Of late, many local residents have been seen online, claiming to be “the mayor” of various establishments around the suburbs. Don’t worry — you didn’t miss an election. These “Mayors” owe their titles to the online service foursquare, and their duties are, well, none.
What is all this about? Foursquare is a location-based social networking service which uses the GPS function of your mobile phone to locate places of interest near you, and share your location with friends. Foursquare, or its competitor Gowalla, is designed to increase your awareness of the places you visit, either through sharing those locales with friends, or from tips and to-dos created by anyone. Merchants have also discovered the power of location-based social networking, often creating special deals for those who visit them frequently.
Say, for example, you decide to go bowling. Using the foursquare application on your phone, you might search for places near you and locate The Alley in Highwood as a nearby bowling alley. Upon arriving at The Alley, you would “check in”, thereby registering a visit. As a result, several things happen. One, your personal history of places visited gets updated — useful if you ever need to remember the place in the future. Two, you can optionally choose to tell your friends where you are, through the foursquare service, or through connections to Twitter or Facebook. Foursquare raises interesting questions about privacy and sharing, but as a user, you control who knows what about where you are, when. Three, you can find out more about the place you are in — tips, other foursquare users who are there, or even special deals. This was the case on a recent daddy/daughter bowling outing, where we bowled 2-for-1 at The Alley as a result of their foursquare special.
The person who visits and “checks in” at a specific place more than anyone else over the last 60 days becomes that place’s “Mayor”. Some businesses, like several local Starbucks locations, offer the foursquare mayor a discount or freebie. For the most part, it’s just part of the fun of using foursquare, along with earning exploration badges, points, or making connections.
Like other social networking services, foursquare adds to the multitude of information sources available about area businesses, restaurants, and recreation sites. Didn’t know about the $8 corkage fee at that wine bar? You do now, because the moment you “check in”, you can read tips about a particular place left by other foursquare users. Not sure what to order at the hot new restaurant? Other foursquare users are sure to tell you which appetizer is the tastiest. Hoping to meet up with friends? Foursquare will tell you who has checked in where, which leads to some great unplanned opportunities. An online friend of mine whom I had never met happened to pop up one day as having checked in at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We still didn’t get a chance to meet that day, but knowing that he had been in the area gave me a chance to connect with him on new common interests and future possibilities.
Not everyone wants to live their life online or give in to this level of transparency. Services like foursquare open up new ways to share, but with the openness comes risk. For me, and a million other people around the world, it’s enjoyable to learn more about the places around us using the technology we carry in our pockets. We’re not quite at Star Trek communicators and replicators, but with tools like foursquare, we can certainly learn and enjoy more about our community and the places within. Hope to see you in a foursquare “swarm” soon!
