Posts Tagged ‘Foursquare’

 

What Were You Doing A Year Ago From Today?

Monday, January 30th, 2012

What were you doing a year ago from today?  That’s the question that Timehop wants to help you answer.

Given the fact that social media has been around for a few years, it’s likely that you’ve documented many of the major events in your life through one or several platforms.  Timehop, co-founded in 2011 by Jonathan Wegener and Benny Wong in New York City, will send you an email each day to remind you where you were and what you were doing one year ago from that day.

The service is very well designed, and it’s extremely simple to link your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram accounts.

The Timehop group will tell you that “content gains value with time.”  After a few days of receiving your emails, you begin to appreciate this statement.

Facebook has also begun to take the route of consolidating your social media past to help you reminisce, but looking back at your history on the Timeline all at once doesn’t seem to have the same impact as seeing it one day at a time.  You’ll instantly find yourself back in the place where you took an Instagram photo a year ago, or you’ll re-live the emotion of a moment that you chose to share with your followers.

Not only can this process be eye-opening, but it can also help you to become more effective with your social media efforts.  You might be embarrassed to see what you shared a year ago, but it can also remind you of how far you’ve come.  As many users have noted, you can’t help but share things just so you’ll be able to be reminded of them next year.

Timehop just received $1.1 million in funding from the founders of Foursquare and others, so it’s likely that the service is here to stay.

So, have you used Timehop yet?  If so, what are your thoughts?

Boulder Digital Works’ Occupationalist.org Aggregates Like No Other

Monday, November 7th, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street protests have been anything but typical.  There is no clear leader of the movement, their message is very broad, and it is taking place throughout every major city (and not so major cities) in the country.

The strange thing is, though, it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.  As of today, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been going strong for over 50 days.

Ten years ago, this may not have been possible.  Through the use of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, protestors in cities all over the country have been able to communicate and organize activities for thousands of people.

But, even with all of the tools that social media offers, it can still be difficult to know what is happening minute to minute.  What modern day protests thrive on is speed of communication.  While one group may be using Twitter to communicate, another group could be using Tumblr or Facebook.  It takes time and vigilance to keep an eye on every social media outlet.  There was a need to bring all of this information together on one page.

It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and out of a need for better aggregation came Occupationalist.org.  Constructed by Boulder Digital Works, the site curates every bit of social media data for the movement from various Twitter hashtags to a map that shows the number of Foursquare check-ins for each city.  It truly is a social media lovers dream.

Here’s how the creators of Occupationalist.org describe themselves:

“Occupationalist is an impartial and real-time view of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Covering history as it unfolds. No filters. No delays.”

Given the success of Occupationalist.org, we’re likely to see other aggregation sites like it popping up for other movements.  Keeping participants up to date on the latest information is crucial.  Those that do it best are the most successful.