An idea ahead of its time.A conversation for today.
Yabberly's story began with Topic Tel, an idea for live conversations around topics people cared about. Roughly three decades later, that concept has evolved into a place to disagree constructively, hear other perspectives, and keep talking.
A shared topic.
A live conversation.
The company's founders first explored the concept as Topic Tel: a service where people could connect by telephone to discuss topics that interested them. The early vision centered on topical discussion and the opportunity to turn a shared interest into a live conversation.
It was conceived as a voice-only experience. People would join conversations organized around a subject, exchange ideas, and talk with others interested in the same topic.
The current Yabberly iteration gives that foundation a new purpose: constructive disagreement. Shared topics still bring people together, but today's experience is deliberately structured to help people express different positions and learn about other points of view.
Three eras. An evolving vision.
The technology changed. The possibilities grew. Topical discussion evolved into today's platform for constructive disagreement.
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Mid-1990sThe hardware era
A telephone conversation at infrastructure scale.
The original Topic Tel concept would have required a substantial investment in telephone infrastructure. Large programmable switches from companies such as Summa Four or Excel Switching would have been part of the proposed approach.
Supporting many simultaneous voice conversations meant building and operating a significant telecommunications system. The idea was compelling, but the infrastructure cost was a major obstacle.
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Around 2007The hosted voice era
Less hardware. A substantial software challenge.
The topical discussion concept was revisited as a hosted voice service. This offered a different path from the large switching infrastructure envisioned in the 1990s.
The proposed approach used Adhearsion, a framework for developing voice applications, as its foundation. Even with that foundation, bringing Topic Tel to life would still have required extensive custom code to organize participants and manage the conversations.
The technology had moved forward. There was still a considerable system to build.
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2026The cloud services era
The vision comes to life as Yabberly.
Today, software as a service and media as a service provide a more practical foundation. Hosted services can support live audio and video, making it possible to develop the experience without recreating the enormous telephone infrastructure of the original proposal.
In this iteration, the purpose has evolved as well. Yabberly is a place to disagree constructively: people choose a side, listen to other perspectives, volunteer to speak, and participate in a structured live discussion.
Modern cloud services make a more elegant and sophisticated experience possible, combining Topic Tel's roots in topical conversation with Yabberly's focus on good-faith disagreement.
A place where disagreement is expected.
And conversation is supported.
Yabberly gives people a structured environment to express a point of view, listen to another, and learn from the exchange.
Be heard.
Bring your perspective to a live conversation. You can listen, volunteer to speak, and take part in the discussion.
Hear another side.
Meet people who see the question differently. Ask questions, challenge ideas, and consider a perspective beyond your own.
Keep talking.
You don't have to reach agreement to have a worthwhile conversation. Good-faith disagreement belongs here.
Documented in the Topic Tel patent.
Yabberly builds on the Topic Tel concept documented in U.S. Patent 8,239,454 B2.
The patent documents a telephone conference platform for topic-based conversations, including arrangements for representing different points of view. It forms part of the project's intellectual property history. Today's Yabberly iteration develops that foundation into an experience explicitly centered on constructive disagreement.
System and method for telephone conference based communication, entertainment and advertising platform with accounting functionality
- Filed
- February 11, 2008
- Granted
- August 7, 2012
The next chapter includes you.
From Topic Tel's early vision of topical discussion to today's live audio and video experience, the project has continued to evolve. Yabberly's next chapter is about people coming together, exploring different points of view, and disagreeing constructively.