Four Square etiquette

[wakela]

Anyone on Four Square?  I've been using it for a few months, and I have to admit it's fun to collect the silly badges and try to become mayor. 

-What do you think of checking in after the fact, i.e. once you've returned home?  What about the next day?

-How long should you spend in a place to check in?  Walk past?  Go in just to browse and kill time?  Go in to buy something, but they don't have it?  Hanging out in front of a store that's not open?

-What about checking in to work or home?  The doctor's office?

I haven't tried the other location-based social networking apps.  How do they compare?

The intent of this post is more to start an interesting discussion than to actually reach any conclusions.

[Listener]

Foursquare is kind of dangerous -- people know when you're not home, and they can track your spending/buying patterns to see if you'd be worth robbing.

As for etiquette, the whole point of it is to check in everywhere you go. My friend @csweigart, the social media director where he works, even checked in at Church before Christmas Mass.

From a personal standpoint, 4sq seems kind of silly. I don't see the point of it, and I don't do it. If you need to know where I am, I'll tweet about it. Plus, you really can't check in from "Powers Ferry Road, stuck in traffic".

A traffic-tracking version of 4sq, however, would be AWESOME. I should invent that.

[wakela]

A traffic-tracking version of 4sq, however, would be AWESOME. I should invent that.

I had read that the smart-phone version of google maps had an option to send your GPS data back to Google, and they agregate the data coming in from all the phones to produce traffic reports based on how fast the phones are moving.  I tried to find a link, but mostly I ended up with articles about web traffic.  But there is this.

[Listener]

A traffic-tracking version of 4sq, however, would be AWESOME. I should invent that.

I had read that the smart-phone version of google maps had an option to send your GPS data back to Google, and they agregate the data coming in from all the phones to produce traffic reports based on how fast the phones are moving.  I tried to find a link, but mostly I ended up with articles about web traffic.  But there is this.

Yeah, unfortunately a lot of those types of apps don't cover side streets.

Nobody invent that. I got a coder and I'm going to do it.

[Bdoomed]

A traffic-tracking version of 4sq, however, would be AWESOME. I should invent that.

I had read that the smart-phone version of google maps had an option to send your GPS data back to Google, and they agregate the data coming in from all the phones to produce traffic reports based on how fast the phones are moving.  I tried to find a link, but mostly I ended up with articles about web traffic.  But there is this.

I always sorta assumed that's how Google Maps gets traffic info.  I always thought it was: "Aw shit I'm stuck in traffic, I'll look at Google Maps traffic on my phone!  What's this?  No info here?  Google sucks."  But then, a few minutes later, after the jam has lasted longer, and more and more people were checking their phones in the same area, some other guy gets stuck: ""Aw shit I'm stuck in traffic, I'll look at Google Maps traffic on my phone!  Aw shit, this traffic jam is huge!  I'm stuck and can do nothing about it, thanks, Google!"  I know that's what I do.  Doesn't make any difference if I know how long the jam is, I'm stuck either way, but I'll check it on my iPhone anyway.  So I always assumed that data went back to Google, and they combined that with regular traffic reports or something like that.

[Listener]

A traffic-tracking version of 4sq, however, would be AWESOME. I should invent that.

I had read that the smart-phone version of google maps had an option to send your GPS data back to Google, and they agregate the data coming in from all the phones to produce traffic reports based on how fast the phones are moving.  I tried to find a link, but mostly I ended up with articles about web traffic.  But there is this.

I always sorta assumed that's how Google Maps gets traffic info.  I always thought it was: "Aw shit I'm stuck in traffic, I'll look at Google Maps traffic on my phone!  What's this?  No info here?  Google sucks."  But then, a few minutes later, after the jam has lasted longer, and more and more people were checking their phones in the same area, some other guy gets stuck: ""Aw shit I'm stuck in traffic, I'll look at Google Maps traffic on my phone!  Aw shit, this traffic jam is huge!  I'm stuck and can do nothing about it, thanks, Google!"  I know that's what I do.  Doesn't make any difference if I know how long the jam is, I'm stuck either way, but I'll check it on my iPhone anyway.  So I always assumed that data went back to Google, and they combined that with regular traffic reports or something like that.

I used to work for Navteq, which provides traffic data. Generally traffic info is made public by state departments of transportation, and sites can hook into that data. Sometimes, third-party vendors (like Navteq) actually place the sensors themselves (as happened in Tampa and Philadelphia) and sell that data to Google or Microsoft or whomever. Accident data can come either from DOTs (as in Florida's case) or third parties who (again) sell the data to the map or GPS provider.

It's actually pretty cool if you're a roadgeek (like I am).

[Fenrix]

I used to work for Navteq, which provides traffic data. Generally traffic info is made public by state departments of transportation, and sites can hook into that data. Sometimes, third-party vendors (like Navteq) actually place the sensors themselves (as happened in Tampa and Philadelphia) and sell that data to Google or Microsoft or whomever. Accident data can come either from DOTs (as in Florida's case) or third parties who (again) sell the data to the map or GPS provider.

It's actually pretty cool if you're a roadgeek (like I am).

There are also companies that will use transponders from fast-pay toll equipment to track travel time. Other companies will aggregate cellular phone travel data from the tower pings and sell that data. And the technology is becoming more affordable for local jurisdictions who want to conduct more significant travel-time data collection on surface streets instead of sticking to interstates. Cobb has sunk a ton of money in ATMS, but I'm not sure where they're at with travel time stuff.

[Seraphim]

Hmmm I always thought Four Square was a Pentecostal Denomination started by Aimee Semple McPherson back in the early 1900s.