Unlock your world?

I don’t get it… Foursquare or feest.je for that matter. I really don’t get it. My housemate gets it. I see him ‘checking in’ all the time. And he gets all excited when he finally is the major of Crossmedialab again. The smile on his face rises, he almost starts jumping around. The face of the girl he kicked of the major-thrown isn’t so happy no more. What is the fun of checking in at the same location every day? Going to work and checking in at work, so your friends know you’re at work? Where else would you be.. Or checking in at stefs (the school pub) every day.. to let your friends know you’re in a bar, every day? I don’t get it. 

Tagged with: foursquare, location based services,

Rise in location-based services?

Last year, when I did my placement at the Netherlands Youth Institute, I attended an expert meeting with social media researcher Danah Boyd at the University of Tilburg. When she was asked what ‘the next big thing’ in social media would be, she didn’t hesitate and immediately responded that mobile is on the rise. “The technology is leading towards mobile. Location-based technology, like Foursquare and Gowalla (online social media through which you can tell people where you are). The first ones to use new technology are always the geeks, freaks and queers, so I look to them to see what will happen.”
I count myself in at least two of the above stated categories, so obviously I have been using Foursquare like mad for months trying to wrestle the title of ‘mayor’ out of the hands of other geeks and freaks around Utrecht.

Tagged with: location based services, foursquare, feest.je,