I know a few people in out class are doing their reports on "check-in" services such as Foursquare or austin-based Gowalla. As a location-based service user myself, I decided to write some of my thoughts on these types of social networks.
From the advent of these networks, it seems that the one of the initial draws of the service was the game mechanic. When you check in on places on Gowalla, you receive a "stamp" of that place in your passport. Players can even receive a pin for competing a trip, such as hitting all the popular BBQ joints in Austin. Each city comes with its own unique set of trips curated by the Gowalla team and its users. People can also pick up and drop off virtual items in a sort of geo-caching-like game. Foursquare exhibits similar game mechanics, but there are also some real-world perks in checking in regularly to a place. The person that checks in the most at a place in a certain time period becomes the Mayor of that place. On Foursquare, some of the benefits of being a mayor of a place include discounts or free things to that place. For example, I think the mayor of Halcyon (a coffee shop in town) gets free daily coffee. Foursquare brings people back to their favorite places as they check-in daily to defend their Mayorship. For what I know, Gowalla doesn't have these discount perks yet. I recall though that during SXSW, where they had a very large presence, they would give away free stuff such as t-shirts and even iPhones for checking in at various venues and SXSW events.
For me, I use Gowalla more as a travel log of sorts ... a new way of documenting the places I go with geo-location, uploading comments, and photos. It's just a new way for me to discover new places. When I go to a new city, I will often check out the Gowalla trips associated with that area. Who knows, maybe I will find a new favorite coffeeshop or best-kept-secret bookstore.
Personally, I have never used "check-in" services but I do see how they could be useful to those who use them. I like the idea of being able to keep track of places you have been or using them to find new places that you might like. However, I am not sure I like the idea of people knowing where I am all the time.
ReplyDeleteMegan, the biggest threat from check-in services isn't necessarily telling people where you are, it's telling people where you -aren't.- Someone wants that nice new flat screen you just bought? They can hang out around your place until you check in at school and boom, successful break-in.
ReplyDeletePersonally, this is the biggest concern I have about check-in services. I don't care about people knowing where I am; it's what I've got at home that can't defend itself from theft. Even then, one would think that eventually Foursquare or one of these other services would introduce a "discreet" system that only registers where you've been in the last 24 hours at the end of a day instead of basically giving out an unrestricted live feed of your activity.
The privacy issue of check-in apps came to my mind as well. There are already cases of people taking advantage of location broadcasts: http://www.wmur.com/r/24943582/detail.html. I think this conveys a classic American tendency to sacrifice privacy issues for the sake of technological features. As the number of bad incidents (i.e. thefts/burglaries) increases, I expect people will be more cognizant of where their information roams on the web.
ReplyDeleteI live in the Villas right now and when I use Foursquare to check-in, I'm truly not too worried about someone trying to come rob me. However, if I were to live further away from campus and in a house, I can see how that might affect the way someone utilizes these check-in apps.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think Foursquare is starting to loose my interest. It hasn't spread quick enough among my friends for me to get any value out of it. To me, the best part is the competition of being the first to check-in places.