ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--For several months a team of software developers and designers at Saganworks has been strategically focused on developing new technology to change the way people store and share knowledge in a 3D world. The Ann Arbor company is now opening its virtual, mobile and web-based doors to the public.
The CEO and driver of Saganworks is Donald Hicks, an industry visionary who is on a mission to change the way people consume, organize, preserve and share their experiences.
“We don’t live in a 2D world, yet that’s how we’ve been retaining knowledge and memories from the time of early cave dwellers until now,” says Hicks. “Human interaction is due for innovation. We can do that by giving people tools to store their memories, work and interests in a 3D space that they can create and relate to.”
In 1998, Hicks founded LLamasoft, Inc., a multi-million-dollar company, providing supply chain design software to a wide range of industries worldwide. He sold the company in 2017 to devote time to new projects including Saganworks.
According to Hicks, the name Sagan is derived from “Spatially Accessible Gallery of Archived kNowledge.” It also pays tribute to Carl Sagan, the American astronomer and physicist Hicks has long admired.
A Sagan is a virtual room you build to keep your knowledge and information in a wide variety of file formats, including audio and video. For individuals, it may be as simple as creating a gallery of family photos, helping with personal organization, building a portfolio, keeping track of favorite recipes, or organizing class notes.
Schoolcraft College physics professor Jesse Mason has been exploring the software throughout its development. When academia shut their doors last month, Mason requested permission to use Saganworks to finish teaching his physics class online.
"The Sagan I built gave students a fun and memorable way for them to interact with the mountain of materials necessary to learn physics remotely--pdf assignments, YouTube lectures, and interactive simulations,” said Mason, who flipped their final projects into building educational Sagans. “Instead of just making a PowerPoint,” recalled one of his students, “we got to put so much more creativity into it.”
While Hicks recognizes Saganworks offers unlimited opportunities for individuals and businesses to store knowledge and information in the context of their environment, Hicks adds, “If this technology can make life easier, simpler for even one person by storing their knowledge and memories in a space they can relate to, we’re ready to open the door.”
For more information about Saganworks, go to www.saganworks.com. Visitors can select a free sample plan that provides mobile and web-based access to a Sagan with 2 GB of data storage or subscribe to a low-cost consumer plan with full access to unlimited Sagans and 80 GB storage. All plans include Chat Bot, Help Center and unlimited community access to a library of Sagans. For questions, email hello@saganworks.com.
