Our Vision for the Future
Right now, I'm focused on Palatine. Getting it right. Documenting every street, every decade. Building the infrastructure. Working out the bugs. Proving this works.
But the vision is bigger.
The 10-20 Second Habit
Long-term, I want this to be something people use casually—a quick check when they go to dinner. You walk into a restaurant you've never been to, open the app for 10 seconds, and discover it used to be a bowling alley in the 1920s. Quick. Fun. Interesting.
Not a research tool you use once. A habit. Every time you're at a new place, you check. What used to be here? That's the goal.
AR Features That Actually Work
Imagine walking into MP Tap House in Mount Prospect. You open the app and it says, "Walk down the hallway toward the bathroom and look left—you'll see an old bowling pin setter from when this was a 1920s bowling alley."
That level of location-aware storytelling would be incredible. Point your camera at a building, slide the timeline back, and watch it transform. See the old storefront overlaid on the current view. Picture morphing between eras.
The technology isn't quite there yet—or at least I haven't figured it out yet. But that's where this could go.
A Discovery Tool for Travelers
When you travel to a new town, you check Yelp for the best restaurant. That's fine if you want good food.
But what if you could use When It Was to find the most historic building to eat at? Not the best food—the most interesting story. The restaurant that's been there since 1945. The bar that used to be a speakeasy. The building with the hidden history.
That becomes a different kind of discovery tool. "Yelp tells you where the food is good. When It Was tells you where the history is interesting."
Make It Fun
I want to add gamification. Points for contributions. Badges for discoveries. Leaderboards per city. Make exploring history feel like a game, not homework.
Hidden achievements for finding specific types of locations. Challenges to document certain eras. Community competitions between neighboring towns to see who can preserve more history.
History doesn't have to be boring. It can be fun.
Palatine First, Then Expand
This isn't just for Palatine. Every town has this history. But I'm perfecting it here first. Once I nail it in Palatine, other towns can follow the same model.
The vision is national—every community preserving its history. But rushing nationwide before Palatine is solid would be a mistake. Get one town right. Prove it works. Build the playbook. Then scale.
That's the honest strategy. No overpromising. No "coming to 50 cities next year." Just: perfect Palatine, then show other communities how to do the same.
Connect All the Historical Societies
Every historical society is separate. Siloed. Doing their own thing. If I can get 1-2 passionate people at each historical society to add their information here, we'd have an incredible national resource.
Not replacing historical societies. Connecting them. Giving them a platform that makes their work accessible to everyone, not just people who visit during open hours.
That's the ecosystem vision. Every town. Every historical society. All connected through When It Was.
The Challenges
This won't be easy. Scaling the technology to handle hundreds of cities. Building contributor communities in each area. Making money to sustain it without ruining the experience. Maintaining quality as we grow.
I'm realistic about the obstacles. But that's why Palatine comes first. Work out the problems here. Figure out what actually works. Then apply those lessons to other communities.
What This Becomes
If this works—if Palatine becomes thoroughly documented, if people actually use it, if other towns want to replicate it—When It Was becomes what I hoped it would be: a way to answer a simple question in any town in America.
"What used to be there?"
Click the map. Get the answer. Anywhere.
That's the vision.