TalkO'Clock: "P2P alarm clock" for people who want to wake up/be woken up by strangers

If you're the sort of person who likes to wake up strangers, or talk to strangers first thing in the morning, then TalkO'Clock might be right for you. It's a P2P matchmaking service that allows you to volunteer to serve as someone else's wake-up call (or to book a stranger in as your waker-upper).

TalkO’Clock allows you to choose whether you want to be called by a male or a female stranger, and it has a robot – CallO’Bot – lined up in case no one is available at the time you have to wake up.

TalkO’Clock, The Social P2P Alarm Clock (via /.)

• [sabeke]

  Just like Elaine’s wake-up service from Season 7, Episode 4 of Seinfeld…

• [pjk]

  I’m just gonna say it: that is a horrible idea.

  • [narddogz]

    It’s a big improvement on the old fashioned / traditional way of being awakened by strangers, which typically involved excessive alcohol consumption at the local bar the night before.

• [Alex Garnett]

  If Elaine is any indication: better than OKCupid.

• [Rickety Rack]

  I don’t know–something about this just makes me smile. It might be that it’s such an intimate moment, waking up, all groggy and dream-drunk, and then to hear some stranger potentially halfway around the world gently (presumably, hopefully) nudge you awake… it’s just a reminder of how incredible it is that we can so easily make contact with another person in the world. Amid all of our online postings and chats–here, even!–we’re communicating with each other often for the first time. The excitement of that moment is pretty easily washed away now that it is so “commonplace”.

• [Gulliver]

  Great. Now vindictive people have a sure way to make sure trusting folks are late for work.

  I stick with my timer coffee maker, thanks.

• [Textuality]

  What are you wearing?

  /licks lips

• [Guest]

  ClockRoulette

• [gwailo_joe]

  Are people really so desperate for novel human contact?  

  I’ll admit I enjoy my forays into the wild world web; but I really don’t need to see you folks when I wake up.  If I could be guaranteed of a matronly Uzbek singing a rousing work song or a Ella Fitzgerald impersonator belting out ‘Blue Skies’, then perhaps I’d reconsider.

  Anybody that gets a wake up from me had best be prepared for Balinese demon masks and high pitched keening…

• [truffle]

  I might sign up for this. I noticed that I sleep through alarm clocks or turn them off without ever waking up, but as soon as I have a conversation with someone I’m completely alert. Asking my roommates to get me out of bed would be a little cruel as we all wake up at different times. And who couldn’t use a surreal interjection into their normal lives?? I’d definitely try to think of some good ways to wake people up. Musical interludes, pep talks, impersonations…

• [kmoser]

  This should be paired up with a service that offers a random person reading you “Go the F**k to Sleep” the night before.

• [wrybread]

  If this company is funded, and has an actual office, I think we have confirmation that another tech bubble is upon us.

• [z7q2]

  Perhaps this can be done better than by using a mechanism that gives your phone number to random people who will then call you? A phone/web application that randomly pairs up callers and makes the process double-blind would be much nicer I think.

  And if you like the voice on the other side, you can always ask for their real number. 

• [Jo J]

  This is a worse variant on an idea from 2008 or maybe before called http://sleep.fm – The Social Alarm Clock, followed by others like hello day app, wakelicious app, http://shakeupcall.com, “Alarm Everyone,” android app and many more.

  At least with those mentioned apps/services you invited your friends to wake you up to some nice messages or youtube videos.  Here … and WTF .. you ask strangers to call you to wake you up?  How many times is my wake up going to be from some total perv?  Yah people are going to really enjoy that – ha!

• [jordan yerman]

  It’s a solution without a problem. If you have a device that can use this service, then you already have an alarm clock.

  If the user is that desperate to hear a human voice, then a ChatRoulette-esque alarm clock won’t scratch that itch.