Here You Are
A member survey on location-based social networking websites
Essay New Media Theories
Attn.: dr. J.A.A. Simons
Student: Eva Kol (evarosa@gmail.com)
Studentnr.: 0253111
22 January 2007
Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
Table of contents
1. Introduction
p.3
2. Theory
p.5
3. The location-based social networking websites
p.7
3.1
Technology
p.7
3.2
Plazes
p.8
3.3
Meetro
p.9
3.4
Dodgeball
p.11
3.5
Similarities and differences
p.11
4. Results of the member survey
p.12
5. Conclusions
p.18
6. Bibliography
p.21
7. Appendix: interviews
p.23
Length: 7.849 words.
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
Key Words
Locative media, location-based services, social networking websites, GPS, Wi-Fi, Cell ID, mobile
phone technology.
1.
Introduction
Over the last few years there have been many developments in the field of social networking
websites that make use of location-based services. Before these first websites started up, the so
called ‘Gaydar’ got launched in 2000. It was a gadget that started beeping or flashing when
another Gaydar was nearby. Nowadays, entrepreneurs are busy designing alternatives to this
device, in the form of mobile phone and SMS applications that react on nearby compatible
strangers (Red Herring, 2005). They use new technologies to track locations and combine social
networks with real-time places. These developments bring on endless possibilities for
spontaneous meetings between friends, breaking the ice between friends-of-friends, and they can
even shape the conditions for coincidental romantic encounters between would-be
acquaintances.
Technologies like these cause a stream of upcoming social networking websites that
provide location-based services. To name a few of those sites: in Singapore and Indonesia mobile
users can subscribe to the site BEDD, in Japan they’ve got Imahima. Mobile users in the United
States have got many options, like Rabble, SmallPlanet, Jambo, iCentric and Rave Wireless (the
last two both target at university students), and ProxPro is available for the corporate social
networking. Similar sites that are internationally oriented are Wave Market and Mobiluck, which
has over one million subscribers in many countries all over the world.
Since the phenomenon is fairly new, many of those websites are still in beta. They use
different techniques varying from GPS1 to users manually updating their locations through their
mobile phones. The sites are often about specific locations, but more importantly, they are about
mapping and tracing members of social networks of friends. In this essay I will be studying three
important players in the growing field of MoSoSo (which is the nickname for ‘mobile social
software’). The social networking sites that will be analyzed are Dodgeball, Plazes and Meetro.
GPS stands for Global Positioning Satellite. “Twenty-four satellites positioned around the planet enable tracking of
people carrying GPS-enabled equipment to within a few metres.” (Benson, 2006).
1
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
Questions
In the following chapters I will focus on the question:
What are the objectives, used technologies and differences of the location-based social networking websites
Dodgeball, Plazes and Meetro, and what are the experiences of their users?
I’m especially interested in the social possibilities these sites offer to their users, and also in
privacy issues. In this respect, I’ll try to answer the following sub questions as well:
-
In which ways do these location-based social networking websites contribute to the social lives of their
users? And do the users have any interesting experiences in real life caused by their membership?
-
What are users’ motives to put their whereabouts online?
-
Do the users have any fears for their privacy being intruded in any way because of these websites?
Method
To find answers to these questions, I’ll study the three main websites. In the first place by
subscribing and testing them myself. Secondly, I will study literature on locative media and
articles on relevant social networking websites. The sub questions I’ll answer by doing a member
survey. A number of subscribers to the sites will be interviewed on their experiences. The
interviews will be in writing, since the sites offer the possibility to send messages to their users. It
will be a hermeneutic analytic approach, rather than an empiric and representative study. The
sample of users will be taken at random, but will not be representative for all the users.
Considering the restricted size of this essay a large representative member survey cannot be
realized.
Chapters
In the next chapter 2 Theory, I will first report some of the theories concerning literature on
locative media and specifically on location-based social networking websites, to embed my essay
in a theoretical framework. In chapter 3 The location-based social networking websites there are three
case studies of location-based websites. Firstly, there will be an overview of the different
technologies that are being used on these sites. Secondly, Dodgeball, Plazes and Meetro will be
further described. Thirdly, the similarities and striking differences between those sites will be
discussed. Chapter 4 Results of the member survey contains the responses of the Dodgeball, Plazes
and Meetro members I interviewed on their experiences. In chapter 5 Conclusion I will evaluate the
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
results of the survey, discuss possible future developments in technology and alternative
applications the websites are coming up with. The results of the interviews can be read in the
Appendix. It provides the responses to four questions I asked members of Dodgeball, Plazes and
Meetro.
2.
Theory
Some of the theory from articles on locative media will be addressed to in this chapter. The
literature will be used to provide for some definitions of key terms in this essay.
This study is about social networking websites that provide location-based services. To
begin with, it’s important to shortly describe what a social networking website is. Social
networking sites provide social software that is specifically focused on the building and verifying
of online social networks for whatever purpose (Wikipedia, 2007). Examples of well known
websites in this field are Orkut, MySpace and Facebook. Social networking websites are like
contained versions of the wider blogosphere. People who join such a network generally build a
profile and then build a network by connecting to friends or contacts in the network, or by
inviting their real-world friends and contacts to join. These online communities retain the interest
of their users by being useful to them and providing services that are entertaining or help them to
expand their network (Spannerworks, 2006).
This brings us to the definition of MoSoSo or mobile social software, which is software
(on a mobile phone or a laptop) that facilitates social encounters or mobile social networking by
associating geographical location and time with a person’s own social network (Wikipedia, 2007).
What’s the basic idea of MoSoSo?
“The basic idea of a MoSoSo is to overlay a location and time element to the idea of digital networking. So
it enables you to find people in your vicinity and at that time for social, sexual/dating or business
networking. It’s worth noting that the time variable is often overlooked in analysis of MoSoSo dynamics.”
(Russell, 2005)
This essay is about social networking websites that make use of the so called MoSoSo and
provide location-based services. Location-based services is the term I’ll use most often, but what
exactly does the term stand for? Küpper (2005) gives the following definition:
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“Location-based Services (LBSs) are mobile services for providing information that has been created,
compiled, selected or filtered under consideration of the users’ current locations or those of other persons
or mobile devices.”
At the beginning of the new millennium, the first generation of LBSs went into operation. At the
time, market analysts saw them as killer applications for the upcoming 3G networks. They
predicted huge growth rates and revenues for network operators and service providers that
offered these services. But soon it turned out that LBSs were not the ‘next big thing’ after the
success story of GSM and the rise of the SMS. LBSs were often understood as a niche market for
‘techies’ who use them to find for example nearby restaurants or ATMs (Küpper, 2005). If that’s
still the case, I’ll try to find out by doing the member survey in the following chapters. But,
watching the rise of social websites providing LBSs, expectations are that the main audience is
also starting to discover the advantages it brings along. One of the things I’ll study in this essay is
the way in which such services can contribute to the social life of their users. I expect to find out
that there are also advantages for all the ‘non-techies’ in this world. Services that push locationbased information to members will have great potential. That could mean letting you know when
family or friends are nearby, or signalling when you’re close to an event or attraction what
matches your interest (Longo, 2006).
The websites being studied here are so-called ‘locative media’, which are media of
communication bound to a location. They are digital media applied to real places and thus
triggering real social interactions (Wikipedia, 2006). Russell (2004) gives the following description:
“Locative media is many things: A new site for old discussions about the relationship of consciousness to
place and other people. A framework within which to actively engage with, critique, and shape a rapid set of
technological developments. A context within which to explore new and old models of communication,
community and exchange. A name for the ambiguous shape of a rapidly deploying surveillance and control
infrastructure.”
The Internet is often being considered as the ‘next step in the process of abolition of space and
time constraints through media’ (Networktheory, 2006). Through wireless and mobile media
people and places can be accessed any time anywhere:
“Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have given the term ‘navigation’ back its old meaning: from
‘surfing in cyberspace’ (…) it has re-acquired the meaning ‘finding one’s way through geographical and
physical space’. Streets, buildings, objects, animals and people can be ‘tagged’ in order to provide locationbased and contextual information about their whereabouts, preferences [etc.] Cyberspace and the so-called
‘real world’ converge into what Lev Manovich has called ‘augmented reality,’ and in this ‘augmented reality’
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
it does matter where you are. Locative media (…) also allow authorities to keep track of everybody and
everything. Locative media (…) might also give rise to two extreme forms of claustrophobia: on the one
hand one might ask whether it will be possible to ever break out of one’s own maps (a new variety of the
Cartesian question), and on the other hand one might ask whether it will be possible to keep out of sight.”
(Networkcultures, 2006)
This brings us to the issue of privacy. Many new web applications are explicit about the
importance of trust. People build networks of contacts and cross network barriers, based on
stated trust levels. In principle, we all recognize that nothing on the Internet is ever truly private
(Fallows, 2006). Since the beginning of social networking websites, there have always been
concerns about privacy. The fears are that users can give out too much personal information; and
then there’s the threat of sexual predators. With the new phenomenon of location-based online
social networks, the privacy issues are causing even higher concerns among critics. Of course, the
possible threats are more obvious if users enter their precise locations (including streets and
sometimes even house numbers). Are the users as concerned about their privacy being intruded
through these sites? And what are their motives to put ‘private’ information online for everyone
to see? These questions will be answered in the member survey. One would expect that this is not
the case: if members would be as concerned as some of the critics, they probably wouldn’t
subscribe - which doesn’t naturally mean there is no reason for concerns.
Websites like Dodgeball.com are a new phenomenon and they represent most of what is
supposed to be advanced and exciting about the current wave of ‘Web 2.0’ offerings (Fallows,
2006). That sounds quite promising, but how will they integrate in real life?
3.
The location-based social networking websites
Central to this chapter are three case studies of location-based websites. Before describing
Dodgeball, Plazes and Meetro as well as their similarities and differences, there will be an
overview of different technologies that are being used on these sites.
3.1
Technology
What are the different technologies the location-based social networking sites use? The preferred
method to gather accurate data on locations is GPS. However, concerns about costs and privacy
often keep this location information out of third-party hands. It is possible that the market will
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soon break open, but many startups that want to get their share in this lucrative business don’t
hang around waiting until the carriers open up their GPS databases. What they often do, is they
require their users to manually update their whereabouts. Another method these sites use is to
identify members’ cell phone towers or wireless networks to make an educated guess on their
location. There are also websites that use Bluetooth short range wireless to determine proximity.
This always-on technique drains less power than Wi-Fi or GPS does. The disadvantage is that
Bluetooth works only over a short distance and not many mobile phone users have got
Bluetooth-enabled handsets - in fact only about 5.1 percent of the global mobile phone users
does (Red Herring, 2005).
If companies want to secure data for their networks, they’ll have to talk over the carriers.
That is a quite difficult task, since the carriers are concerned that data on precise locations can be
misused and they would then be held responsible. This causes that they’re unlikely to hand access
to the GPS databases to a threatening company like Google or any small and unknown startup
(Red Herring, 2005).
3.2
Dodgeball
The first website to be studied is Dodgeball.com, founded by Dennis Crowley. It’s a New York
based service that focuses on technology to facilitate serendipity. It’s a social networking website
and dating is also an important aspect. The target market of Dodgeball consists of young users in
the United States that want to meet others at night clubs and other venues. At the moment,
Dodgeball is available in 22 cities through the United States. Critics often say the company is
over-hyped. The company has recently been acquired by Google and is now part of the Google
empire. In Generation Here (Benson, 2006) the site is being described as follows:
“Phone-meets-physical world game popular with New York hipsters in which tracking technologies and real
locations combine in a stylised take on social hide-and-seek.”
So how does Dodgeball work? Memberships are for free, Dodgeball doesn’t charge it’s users.
The technology used is manual entry with text messages. So the site depends on members to type
in their location on their cell phones. Since doesn’t use GPS, you have to manually enter your
location. That makes this category of location-based services less scary than the ones that trace
and track you down automatically.
There can be seen five main ways to use the site:
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
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Keeping in touch with friends: if you tell where you are, Dodgeball sends messages to all
your friends letting them know, so you can meet up.
-
Meeting friends of friends: if you tell where you are, Dodgeball locates friends of friends
within 10 blocks and lets you know, so you can meet up.
-
Meeting crushes: if you have got a crush on someone online, you will be notified of
crushes if he or she is nearby.
-
Finding venue locations: when typing in a venue name, the site replies with the address.
-
Broadcasting messages to all your friends: you can send a message to all of your friends to
for example announce you’re back in town, to announce a party or for a celebrity
spotting.
So Dodgeball is essentially a social network built around the place you happen to be at
the moment. A possible Dodgeball-scenario could be:
“You and your friends sign up for Dodgeball on its site, and, presumably, your friends’ friends do the same.
Then, when you walk into a bar, you use your cellphone’s text messaging to tell Dodgeball where you are.
Back comes a list of anyone in your network - your friends or your friends’ friends - who also happen to be
there. Click on a name, and you can send that person a text message proposing you meet underneath the
Fat Tire beer sign.” (Maney, 2006)
On the site you can look for people, watch their network of friends and friends of friends, check
out their scene and the comments they gave on different venues. The site itself is kind of static,
but everything’s clearly arranged and easy to navigate through. In the end it’s not as much about
the site itself, as it is about the mobile services it provides. Dodgeball is only meant for people in
the United States, therefore you have to enter an American cell phone number. Since I don’t have
such a number, it isn’t possible to test all aspects of the website. It is possible though to send
messages to the subscribers in the invitations and receive answers through e-mail notifications. It
would be better if they’d provide for an option to send online messages which one would receive
in an inbox. Now, there’s only the option of communicating by mobile text messaging. Another
disadvantage is that it turns out to be quite a struggle to upload a profile picture.
3.3
Plazes
What facts can be shared about Plazes? Plazes.com, or “The first location based information service on
the planet”, as they call themselves, was launched in August 2004. It’s a social networking website
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that’s also location-enabling of applications such as Skype, Flickr, TypePad, Jabber, Google,
Yahoo, Match.com and Outlook. Their target market consists of PC and mobile phone users
worldwide. There are thousands of plazes registered in about 100 countries. The site won support
from geeks as it opened its application programming interface and quickly integrated with new
services like Google Maps (Red Herring, 2005).
How does Plazes work? Signing up to Plazes is for free, but they intend to charge for
premium services. The technologies Plazes uses are a combination of manual entry, GPS, Wi-Fi
and Cell ID. One of the main objectives of the site is to add physical presence to the web. The
website automatically detects your location and connects you to people and places nearby. You
can see people in your area, discover other locations and follow the whereabouts of your friends.
Locations within Plazes are not just global coordinates. You can name locations like ‘Home’ or
‘My Office’. You can represent your locations by how you relate to them and discover other
significant locations. Members can also relate to other locations by adding pictures, comments,
and reviews. Plazes can be told to remember the locations you visit so you can review your
travels (plazes.com). If you download the application called ‘the Plazer’, you tell Plazes exactly
where you are, the city and also the actual plaze. The Plazer makes sure you can:
-
list your online friends where they are;
-
automatically check in at Plazes;
-
add new plazes;2
-
edit descriptions of plazes;
-
add your current location to applications like Skype, Google Earth, AIM, etc.
A small usability test, makes clear that although the site is still in beta (as is written on top of
the page) all seems to work without a problem. It doesn’t take too much time to find out how
everything works, also due to the clear and clean layout. Downloading the Plazer to automatically
locate yourself on the map is easy and you don’t have to manually enter your location anymore
when you login. Communicating with other members is easy: you can look for people, click on
their profiles and plazes and send messages to their online inbox. The site would be more fun if
there would be more members. In the Netherlands for example, I can only find 75 people. Most
members are in Germany and the United States. But of course there’ll be more members once
the website gets fully launched.
“A plaze is a physical location tied to a description and other stuff like comments and photos. A plaze is found
through a computer network so each plaze has either a wired or wireless internet connection. That way you can
broadcast automatically if you are still at work or already sitting on your couch.” (plazes.com)
2
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
3.4
Meetro
Meetro.com got launched in 2005. In the first place Meetro (or Meetroduction) is a social
networking website, but it also offers local information. The target market of Meetro is that of
worldwide instant messaging users. Last year the company was falsely rumoured to be the next
buy of Google. The result was that its user base immediately jumped from 2,000 to 10,000 users.
How does the site work? There’s a combination of technologies being used, which are
GPS, Cell ID, Wi-Fi and manual entries. Meetro is an application that overlays the physical world
on top of the online world. It combines the features of messengers and social networks together
with location and that way it’s a way to meet people nearby. They call themselves a ‘locationaware social messenger’, meaning that it combines all the aspects of social networks, with all the
real-time communications of instant messengers, wraps that around location, and finally adds
photos and profiles. The software allows you to see who is logged in nearby, at that moment, and
start chatting with them instantly. You can stay in touch with your existing friends who are
already on Meetro, or you can connect to your AIM, MSN, and Yahoo accounts on the computer
(meetro.com).
At first sight, the interface looks pretty smooth. The site can be a bit slow at times and
still seems to contain some bugs. While searching for members, many times the following line
pops up on the screen: “We’re sorry. An error occurred. Please try your search again.”, which gets pretty
frustrating after a while. It’s quite easy to get up and running. As soon as you login you see
people online you can talk to. You see people nearby, people in the area and some random users
whose profile photos will guide you to their profiles. It’s a good thing you can show your status
as ‘away’, cause otherwise there will suddenly be many ‘random’ users chatting to you. I wasn’t
able to test it out, but the critique expressed by some is that the service works better on IM at the
moment than it does on mobile phones.
3.5
Similarities and differences
Now what are the resemblances and differences of the three discussed websites? Firstly, they are
all fairly new enterprises, which got started over the last few years. Dodgeball and Meetro are not
in beta, but they’re fully launched. Plazes on the other hand is still in beta. They are all free of
charge, subscribing to one of the websites doesn’t bring any costs. Plazes is intending to charge
for premium services, but this is of course up to the members to use.
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
All three sites provide a social networking service, that’s their main feature. But where
Dodgeball also focuses on the dating-aspect, Meetro is more about chatting and Plazes offers
location-enabling of applications like Flickr, Skype, Google, etc. So the basis is alike but they all
focus different extra services. Internal communication between members seems to be easier at
Plazes and Meetro than at Dodgeball. At Dodgeball you don’t have your own inbox, as you do at
Plazes and Meetro, which makes communication with other members that are not in your
friendslist quite difficult.
Regarding technology, the three websites all work differently. Dodgeball seems to use the
most basic technique of simply letting the users manually entry their location with text messages.
Meetro and Plazes both use GPS, Wi-Fi and Cell ID technologies.
What are the differences concerning the target markets of the sites? Most of the existing
location-based social networks are American initiatives and therefore they mainly focus on
American users. So does Dodgeball, it aims especially on the young United States users that are
busy going out to clubs, restaurants and other venues. To actively join Dodgeball, an American
cell phone number is required. Plazes and Meetro on the other hand, welcome users from all over
the world.
So in short, one can state that what the three sites have got in common is that they’re all
young location-based social networking websites. But they all have got their own style, focus and
target market.
4.
Results of the member survey
The members survey has resulted in the responses of 20 members of the websites. Most
responses came from Plazes-members (12), followed by the Meetro-members (5) and then the
Dodgeball-members (3). The low response rate of the Dodgeball website might have something
to do with the lack of possibilities for online communication. Of the 20 people that were
interviewed, only 3 of them were women. This is also because there are more male members
subscribed to these websites, especially to Plazes. Most interviewed members were from the
United States, other countries were: Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and
China. Since many of the members didn’t enter their age, I cannot make any claims concerning
age.
The questions asked in the interviews were as follows:
-
In which ways does using Dodgeball/Plazes/Meetro contribute to your social life?
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
-
What are your motives to put your whereabouts online?
-
Do you have any fears of your privacy being intruded in any way because of the site?
-
Have you experienced any interesting kind of Dodgeball/Plazes/Meetro-moment?
The first two questions are similar in a few ways: if the websites contribute to the social life of the
members, then that automatically is a motive to put their whereabouts online.
In which ways does using Dodgeball/Plazes/Meetro contribute to your social life? 3
Below are some of the responses to this question. An often heard response is that a site like
Plazes fosters having lunch or a drink with friends, because they can easily find out if you are
nearby:
“My friends simply can track me down by clicking on the Plazes-button. Where I live, there’s a small number of
people actively using Plazes. The most common use by friends is to see if I am available for tea or a coffee [and] if I
am in their area. Lunch requests also get extended through the Plazes messaging feature. (…) I do expect that in time
as more Plazes are added I may get more enquiries ‘out of the blue’.” (Plazes – Raymond, Canada)
“Dodgeball contributes in a number of ways: 1) It tells me what bars my friends are going to, so I get an idea of what
bars are becoming popular. On any given night on my walk home. 2) I know what bars friends might be in so I have
a place to go with a familiar face. 3) The chat feature allows friends to relate funny things or interesting things that
are happening real time.” (Dodgeball – Doug, US)
“Dodgeball theoretically contributes to my social life by making it easier to let my friends know where I am, which in
some cases it does, but it can also make it easy to fall into a pattern of just telling your Dodgeball friends where you
are and not your non-Dodgeball friends. ‘Checking in’ can become too easy.” (Dodgeball – Grellan, US)
“Meetro allows me access to connect to other local people with similar interests, beginning with online savvyness.
And, when I am looking to travel (IE: college football game in another city), I can find other users in that location
and we coordinate social events together!” (Meetro - QueenJean, 32, US)
If not many friends sign up for a site like Dodgeball, it doesn’t seem to have a great effect on the
social life of the members:
“My social life is hardly affected by it, because not too many of my friends have signed up for it. First problem with
this is Pittsburgh is not one of the cities that I can choose from, so I have to use another city. Not a big deal, but it
3
Not all interviews are shown here, check the Appendix for all responses in the member survey.
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
seems some people are turned off by that. But it is a good way to mass text people. People who are on my friends
list.” (Dodgeball – Albert, US)
Others use Plazes to track and remember things, especially when travelling. And a few users
remark that there’s also a ‘social competition’ aspect to Plazes, since they get a ‘smirk’ every time
they discover a plaze:
“Using Plazes contributes to my life because it helps me track and remember things I’ve done in the last years. My
last years, I used to be on the road pretty often. And using the website allows me to put whatever I do into a context.
I link location to pictures, to friends and so on.” (Plazes – Till, 24, Germany)
“It’s not really a social tool for me. I work for a technology company and travel a lot. A dysfunctional ‘badge of
pride’ for a lot of people in my industry is how much we travel; and my family and friends are always wondering, ‘is
Alistair in town today?’ I also have an apartment in Montreal and a house in Halifax that I just built, so I balance my
time between the two. So Plazes is more of a way for people to keep track of where I am. There’s also a ‘social
competition’ aspect. I get a smirk every time I’m the first to discover a place; and I’m curious about whether other
people are also visiting the same places as me.” (Plazes – Alistair, US)
It can also be helpful to find Wi-Fi locations:
“I primarily use Plazes to find Wi-Fi locations - but also like to check in and see where friends are. I wouldn’t say
that I check it before meeting up with friends, or that I use it to find friends who are close by. It’s more of a social
curiosity (like, ‘I wonder where so-and-so is...’) than anything else.” (Plazes – Chris, 26, US)
Another aspect that’s not so much social, is that it can be just a way to spend some free time and
practice your English if you’re not a native speaker:
“Ik heb Meetro een tijd lang geleden ‘ontdekt’. Volgens mij in 2005 ongeveer. In het begin vond ik het wel lollig en
probeerde ik iedereen die ik kende aan de Meetro te krijgen. Vaak als ik me verveel probeer ik of er iemand wil
chatten. Mensen die vaak op Meetro te vinden zijn herken je op een gegeven moment wel aan hun foto. Ik heb best
een paar vrienden overgehouden aan Meetro met wie ik best vaak chat. Vooral mensen uit het buitenland. Maleisië,
de VS, Marokko en Rusland bijvoorbeeld. Weinig mensen spreken Nederlands natuurlijk dus het is ook enorm goed
geweest voor m’n Engels.” (Meetro – Wouter, Netherlands)
What are your motives to put your whereabouts online?
Social motives for meeting friends appear to be most important again:
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“There are a bunch of people in town who I don’t see regularly and any additional ways to help find them are
useful. In addition, it’s quite useful to have a way to find good Wi-Fi hotspots when I’m travelling.” (Plazes Edward, 42, US)
“I want my friends to know where I am so I can meet them.” (Plazes – Jan, 33, Germany)
There are a few people who have got work-related motives for using Plazes. It also seems to be a
way to show off how much they travel.
“Ik heb nu nog niet zoveel aan Plazes, maar ik ga binnenkort weer aan boord om op een schip te werken, en dan
kunnen mensen zien waar ik op dat moment ben zonder dat de hele tijd te hoeven mailen.” (Plazes – Natasha, 37,
Netherlands)
For some it’s an experiment of making their lives an open book:
“Part of it is an experiment of making my life an open book. I blog my thoughts on www.mindthis.net (…), I
publish my photos on Flickr (and I have made thousands of them public), my email address and phone number are
on my company website. Another aspect is that I try to encourage a stumble-upon moment, such as if someone who
reads my blog suddenly finds herself in the same Starbucks as me. No doubt there would be an opportunity for a
good face-to-face conversation - brought about by an online tool. And it is that aspect which fascinates me. All the
predictions that computers and the web would alienate people from other people… The opposite is happening.
After many years of people having to do things the way the machines worked, we are now starting to use the
machines in a social context.” (Plazes - Lars, UK)
And some just like the idea of being connected:
“I like the idea of being connected I guess. And I guess I would even like to have the option of having a GPS unit
attached to me and linked up with Google maps. But in my area we don’t have a city Wi-Fi network and that would
cost me too much to get Wi-Fi from a cell phone provider.” (Dodgeball – Albert, US)
There are people that use it not as a social tool, but they’re interested in the developments of the
technologies being used:
“I’m actually living in China, and recently have travelled mostly in this area. Very few people are using Plazes here,
meaning I can’t really use it as a social tool. Even if I’d still be living in Europe, I don’t think I’d use Plazes as a social
tool anyway. I’m more on the IT side, and as such the tech tricks of geolocation are enough for me to be interested
in Plazes. But I don’t think I’d use this to make friends, yet. (…) I’m actually quite convinced that the 50 top users
are more of a ‘serial taggers’ kind than of social networkers kind.” (Plazes – Jean, 30, China)
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
Do you have any fears of your privacy being intruded in any way because of the site?
As expected, most users are not really concerned about their privacy being intruded:
“I’m not sure if I will continue to broadcast my coordinates for years but at the moment I don’t have any fears (as
long as I can decide freely if my coordinates are public). As a promoter of ICT in education, my use of Plazes can
provoke discussions about advantages and disadvantages of new technologies.” (Plazes - Beat, Switzerland)
“I have thought about this subject but have not run into a scenario where an intrusion as happened. An occasional
email from another user I do not consider an intrusion as we all have the ability to go look at the users’ profile and
then can make a decision whether or not to respond. I expect that new features will be added to Plazes as the project
advances and one of these may be a button that we could hit in the event that there were questionable or unwanted
contacts. A register could be established to record such contacts and then the individual that was objected to could
be removed from Plazes. Up to this point in time everything has been fine.” (Plazes - Raymond, Canada)
“Probably not, because what does it really matter if someone knows where I am? And even if it would, I could optout most easily and stop using it.” (Plazes - Till, 24, Germany)
“It’s not generally hard to hide where I am when I want to, and for the most part the work I do is better done when
I’m findable versus when I’m somewhere secret. I’ve been on the net for more than 20 years now and haven’t found
that selective disclosure of information about who I am and what I do has been a privacy concern - on the contrary,
it’s been a great help.” (Plazes - Edward, 42, US)
“Not really. I figure, the more that people and my friends know about me, the better and safer I’ll be. I prefer to be
as transparent as possible, since I really have nothing to hide.” (Plazes – Chris, 26, US)
“Not really, but that’s probably for two reasons. First, I’m pretty technically literate (the company makes web
performance monitoring stuff) so I’m fairly aware of how much data is out there. I don’t provide a lot of contact
information on the site. And second, I’m pretty public anyway. If you Google me, I have a lot of activity online with
speaking and presenting and writing. And I have a pretty open blog that has a ‘where’s Alistair’ Flash applet showing
my recent travels.” (Plazes – Alistair, US)
“I’ve never had a privacy issue with anything on Meetro.” (Meetro - QueenJean, 32, US)
“Nee, heb ik geen problemen mee. Ze mogen weten waar ik zit. Ik kan wel zien hoe ver iemand van mij vandaan
woont, maar niet in welke richting. Privacy is wat mij betreft wel goed geregeld.” (Meetro – Marco, 33, Netherlands)
“Nee nooit. Het is ook niet zo’n heel drukbezocht medium, dus minder kans op plaaggeesten. Je kan helemaal zelf
bepalen in hoeverre je je gegevens opgeeft.” (Meetro – Wouter, Netherlands)
There are some members though, who do have some concerns and reservations:
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“Not fears directly, but definitely concerns. I didn’t join Plazes the first time I heard about it because of those
concerns. After debating with myself for a while I decided to join as it seemed the benefits of doing so were greater
than the concern.” (Plazes - Lars, UK)
“Not at the moment in Beta. However, as soon it gets more known maybe one should activate filters.” (Plazes – Jan,
33, Germany)
“I disclose very few personal information, and second use a pseudo. True, someone could track me, but I don’t really
feel that I’m exposing too much info here.” (Plazes – Jean, 30, China)
“Intellectually I do, practically I do not since I don’t currently have any stalkers...” (Plazes – Ted, US)
“No not really, if any fears I’d have would be the love-hate I have for the vary idea. I love the idea of being
connected; let my friends know where I am, and let me know where my friends are... But the idea of people I don’t
know bothers me sometimes. And yet part of the whole thing is to meet knew people, and I guess that’s life, to try to
connect to people and meet or do new things and what not. Really, I don’t have any fears about it or the internet in
general, to include MySpace or Facebook, or even Live Journal.” (Dodgeball – Albert, US)
“Early on there were issues with privacy, but to date I haven’t really noticed any privacy issues. I only tell Dodgeball
where I am when I am open to having others around.” (Dodgeball – Doug, US)
“So far, there have been no real privacy concerns, but there are plenty of times when I don’t ‘check in’ because I
don’t want some people in my circle to know where I am. You could block that person, but they’d find out through
deduction that you blocked them.” (Dodgeball – Grellan, US)
Have you experienced any interesting kind of Dodgeball/Plazes/Meetro-moment?
There are a few people that have experienced coincidental encounters through the websites, and
made new friends:
“Last March when I was in NYC I ‘plazed’ the location I was at and instantly got a message from some people close
by. Turns out they are running office space not to far away, so we met up for drinks that night. (…) it’s good to see
how ‘digital life’ can connect ‘real life’ so easily.” (Plazes - Till, 24, Germany)
“18 Months ago I was at a conference in New York. I arrived a day before the conference started for a workshop. I
was the first to log on to the Wi-Fi and so I got to name the plaze. When the conference started, somebody who is a
capacity in social software and [who] I admire saw my name tag and burst out ‘so you are Lars’ - he had expected to
name the plaze. We got talking and he is now a good friend; although we weren’t connected at the time, Plazes broke
the ice.” (Plazes – Lars, UK)
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“I’ve met a guy who lives one state away through Meetro. Although he doesn’t live here, we became good friends
and talk every day.” (Meetro – Kimberley, 29, US)
5.
Conclusions
Like some wonder: are people really going to use these websites to meet total strangers? And, is it
for anyone over 30, except the truly geeky who are enamormed with the technology itself?
(Green, 2005). From the interviews, it appears that people come up with many different ways in
which the websites contribute to their social lives. An often heard response is that the sites foster
having lunch or a drink with friends, because they can easily find out if you are nearby. You can
see where your friends are and vice versa, sometimes to meet up and sometimes out of a social
curiosity. Someone makes the remark that it easy to fall into a pattern of ‘just telling your
Dodgeball friends where you are and not your non-Dodgeball friends’ though. In many cases the
sites make it easy to connect with local people with similar interests. Looking at the ‘interesting
experiences’ people had by using the sites, there seem to be members that have experienced
coincidental encounters through the websites, made new friends, and organized social events
while travelling. So meeting total strangers does happen and as technology has started to play an
ever growing role in our society, more funny incidents of synchronicity will probably occur. A
problem with some of the sites is, that there is often only a small number of people nearby that
actively use the site. And if not many friends sign up, then it doesn’t seem to affect the social life
of the users in a great way. This will change when the sites gain popularity and get more known.
But next to social implications and motives for meeting friends, letting them know where you
are, and work-related motives, there are a number of other implications and motives Dodgeball,
Plazes and Meetro are being used for:
-
Tracking and remembering: For some, the sites aren’t really being used as a social tool. They
use the sites to track and remember things, especially if they’re travelling a lot. On Plazes
it also seems to be a way to show off how much they travel.
-
Social competition: A few users remark that there’s a ‘social competition’ aspect to Plazes,
since they get a ‘smirk’ every time they discover a plaze. It’s like digital status: you get
karma points for every plaze you discover and for every successful invitation you sent
out. Your Karma points are reflected in the discoverer list.
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
-
Keeping up with the technological developments: Some people are interested in the developments
of the technologies being used. So there are some ‘techies’ signing up, but as seen, that’s
definitely not the only group of users.
-
Wi-Fi spots: Some people use the sites to find Wi-Fi hotspots when travelling.
-
Being an ‘open book’: For some it’s an experiment of making their lives an open book
-
Spending time: It can just be a way of spending time.
-
Improving your language skills: Someone remarks that talking to other people on these sites is
a good way to practice your English if you’re not a native speaker.
A Plazes-member explains the advantages and disadvantages of the website:
“Voordelen: 1) iedereen weet waar ik ben - het scheelt telefoongesprekken, 2) competitiespelletjes, 3)
digitale status - het is leuk om een goed ‘karma’ te ontwikkelen, je bent ineens een echte nerd!, 4) je kunt
Plazes aan Flickr koppelen en zo je foto’s een geolocatie geven. Geen idee wat het voordeel er van is, maar
het is cool en leuk. Nadelen: iedereen weet waar ik ben. Privacy word vrijwillig geschonden, niet echt ideaal
- maar toch verwaarloosbaar voor veel mensen blijkbaar.” (Plazes – Jeroen, Netherlands)
As expected, most users are not really concerned about their privacy being intruded and they
didn’t have any bad experiences yet with any kind of privacy intrusion. The reason they’re not
concerned, is they can decide for themselves if their coordinates are made public. If it would get
an issue, they can easily opt out. Many users say they’ve got nothing to hide, so they don’t mind
being able to be traced and being ‘transparent’. Someone even states ‘the more that people and
my friends know about me, the better and safer I’ll be’. There are some members though, who do
have some concerns and reservations. They say it can hold people from signing up to this kind of
social networks. Some of the concerned members just don’t provide too much information and
contact information, or use a pseudo name.
The expectation that if members would be as concerned as some of the critics, they
probably wouldn’t subscribe seems to be true. Members are not that concerned about their
privacy, which doesn’t naturally mean there is no reason for concerns. A Plazes-member puts it
like this: ‘I think people make a privacy decision at some point and realize they’re either going to
be a private or a public person.’ Apparently, many people start making the choice to be ‘a public
person’ and put their whereabouts on location-based social networking websites. We’ll have to
find out if the critics were right, but hey, with one click on the button you can always opt out.
And in the end, of course it’s not really about tracing or tracking but about the movements of
your network of friends.
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
Into the future
It seems to be a logical development that many existing online social networks will add locationbased services similar to the ones studied here, to keep up with the times. It seems that passive
social networking services that merely aggregate our friends, and their friends eventually lose their
luster. Geographically mobile solutions that help us connect with our affinity groups of friends
are much more sticky (Terdiman, 2005). Next to that, many new location-based social networking
websites will keep popping up. Since it’s not yet a widespread phenomenon, there will be a
growing ‘need’ in the online market. At this time most of the location-based social networking
websites are relatively small, but they will most likely grow fast.
The techniques will probably improve. It’s possible that the market will break open in
different countries, and the carriers will open up their GPS databases to third parties. Then users
won’t need to update their location manually on their webpage or cell phone, but their location
will be traced automatically by GPS, or other high-tech technologies that some of the founded
websites already use.
The discussed services will be used for different purposes. What other tasks could they
start to take up? Are there any alternative applications the MoSoSo-companies could start to
develop? A few of the sites in the location-based space already started to show some creative
applications. For example, Intercasting’s Rabble offers location-aware blogging. WaveMarket
recently launched a program for Canadian parents to track their kids. The websites ProxPro and
Jambo are catering their services to attendees of conferences and tradeshows. And to conclude,
BEDD offers BEDDbay which is in fact a mobile classifieds service to alert users when a
potential buyer for their listing is nearby (Red Herring, 2005).
Remarks
What are the shortcomings of the underlying survey? There should be noted that although the
sample of users from the member survey is taken at random, it isn’t representative for all users of
the websites, considering the small number of people being interviewed. In a more expanded
study it would be good to interview more members to be able to make more generalizing
statements. It would be interesting to study about as many people from each website, because in
this case there were for example more responses from the Plazes-members than from the other
sites. Since the phenomenon discussed in this essay is fairly new, there’s a whole undiscovered
field yet to be studied.
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
6.
Bibliography
Books and articles
Benson, R., M. Radcliff, S. Armstrong, R. Levine (2006). Generation Here. Exploring the Impact of 3G
Mobile Phone Technology on Global Communities. Available online:
http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/whatisrazrspeed/index.html
Green, H. (2005). ‘Plazes: time and space online’, at: BusinessWeek Online.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/09/plazes_time_and.ht
ml?chan=search
Fallows, J. (2006). ‘Homo Conexus’, Technology Review, July 2006, Vol. 109, Issue 3, p.76
Küpper, A. (2005). Location-based services. Fundamentals and operation, Ludwig Maximilian University
Munich: John Wiley & Sons
Longo, C. (2006). ‘Your wireless future’, at: Business 2.0 Magazine.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/05/01/8375915/index.h
tm
Maney, K. (2006). ‘Who needs a bowling league to make friends when there’s the Web?’, at: USA
Today. Available online: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/200610-24-new-social-networks_x.htm
Manovich, L. (2001). The Language of New Media, Cambridge: The MIT Press
Red Herring (2005). LBS startups to watch. A slew of location-based services startups are hoping to make
serendipity a little more regular. Available online:
http://redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14210&hed=LBS+Startups+to+Watch
Russell, B. (2004). Transcultural Media Online Reader Introduction. Available online:
http://www.locative.net/tcmreader/index.php?intro;russell
Russell (2005). ‘The perfect MoSoMo’, at: Mobhappy. Available online:
http://mobhappy.typepad.com/russell_buckleys_mobhappy/2005/05/the_perfect_mos.html
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
Spannerworks (2006). What is social media? An e-book from Spannerworks. Available online:
http://www.spannerworks.com/ebooks
Terdiman, D. (2005). ‘MoSoSos not So So-So’, at: Wired News. Available online:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66813-2,00.html
Wardrip-Fruin, N., N. Montfort (2003). The New Media Reader, Cambridge: The MIT Press
Websites
http://www.dodgeball.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.networkcultures.org/networktheory
http://www.meetro.com
http://www.plazes.com
Picture
Picture page 1: from http://www.plazes.com (powered by Google Maps)
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
7.
Appendix: interviews
In which ways does using Dodgeball/Plazes/Meetro contribute to your social life?
“Even though I have only one job, I’m working at several places. The University of Applied Sciences I’m working
for is located in several cities in Switzerland and I have more than one meeting or workshop per week at another
place. Plazes announces where I am on my job’s homepage and in Skype. So co-workers, colleagues and people
willing to meet me can easily see where I am at the moment. This fosters having lunch or a cup of coffee together.”
(Plazes – Beat, Switzerland)
“This is quite simple... my friends simply can track me down by clicking on the Plazes-button. Where I live, there’s a
small number of people actively using Plazes. The most common use by friends is to see if I am available for tea or a
coffee [and] if I am in their area. Lunch requests also get extended through the Plazes messaging feature. (…) I do
expect that in time as more Plazes are added I may get more enquiries ‘out of the blue’.” (Plazes – Raymond,
Canada)
“Using Plazes contributes to my life because it helps me track and remember things I’ve done in the last years. My
last years, I used to be on the road pretty often. And using the website allows me to put whatever I do into a context.
I link location to pictures, to friends and so on.” (Plazes – Till, 24, Germany)
“Every once in a while I’m at a cafe and someone shows up to say hi and to talk because they have seen my Plazes
location and they’re nearby.” (Plazes – Edward, 42, US)
“I primarily use Plazes to find Wi-Fi locations - but also like to check in and see where friends are. I wouldn’t say
that I check it before meeting up with friends, or that I use it to find friends who are close by. It’s more of a social
curiosity (like, ‘I wonder where so-and-so is...’) than anything else.” (Plazes – Chris, 26, US)
“I am travelling a lot and have many friends who are, too. Now I just met four people unexpectedly through seeing
them on Plazes.” (Plazes – Jan, 33, Germany)
“It’s not really a social tool for me. I work for a technology company and travel a lot. A dysfunctional ‘badge of
pride’ for a lot of people in my industry is how much we travel; and my family and friends are always wondering, ‘is
Alistair in town today?’ I also have an apartment in Montreal and a house in Halifax that I just built, so I balance my
time between the two. So Plazes is more of a way for people to keep track of where I am. There’s also a ‘social
competition’ aspect. I get a smirk every time I’m the first to discover a place; and I’m curious about whether other
people are also visiting the same places as me.” (Plazes – Alistair, US)
“Op mijn opleiding (...) is er een select groepje studenten met een Plazes-account, en het is bij ons echt competitie.
We hebben allemaal wel bijzondere plazes; zo is een van m’n vrienden afgelopen donderdag gaan solliciteren bij
Last.FM en heeft hij daar dus snel even z’n laptop opengeklapt en Last.FM ontdekt. Vervolgens zijn wij allemaal
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
gruwelijk jaloers! Bij ons is het dus een leuk spelletje om zoveel mogelijk plazes te hebben en te ondekken, en is het
ook echt iets waar we het over hebben. (...) We weigeren overigens om met mobiele telefoons plazes te ontdekken;
dan is de lol eraf. (...) Ook gebruik ik Plazes om aan te geven waar ik ben, en bezoeken mensen mijn website ook
echt om te checken waar ik ben en of ze me kunnen storen.” (Plazes – Jeroen, 22, Netherlands)
“My social life is hardly affected by it, because not too many of my friends have signed up for it. First problem with
this is Pittsburgh is not one of the cities that I can choose from, so I have to use another city. Not a big deal, but it
seems some people are turned off by that. But it is a good way to mass text people. People who are on my friends
list.” (Dodgeball – Albert, US)
“Dodgeball contributes in a number of ways: 1) It tells me what bars my friends are going to, so I get an idea of what
bars are becoming popular. On any given night on my walk home. 2) I know what bars friends might be in so I have
a place to go with a familiar face. 3) The chat feature allows friends to relate funny things or interesting things that
are happening real time.” (Dodgeball – Doug, US)
“Dodgeball theoretically contributes to my social life by making it easier to let my friends know where I am, which in
some cases it does, but it can also make it easy to fall into a pattern of just telling your Dodgeball friends where you
are and not your non-Dodgeball friends. ‘Checking in’ can become too easy.” (Dodgeball – Grellan, US)
“Meetro allows me access to connect to other local people with similar interests, beginning with online savvyness.
And, when I am looking to travel (IE: college football game in another city), I can find other users in that location
and we coordinate social events together!” (Meetro - QueenJean, 32, US)
“Social life is a matter of interacting both in person and/or online with other people. I’m not a Meetro user from
long time, but since I’ve used it twice to talk with another person I didn’t know, I’d say that it’s somehow useful.
Although having the possibility to see persons physically is the basis of social interaction, because of the multitude of
means of expression (look, moving, and more), Meetro could be a start, but not the whole social life environment.”
(Meetro – Davide, Italy)
“In het begin was er helemaal niemand in mijn omgeving. In die tijd heb ik wel eens gechat met mensen die ik niet
ken en die ver van mij vandaan wonen. Inmiddels wonen er meer mensen in mijn omgeving. Meetro heeft in mij
geval niet veel toegevoegd aan mijn sociale leven. Buurtgenoten aanspreken met ‘hé, jij woont dichtbij’ doe ik niet.
Wat ik wel leuk vind is om mensen aan te spreken die ver van mij vandaan wonen. Maar goed, ik ben ook liever op
vakantie in een ver land dan in eigen land :-) Op zich vind ik het systeem achter Meetro wel heel interessant. Het
internet zorgt voor een nieuwe manier van in contact komen met mensen waar je een eigenschap mee deelt. Waar
Hyves op basis van afstand van vrienden werkt, werkt Meetro met de afstand tussen beide woonplekken. Kortom, ik
zie de mogelijkheden wel voor mij, alleen is het nog niet zo ver.” (Meetro – Marco, 33, Netherlands)
“Ik heb Meetro een tijd lang geleden ‘ontdekt’. Volgens mij in 2005 ongeveer. In het begin vond ik het wel lollig en
probeerde ik iedereen die ik kende aan de Meetro te krijgen. Vaak als ik me verveel probeer ik of er iemand wil
chatten. Mensen die vaak op Meetro te vinden zijn herken je op een gegeven moment wel aan hun foto. Ik heb best
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
een paar vrienden overgehouden aan Meetro met wie ik best vaak chat. Vooral mensen uit het buitenland. Maleisië,
de VS, Marokko en Rusland bijvoorbeeld. Weinig mensen spreken Nederlands natuurlijk dus het is ook enorm goed
geweest voor m’n Engels.” (Meetro – Wouter, Netherlands)
What are your motives to put your whereabouts online?
“This is a personal experiment. We can always disconnect ourselves from being seen on Plazes. Up to this point this
has not been necessary. Friends can see if I am in my home in Province or if I am travelling.” (Plazes – Raymond,
Canada)
“Ik heb nu nog niet zoveel aan Plazes, maar ik ga binnenkort weer aan boord om op een schip te werken, en dan
kunnen mensen zien waar ik op dat moment ben zonder dat de hele tijd te hoeven mailen.” (Plazes – Natasha, 37,
Netherlands)
“Part of it is an experiment of making my life an open book. I blog my thoughts on www.mindthis.net (…), I
publish my photos on Flickr (and I have made thousands of them public), my email address and phone number are
on my company website. Another aspect is that I try to encourage a stumble-upon moment, such as if someone who
reads my blog suddenly finds herself in the same Starbucks as me. No doubt there would be an opportunity for a
good face-to-face conversation - brought about by an online tool. And it is that aspect which fascinates me. All the
predictions that computers and the web would alienate people from other people… The opposite is happening.
After many years of people having to do things the way the machines worked, we are now starting to use the
machines in a social context.” (Plazes - Lars, UK)
“There are a bunch of people in town who I don’t see regularly and any additional ways to help find them are
useful. In addition, it’s quite useful to have a way to find good Wi-Fi hotspots when I’m travelling.” (Plazes Edward, 42, US)
“Well, if I want to know where my friends are, I should be willing to let them know where I am... and some of my
friends aren’t on Plazes so instead of forcing them to sign up, I just make my whereabouts known. I’ve never had a
problem with this in terms of privacy; in fact it means that people come find me to hang out more often than not.”
(Plazes – Chris, 26, US)
“I want my friends to know where I am so I can meet them.” (Plazes – Jan, 33, Germany)
“A bit of showing off (‘look how much I travel.’) I don’t use Plazes to meet people, and I haven’t used it to find hotspots. One of the original ideas behind the site was for people to find nearby Wi-Fi; but really, I just assume that
every hotel and coffee shop will have one. Also, most of the company I work for is in Montreal, and I’m a founder.
Lots of the employees want to know how business is going, where we’re having meetings, and so on. And because
I’ve lived in lots of places (I’m British, but I live in Montreal/Halifax, and used to live in Boston, San Diego, and
Ottawa) I have friends all over the place.” (Plazes – Alistair, US)
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“I’m actually living in China, and recently have travelled mostly in this area. Very few people are using Plazes here,
meaning I can’t really use it as a social tool. Even if I’d still be living in Europe, I don’t think I’d use Plazes as a social
tool anyway. I’m more on the IT side, and as such the tech tricks of geolocation are enough for me to be interested
in Plazes. But I don’t think I’d use this to make friends, yet. (…)I’m actually quite convinced that the 50 top users are
more of a ‘serial taggers’ kind than of social networkers kind.” (Plazes – Jean, 30, China)
“It’s a social experiment - I am interested professionally in these kinds of services. It can also be useful at times, as I
work with a geographically distributed team - I use a script to update my IM client (adium) with my Plazes locations
so that anyone using IM can see where I am.” (Plazes – Ted, US)
“I like the idea of being connected I guess. And I guess I would even like to have the option of having a GPS unit
attached to me and linked up with Google maps. But in my area we don’t have a city Wi-Fi network and that would
cost me too much to get Wi-Fi from a cell phone provider.” (Dodgeball – Albert, US)
Do you have any fears of your privacy being intruded in any way because of the site?
“I’m not sure if I will continue to broadcast my coordinates for years but at the moment I don’t have any fears (as
long as I can decide freely if my coordinates are public). As a promoter of ICT in education, my use of Plazes can
provoke discussions about advantages and disadvantages of new technologies.” (Plazes - Beat, Switzerland)
“I have thought about this subject but have not run into a scenario where an intrusion as happened. An occasional
email from another user I do not consider an intrusion as we all have the ability to go look at the users’ profile and
then can make a decision whether or not to respond. I expect that new features will be added to Plazes as the project
advances and one of these may be a button that we could hit in the event that there were questionable or unwanted
contacts. A register could be established to record such contacts and then the individual that was objected to could
be removed from Plazes. Up to this point in time everything has been fine.” (Plazes - Raymond, Canada)
“Probably not, because what does it really matter if someone knows where I am? And even if it would, I could optout most easily and stop using it.” (Plazes - Till, 24, Germany)
“Not fears directly, but definitely concerns. I didn’t join Plazes the first time I heard about it because of those
concerns. After debating with myself for a while I decided to join as it seemed the benefits of doing so were greater
than the concern.” (Plazes - Lars, UK)
“It’s not generally hard to hide where I am when I want to, and for the most part the work I do is better done when
I’m findable versus when I’m somewhere secret. I’ve been on the net for more than 20 years now and haven’t found
that selective disclosure of information about who I am and what I do has been a privacy concern - on the contrary,
it’s been a great help.” (Plazes - Edward, 42, US)
“Not really. I figure, the more that people and my friends know about me, the better and safer I’ll be. I prefer to be
as transparent as possible, since I really have nothing to hide.” (Plazes – Chris, 26, US)
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“Not at the moment in Beta. However, as soon it gets more known maybe one should activate filters.” (Plazes – Jan,
33, Germany)
“I disclose very few personal information, and second use a pseudo. True, someone could track me, but I don’t really
feel that I’m exposing too much info here.” (Plazes – Jean, 30, China)
“Not really, but that’s probably for two reasons. First, I’m pretty technically literate (the company makes web
performance monitoring stuff) so I’m fairly aware of how much data is out there. I don’t provide a lot of contact
information on the site. And second, I’m pretty public anyway. If you Google me, I have a lot of activity online with
speaking and presenting and writing. And I have a pretty open blog that has a ‘where’s Alistair’ Flash applet showing
my recent travels.
I think people make a privacy decision at some point and realize they’re either going to be a private or a
public person. A lot of one’s decisions to share data stems from that. There will always be certain private details that
aren’t anyone’s business - such as social security number or credit-card validation - and I believe that in a few years
we’ll have acceptable biometrics in place. I have a fingerprint reader on the notebook I’m using; and I could (and
probably will) get a retinal-scan pass that allows me to cross between Canada and the US faster. (In fact, most of the
time when I think about violations of privacy it’s North American foreign policy, not my blog, that I see as the
biggest problem.)
Of course, all of this could change quickly if I found out someone was using my identity for nefarious
purposes. But I also think that banks and authorities are much more aware of identity theft these days, making it
much easier to mount a defense if you’re innocent. And that’s a major factor for me: Twenty years ago, if someone
had known as much about me as a casual surfer could find out today, they could walk into a bank and take my
money and I’d have a hard time proving it wasn’t me. Now, banks have insurance and the onus is on them to prove
it. So I guess a third reason I’m not as concerned is that there are legal and civil mechanisms in place to allow me to
reconcile theft more quickly. ” (Plazes – Alistair, US)
“Intellectually I do, practically I do not since I don’t currently have any stalkers...” (Plazes – Ted, US)
“No not really, if any fears I’d have would be the love-hate I have for the vary idea. I love the idea of being
connected; let my friends know where I am, and let me know where my friends are... But the idea of people I don’t
know bothers me sometimes. And yet part of the whole thing is to meet knew people, and I guess that’s life, to try to
connect to people and meet or do new things and what not. Really, I don’t have any fears about it or the internet in
general, to include MySpace or Facebook, or even Live Journal.” (Dodgeball – Albert, US)
“Early on there were issues with privacy, but to date I haven’t really noticed any privacy issues. I only tell Dodgeball
where I am when I am open to having others around.” (Dodgeball – Doug, US)
“So far, there have been no real privacy concerns, but there are plenty of times when I don’t ‘check in’ because I
don’t want some people in my circle to know where I am. You could block that person, but they’d find out through
deduction that you blocked them.” (Dodgeball – Grellan, US)
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Social networking websites and locative media, Eva Kol, 22 January 2007
“I’ve never had a privacy issue with anything on Meetro.” (Meetro - QueenJean, 32, US)
“Nee, heb ik geen problemen mee. Ze mogen weten waar ik zit. Ik kan wel zien hoe ver iemand van mij vandaan
woont, maar niet in welke richting. Privacy is wat mij betreft wel goed geregeld.” (Meetro – Marco, 33, Netherlands)
“Nee nooit. Het is ook niet zo’n heel drukbezocht medium, dus minder kans op plaaggeesten. Je kan helemaal zelf
bepalen in hoeverre je je gegevens opgeeft.” (Meetro – Wouter, Netherlands)
Have you experienced any interesting kind of Dodgeball/Plazes/Meetro-moment?
“It is amusing to sit in a restaurant or cafe and see that another Plazes person is there too. Some Plazes friends have
commented knowing that two other Plazes users are in the same place. It is amusing to receive an email from
someone you know who is 1000’s of kilometres away who tells you to look around a restaurant because so & so is
there.” (Plazes - Raymond, Canada)
“Last March when I was in NYC I ‘plazed’ the location I was at and instantly got a message from some people close
by. Turns out they are running office space not to far away, so we met up for drinks that night. (…) it’s good to see
how ‘digital life’ can connect ‘real life’ so easily.” (Plazes - Till, 24, Germany)
“18 Months ago I was at a conference in New York. I arrived a day before the conference started for a workshop. I
was the first to log on to the Wi-Fi and so I got to name the plaze. When the conference started, somebody who is a
capacity in social software and [who] I admire saw my name tag and burst out ‘so you are Lars’ - he had expected to
name the plaze. We got talking and he is now a good friend; although we weren’t connected at the time, Plazes broke
the ice.” (Plazes – Lars, UK)
“One that’s kinda geeky. Plazes uses the MAC address on a device, plus its IP address, to identify a location. I work
with a big industry tradeshow called Interop that was around at the start of the Internet (www.interop.com.) It’s not
well known, but in the early days of the net, they split the millions of addresses up into 256 chunks (known as Class
A subnets.) So an IP address beginning 192.1.2.3 uses the ‘192 Class A network’. Well, Interop was a big user of
addresses, so they got a whole class A to themselves. That’s a HUGE number of addresses - 16 million or so. Back
then, they didn’t think there would be a shortage. Anyway, I tagged a plaze at Interop in Las Vegas a couple of years
ago. Then the show moved on to Australia. And it brought its IP addresses with it (which would never happen NOBODY carries an IP address around the world.) Which is why sometimes it looks like I’ve been to Australia in
my profile... ” (Plazes – Alistair, US)
“I’ve met a guy who lives one state away through Meetro. Although he doesn’t live here, we became good friends
and talk every day.” (Meetro – Kimberley, 29, US)
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