy Ideaworks, which recently relocated a portion of its offices to Fort Collins from Southern California, has launched a speed-reading product designed to add pep to the flow of information.

While modern technology has spawned powerful laptop computers and nifty hand-held digital sidearms, much of today’s mobile machinery carries a common handicap — users are forced to read off the small flat-scan screens at squinters’ speed.

Consequently, information — while omnipresent — trickles through a technological “bottleneck,´ said Peter McIan, CEO of SoftOlogy Ideaworks.

McIan thinks his company’s software product, RapidReader, provides the solution to speed up the flow of information.

SoftOlogy introduced RapidReader to the market in December 2002. The product, which is applicable to a variety of operating systems, flashes words in large type that allows readers to focus their eyes on the middle of the screen. The words roll at a selected rate, but typically allows most readers to speed up their normal reading pace by a multiple of five, SoftOlogy contends.

Most readers absorb text in the range of 100-150 words per minute. When reading off a PDA or other hand-held device, the reading rate can slow to as little as 50 words per minute.

To McIan, the sluggish rate of reading diminishes the value of an otherwise convenient technology.

“My chief software engineer takes his Palm (Pilot) to lunch and props it up against a ketchup bottle and reads at 400 words per minute,” McIan said.

Fundamentally, the RapidReader technology eliminates the need for readers to move their eyes across a page from left to right. It also keeps readers from talking to themselves — the “speech mimic” action that many people unconsciously employ.

With the forced pace of the RapidReader, users are required to recognize and absorb words instantly. “The same way that they look at a ?stop’ sign — you immediately recognize it,” McIan explained.

RapidReader prompts readers to process words as visual cues, “instead of sounding it out to ourselves,” he said.

McIan bases his explanation on research at Johns Hopkins University, which initially worked on the technology used in RapidReader. Contributing research was also conducted at MIT and the University of Southern California.

“Original studies ? got people up to 1,200 words per minute using this method,” McIan said.

SoftOlogy acquired the technology nearly 10 years ago and has refined the product since then.

In the meantime, the company has gained some noteworthy allies as it tries to establish itself in the marketplace.

Symbian, a coalition of wireless technology manufacturers that includes cell phone giant Nokia, has signed up as a strategic partner with SoftOlogy. As a result, Nokia’s popular 9210 model, which combines a cell phone and personal computer, is available with RapidReader.

McIan considers his product to be a “value proposition” for such wireless products.

“The easier it is for people to read, the more reading they will do, resulting in greater revenue for the worldwide wireless industry,” he said.

One of SoftOlogy’s early corporate customers is Fort Collins-based Mountain View Systems, a major provider of Microsoft Certified Training. Mountain View recently contracted to license RapidReader for use in its training program.

Bill Van Eron, a principal for Confluence Communications, the marketing company enlisted by SoftOlogy, said his own experience in marketing at Hewlett-Packard Co. helps him to sense RapidReader’s inpact.

“At HP, when I was in the field, we were constantly bombarded with the latest product information,” Van Eron said.

The means to absorb new product information faster should enhance the agility of any sales force, Van Eron said.

Music plus Hollywood equals SoftOlogy

McIan, 54, picked Fort Collins to set up SoftOlogy’s content and technical support divisions for both personal and professional reasons.

His brother is a long-time resident of Fort Collins, making McIan a frequent visitor. Each time he returned to California, he said, it got tougher to leave the Front Range.

McIan moved here last year along with chief architect Thomas Crosley, with whom McIan co-owns the RapidReader patent.

On the business side, he felt Northern Colorado, with its proximity to three universities that feature technical, education and human science specialties, made for a prime recruiting ground.

McIan’s own path to the software industry poses an unlikely tale.

A professional musician at age 17, McIan had an accomplished career in the music business. He produced albums for successful pop groups like Men at Work and Mr. Mister, wrote songs for Barbra Streisand and Pat Beneatar, and published two books on the recording process.

His connections in the entertainment world are evident in the evolution of SoftOlogy.

Two of SoftOlogy’s senior advisors are Sid Sheinberg and his son, Bill, partners in The Bubble Factory, a movie production business.

The elder Sheinberg was once president and chief operating officer of MCA Inc., which hatched the career of Steven Spielberg. With Spielberg behind the camera and Sheinberg in the front office, MCA and Sheinberg introduced legendary movies like Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park.

If some of Sheinberg’s cinema magic rubs off on SoftOlogy, then RapidReader is bound for glory.

McIan expects to sell about 1,000 RapidReader licenses a month, counting on Internet sales and buzz.

As users of wireless technology use RapidReader in public, the product will announce itself at coffeehouses, on subways and in planes, McIan said.

“There’s a conversational nature to this,” Van Eron said. “It earns your attention.”

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