About me
Hello! 👋
I’m Frederik Fromm, the person behind Pinion.
“Nooooo, not yet another review thingy number 2534!”
Exactly. That’s what I thought too, but the idea behind Pinion is much simpler:
How do people feel about a place – at this very moment?
Not whether the hotel deserves four stars.
Not whether the coffee is particularly good.
Not whether Google Maps says the park is worth a visit.
Just one simple question:
“Do you like it here?”
Yes. Or no. That’s it.
The idea is older than the app
The original idea for Pinion dates back to 2012.
That was when I started writing down different concepts: What could an application like this look like? How could duplicate votes be prevented? What would be a useful way to present the data? Which information is actually needed – and which should deliberately be left out?
New thoughts kept coming to me over the years.
What never came was the actual starting signal for development.
As is the case with many personal projects, the idea remained buried in notes, sketches, and thought experiments. Until the summer of 2026.
With the arrival of new AI-assisted development tools – JetBrains Air, in my case – I simply wanted to see how far you can get in a short space of time these days.
Not to have AI “write an entire application for me,” but to find out how quickly an idea refined over many years could be turned into working code. I can read and write code. All by myself. I would even say that finding my way around unfamiliar code and working with it is my superpower. “All right,” I thought, “AI, show me what you can do.”
The result honestly surprised me.
The first working prototype was ready after roughly two hours.
For someone who has been running software projects for over 25 years, that was a pretty special moment.
Deliberately simple
Pinion uses surprisingly little technology.
The backend runs on Spring Boot with a PostgreSQL database.
The pages deliberately consist of plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
No JavaScript frameworks.
No build pipeline with a hundred dependencies.
No tracking.
No advertising.
No cookie banner for marketing services.
Just the technology needed to answer a single question.
Why "Pinion"?
The name combines two ideas:
Pin – the marker on a map.
Opinion – what someone thinks.
Together, they form Pinion.
Every vote becomes a small pin on a world map that keeps getting greener and redder.
Where do we go from here?
Of course, I would love as many people as possible to take part.
After all, Pinion only becomes truly interesting when lots of small snapshots come together.
I’m interested not only in where people like to be, but also when.
How does the mood in a city change throughout the day?
What effect does a concert, festival, or Christmas market have?
How does the perception of a place change over months or years?
What patterns emerge when you focus on a particular neighbourhood?
Or when the data is animated as a time-lapse?
I believe there are many fascinating stories hidden in this data.
And honestly, I don’t yet know which of them we might discover one day.
So, who am I?
I have worked in IT since 2001.
I have spent most of my career as a consultant in enterprise environments – particularly working with content management systems such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and CoreMedia.
Today, I mainly use this knowledge as a kind of lubricant between business and technology at a large corporation. I mediate between the different sides and turn the knowledge gathered from them into ideas and solutions. A small prototype often helps more than lots of PowerPoint presentations and emails.
Recently, I had the opportunity to work in an agile project with a fantastic team again. It reminded me just how enjoyable good software development can be when the right people come together.
I am also active as technical lead at ProPilots Care, where I maintain and develop our custom-built e-learning and onboarding platform.
Feedback is very welcome
Pinion is an experiment.
If you notice something, have an idea, or would like to see a particular analysis, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Perhaps that is exactly what will take Pinion in a direction I haven’t even considered yet.
Thank you
If you have just cast a vote: thank you.
You have just helped to create the first worldwide mood map.
And if you find yourself somewhere else tomorrow …
… you know which question will be waiting for you.