What the Heck is Foursquare?

QUESTION: I’ve heard about this Foursquare thing – what is it and why should I bother?
ANSWER: Foursquare gives you a new way to explore the city you live in, or a city you’re visiting. Built for mobile use – on your BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, Palm… anything with Internet – Foursquare provides tips from neighborhood regulars that let you discover new places to go, things to do or tasty treats to eat and drink based on your current location, wherever that may be. You can see where your friends are or tell they what you’re up to. When you tell foursquare where you are, that’s called “checking-in”.

QUESTION: Who made you the expert on this?
ANSWER: Foursquare is just over a year old (launched March 2009) so nobody’s an “expert” yet, but I’ve been playing with it for the last 6 months and have 170 checkins under my belt. If you check in at the same location often enough, you can become the “Mayor”, which some companies reward with free goods or discounts (in the US, Starbucks gives the mayor of each location free coffee). I’m the Mayor of my dentist, bank and workplace, which probably means I should party harder. The ladies at the Whitney Block Tuck Shop stubbornly refuse to recognize my Mayorship by giving me free donuts. Yes, I’m bitter.

QUESTION: What’s been your best experience so far using Foursquare?
ANSWER: Exploring St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, I checked in at a restaurant I’d never eaten at before called “Le Petit Dejeuner“. Foursquare had multiple tips for this place, all recommending the spaghetti bolognese and Delerium Tremens (beer). The meal was absolutely divine and I’d never have thought to order it normally. Second best experience was using Foursquare while traveling to Boston. It was a perfect travel guide! I kept track of where I’d visited and where my colleagues were. Also, I unlocked some fun badges (achievement trophies) for checking in at the last stop of the Freedom Trail and going on a boat.

QUESTION: Worst experience using Foursquare? Biggest downside?
ANSWER: Unless you’re paranoid about someone stalking you, or are worried about damaging your squeaky-clean reputation by checking in to more than 4 bars in one night (there’s a special “Drunk” badge for bar-hoppers), there’s not much downside. I never check in at my house, to keep that information private. Remember that information you share like this can be seen by anyone – you can use Foursquare to see where your kids are at (are you sure you want to know?), but they can also see where YOU go.

QUESTION: Where is all this going? What’s the benefit from a business perspective?
ANSWER: Tourism is an obvious angle – what better way to promote your city or province than with an up-to-the-minute electronic guidebook that knows where you are and makes recommendations accordingly? Chicago and New York are all over this angle. Badges are also a fun and free motivator to get people to attend major events or visit certain locations. Foursquare also offers venue analytics to business owners who partner with them, showing how a location or special offer is performing over time. And for nerds, there’s an API, which means developers can use their little grey cells to imaging new ways to check-in or visualize data generated by the foursquare community, then build their own applications.

So… those were my questions and answers. What are yours? Anything you want to know about Foursquare I might be able to help with? Or any other mobile apps? Write a comment, let me know!

Further Reading:

• Mashable:
  Foursquare: Why It May Be the Next Twitter
• Ad Age:
  Building an Army of Hyper-Local, Mobile-Connected Advocates
• Techcrunch:
  Foursquare Shows The Business Potential Of Location-Based Services
• Charlie O’Donnell:
  Why Yelp (…and Every Single Retail Establishment) Should Support Foursquare

Music and Video

I just had a really good talk with one of my coworkers about her 14-year-old daughter and music videos, and I had to recommend to her that she leave work IMMEDIATELY and go to Bay Street Video and buy the boxed Directors Set of videos by Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry. And then it occurred to me that I should tell all of you the same thing (especially section2 and cranly, being music fanatics). Go. Buy. Be merry.

Speaking of buying things and videos…

I have officially abandoned all hope of finding my cell phone. Possibly it will turn up in the distant future, like Wesley, the cat I once accidentally lost, who ended up missing for almost two months, and was actually just hiding in the basement very confused and hungry.
Except the cell phone probably won’t be hungry.
And it will meow less.
And not have diarrhea for a week.
But I digress.

It is time to move on, to look at new options, new plans and new phones. Please advise me, oh wise and all-knowing LJ readers!

Three Choices for a New Cell Phone:
1) Stay with Telus, on their $25 ‘Big Deal Promo’ plan which I am contractually obligated to until October, which gives me a measly 150 daytime minutes, shitty 3 message/3 day expiry message centre, and makes me pay an additional $3 for call display and $6.50 for system access fees, as well as ¢25 e911 Emergency. This option entails buying a new phone at full cost, and paying a $25 changeover fee.

2) Change to Bell, on their $20/month OPSEU Corporate plan, with free activation, e911 Emergency for ¢25 per month, System Access Fee for $4.50 per month, Includes for FREE!: 300 Anytime Local Minutes, Call Display, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Conference Calling, Message Centre (Voice Mail), Unlimited Weekends (8pm Friday to 7am Monday), Detailed Billing, Per Second Billing and Unlimited Local Calling free for the first 3 Months as well as Unlimited Picture and Video Messaging (with Camera Phone purchase) free for 2 Months. This option entails paying $100 to break my contract, and if I enter another 3-year contract, getting a new phone from Bell either for free or for $50 (camera phone) or $100 (tiny camera phone with video capability).

3) Face the fact that the Gods do not want me to have a cell phone, and let it go. Cancel contract and live a happy, un-cell burdened life between work and home. Live with not having a phone at the condo and just use MSN when there.

Please give me your opinions in my cellular phone poll…

Thank you!