Innovation
For Your Eyes Only
Tobii Technology's "gaze interaction" system enables users to control their computer screens with their eyes. Are they ushering in a new era of human computer interaction?
Does Size Really Matter?
In spite of the constant threat of financial meltdown, companies and governments have shown little interest in abandoning ambitious and extravagant building projects to add skyscrapers to city skylines.
What is the overall effect of technological development?
Business
Security Through Gold
If you were to save and possibly enrich your money where would you invest? This question bothers a lot of people, wondering how to find most secure savings plan
“All in”! The Amazing Rise of Online Poker
Millions of people try their luck in online poker rooms around the world, in a game that is less and less about gambling
Main Content
Foursquare: The Next Big Thing In Social Networking
Foursquare is a social networking site with an iPhone application that gives people the chance to let their friends, and friends of friends know exactly where they are.
Through incentives it encourages people to “check in” and make their whereabouts known. A user clocks up points and can even become “The Mayor” for checking in more times than anyone else at a particular place. Almost 1m people have joined the application to date.
Foursquare’s co-founder Dennis Crowley set up the application so that people could meet up with friends without making prior arrangements. People would just know where to go. Foursquare stands out from location devices, like Gowalla. But will it match the success seen by Facebook? The major difference between Foursquare and social networking sites like Facebook is that Foursquare asks introverted techie geeks to go out and meet people in real life.
Its creators like to highlight that Foursquare rewards adventure with virtual prizes. Some prizes are even real, like free coffee for “The Mayor” of a bar or café. But Foursquare has a sinister side too. Its methods resemble certain forms of social programming. Like Pavlov, who trained his dogs to salivate every time he entered a room or rang a bell, Foursquare conditions people to check in and gain virtual rewards. The similarities are disturbing.
Foursquare is a stalker’s dream. If it does well and if people feel compelled to outdo their friends, Foursquare could put them in danger. It could let people know where they are and any given point and could also let people know when they’re not at home. In this respect, it is also a burglar’s dream.
It remains to be seen how dangerous Foursquare will be, but people who let strangers know their every move, may be running high risks.
A precursor to Foursquare already exists in the pages of George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.