Every company wants their customers to have a one-word description. “Refreshing” is what Coca-Cola wants their customers to say after each sip. “Luxury” is music to the ears of Mercedes-Benz. Ford pops champagne bottles when customers say “dependable.”

After about one week on the Apple App Store and several dozen conversations with Spottah users (Spotters), we are pleased with the word forming around our product: “collaboration.”

Spottah’s design fosters collaboration. Albums don’t have “owners.” Once the originator invites one person, that album is owned and operated by the community. The community is powerful. Anyone in the community can invite others to join. Community members can change the title and description of the album. And lastly, the community controls the photos in the sense of being able to download, email, Tweet and post them to Facebook.

A quick story to demonstrate the collaborative nature of Spottah. During our beta test, a friend created an album to chronicle her adorable Goldendoodle Gracie. At first, the album was filled with pictures of Gracie napping, playing with her toys, and just looking cute. I added a picture of my parent’s dog with the caption, “Gracie meet Brandy.” Then a cat picture crept in. Picture by picture, the album evolved from being about one dog to being about beloved pets. The album title no longer made sense, so the community used Spottah’s comment feature to discuss changing the title and thus the purpose of the album. And so “Gracie” evolved into the “The Cute and Furry.” When Spottah moved out of beta and onto the App store, “The Cute and Furry” spread quickly as each dog lover invited their dog-loving friends.

Spottah’s collaborative structure enhances the social experience. Think about it: each album is a Wiki in which every member has a vested interest. This level of collaboration is not found on other networks. Facebook, for example, is centered around the individual. The individual posts a comment, video, or photo and the community reacts by liking, commenting and sharing. This is amazing stuff, but it is not collaboration.

One reviewer summed it up best: “I like the communal aspect of sharing a photo library, once you’ve shared it out it belongs to the group, very open source.”

We are thrilled that Spottah conjures up the word “collaboration.” The world can always use a little bit more collaboration.