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Would You Want Budist.ru To Wake You Up?

  • <p><strong>DAY 1: MUSICAL MORNING</strong><br /> Oh, no--it’s electro-inspired iPad tinkerings! Budist.ru records calls so users can rate them, so my caller (assigned randomly to me through the system) clearly played to the crowd.</p>
  • <p><strong>DAY 2: LOCATION SCOUT</strong><br /> Today’s caller thought he was waking me up midafternoon Russia time. A global version of Budist.ru should make it clear who’s where.</p>
  • <p><strong>DAY 3: SMOOTH OPERATOR</strong><br /> Cool it, lover boy. The site’s founder says matchmaking isn’t his goal, but every caller I got was male—and eager to keep chatting. Get too fresh, though, and they’ll be kicked off the site.</p>
  • 01 /03

    DAY 1: MUSICAL MORNING
    Oh, no--it’s electro-inspired iPad tinkerings! Budist.ru records calls so users can rate them, so my caller (assigned randomly to me through the system) clearly played to the crowd.

  • 02 /03

    DAY 2: LOCATION SCOUT
    Today’s caller thought he was waking me up midafternoon Russia time. A global version of Budist.ru should make it clear who’s where.

  • 03 /03

    DAY 3: SMOOTH OPERATOR
    Cool it, lover boy. The site’s founder says matchmaking isn’t his goal, but every caller I got was male—and eager to keep chatting. Get too fresh, though, and they’ll be kicked off the site.

Julia Kaganskiy 03.18.13 6:00 AM

GE used it to solve flight delays. AOL used it to inventory web video. Now the Russian site Budist.ru is crowdsourcing... wake-up calls? Yes: Sign up for a day and a time, and the service will assign one of its more than 500,000 users to call and wake you up. English and Spanish versions are coming later this year, but Russian-speaking (New York–based) writer Julia Kaganskiy took it for an early spin.

[Illustration by Ward Sutton]

A version of this article appeared in the April 2013 issue of Fast Company magazine.

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