more on Location tracking -- for people, products, places -- is fast coming into its own / It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your _______ is?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dennis Crowley <dens () dodgeball com>
Date: October 12, 2005 3:37:56 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Location tracking -- for people, products, places  
-- is fast coming into its own / It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where  
your _______ is?


> Location enabled and mobile computing have been watchwords for such  
> a long time, it's
> nice to be using something that actually makes use of these ideas  
> and to see what
> the accidental or deliberate social implications are.

hi dave -

saw the post about Plazes  and wanted to send this along as well.   
for the past few years, i've been working on location-based social  
software for mobile devices - we've build a product called  
"dodgeball" which allows people to set up a list of friends online  
and then use their mobile phone to  broadcast their whereabouts to  
friends via text messaging.  once dodgeball knows of your location,  
it will look at all the other users who have "checked-in" nearby to  
see if it can match you up with a nearby friend-of-friend or someone  
from your "crush list".

(flash demo of how it works at:  http://www.dodgeball.com)

dodgeball is not dissimilar to things like Plazes (after all, it's  
about representing people as dots on a map then finding different  
ways to connect those dots), though dodgeball is a bit more  
lightweight (as it requires cellular connectivity instead of WiFi)

in any case, we're finding that the most interesting part of what  
were doing is not in solving the *technical bugs* (e.g. text message  
+ location awareness) but rather in solving the *social bugs* - e.g.   
the need to manage you groups of friends / social network on the fly  
and to be able to show / mask your location to different groups of  
people based on different social scenarios.

both dodgeball + plazes are based on the opt-in (with dodgeball, you  
need to tell us where you are by sending a text message w/ your  
whereabouts - e.g. @Luna Lounge where as w/ Plazes you need to be  
running the Plazes client), but as mobile devices start to become  
aware of their location and can send this location back to the  
network (a combination of devices getting smarter, people adopting  
Java, etc. apps on phones and carriers opening location APIs), the  
mobile social space is going to start to become a lot more interesting.

/d
____________
dennis crowley
founder, dodgeball.com

+ dens () dodgeball com
+ 917-301-2028
____________



On Oct 12, 2005, at 5:53 AM, David Farber wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Edward Vielmetti <edward.vielmetti () gmail com>
> Date: October 12, 2005 2:58:05 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Location tracking -- for people, products, places  
> -- is fast coming into its own / It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where  
> your _______ is?
>
>
> On 10/11/05, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
>
> Location tracking -- for people, products, places -- is fast coming
> into its own
> It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your _______ is?
>
> Dave -
>
> I use a system called Plazes to help keep track of my
> comings and goings.  It uses beacons from my laptop
> to identify wifi access points and lets me register any
> new access points I find.  People who are in the system
> can see their friends and where they are, and if you
> choose to you can publish a history map a la
>    http://beta.plazes.com/whereis/edwardvielmetti
>
> There are a couple of good stories around why this
> is a reasonable idea if your life is such that other
> people knowing where you are is an advantage.
> It's proven useful to me more than once where
> people have noted that I am within a short drive
> or walk and have set up on the spot meetings.
> That page also regularly gets pinged from home
> when I am out so that Deb knows that I've been
> at the ice cream shop.  (I don't go to Vegas so
> that has not been an issue.)
>
> Location enabled and mobile computing have
> been watchwords for such a long time, it's
> nice to be using something that actually
> makes use of these ideas and to see what
> the accidental or deliberate social implications
> are.
>
> thanks
>
> Ed
>
> --
> Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, MI 48104
> +1 734 276 5910
>
> edward.vielmetti () gmail com
> http://www.vacuumgroup.com
>
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