Four University of Arizona computer science students made an iPhone app that lets people sort Twitter feeds by location.
Twitscape, the brainchild of student-run startup Objective Coders, lets users check out the Twitter happenings in 15 cities around the country, including Tucson. Pull up a particular city and you can instantly see what's on the minds of Twitter users there.
"We had to include our own city," said company co-owner Tom Smallwood, 27. "Tucson is the smallest one. All the rest are big cities."
Smallwood and partner Cody Jorgensen, 21, aren't thrilled with the modest early success of the 99-cent app - it's netted more than 450 downloads since its release March 16 - but have found Twitscape to be an excellent calling card.
The app, which uses GPS data to tie Twitter users to specific locations, exemplifies the company's creativity and technical know-how. Smallwood said it has helped Objective Coders earn work from five local clients, each willing to pay between $5,000 and $12,000 to the company to develop an app for them.
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One taker was Anna Viola, owner of Studio 5004 Hair Company at 5028 N. Oracle Road. Along with a business partner, she commissioned Objective Coders to create Viola Salon Pro, an $80 beautician task manager iPhone app that should go on sale next week. The program keeps track of clients' appointments and hair-care history.
"I think they're awesome and very professional," Viola said. "They do quality work and made a fantastic app."
Practice makes perfect, Smallwood said.
"The reason we did this was to primarily learn on it," Smallwood said. "We had our networking down and basically wanted to have something we could present to people to show what we could do."
Smallwood and Jorgensen enlisted the help of twin classmates Charles and James Magahern to get Twitscape off the ground. Smallwood said he hopes to expand the business to Phoenix a year from now, after he's graduated, and plans to continue to work with the Magaherns.
Smallwood said Twitscape is an excellent way to find out what's going on at a specific location - for instance, if there's an earthquake in Los Angeles, you can call up the city and find immediate local reaction to the disaster.
"We used it at a basketball game," Smallwood said. "A couple two rows behind us mentioned something funny that happened and we were able to see it."
"The reason we did this was to primarily learn on it. We had our networking down and basically wanted to have something we could present to people to show what we could do."
Tom Smallwood
Objective Coders
Contact reporter Phil Villarreal at pvillarreal@azstarnet.com or 573-4130.