Familiar Strangers and Nearby Friends

filed under Social Netware · 3 comments in the original

Lately it seems that more and more tools and services are released that provide us with the opportunity to dynamically establish and map naturally and socially formed networks..

Here's a roundup of some of the new initiatives/thoughts circulating most recently.

WhoAt.com

I came across this service first at the Social Software Web Log. The WhoAt.com service is strikingly similar to dodgeball, though technologically more accessible, in my opinion. While dodgeball makes use of SMS (text messaging) for communication, WhoAt makes use of WAP, XHTML, SMS, HTML. This provides the user with not only a wider platform for participating in the system but also a richer experience to boot.

Currently, it's running in only San Francisco and New York (which means I can try it out). I'll report more when I get some friends into the system.

Pocket Rendezvous Emerges as Pocketster

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Pocket Rendezvous was set to provide dynamic networking for PocketPC users. Gizmodo reports on the final release of the product:

Razvan Dragomirescu, CTO of Simeda, wrote to let us know that the official version of Pocket Rendezvous, now branded as 'Pocketster,' has been released. Pocketster lets you set up a personal web server on your PocketPC, allowing, among other things, the streaming of MP3 files over WiFi, meaning that connected PocketPCs can become their own streaming networked radio stations. In addition, regular stuff like JPEGs and HTML can be shared, as well. Right now, the free version has been tested only on Windows Mobile 2003 devices (although it may work for Windows Mobile 2002), and messes around with some of the Pocket PC Zeroconf (zero configuration toll) settings to prevent your Pocket PC from trying to connect to your preferred network when Pocketster's ad-hoc network is running. What I'm saying is, don't mess around with this version of Pocketster unless you're willing to potentially screw up (until you edit them back in) some of your wireless settings.

A soon-to-be-released version called 'Pocketster Pro' will allow you to join existing networks without creating an ad-hoc one (and without screwing up your settings) in a few weeks, presumably for pay (although Simeda doesn't say for certain).

Gizmodo, "Pocket Rendezvous Officially Released as 'Pocketster'"

If anyone has a PocketPC and tries to use it, I'd be interested to here more. By the way, why is everyone obsessed with the -ster, Pocketster?

Familiar Strangers

Joe Bartling provides some thoughts and links to tales and research on Familiar Strangers. Joe hits things on the head as he talks about the potential:

The integration of "location-aware" and short-range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, and online, real-time access to information about one's social network (like LinkedIn or Orkut) and familiar strangers, will enable all kinds of interaction between people, from entertainment, such as digital street game, to impromptu business meetings. Intel's Jabberwocky software for MIDP 2.0-compatible phones with Java J2ME support, enables familiar strangers to recognize each other when chance encounters occur. Services such as Dodgeball allows for your current location to be announced to your "friends" and "friends of friends" that happen to be nearby, as long as you live in the 10 cities currently supported by Dodgeball.

Source: Spiderware.com, " Familiar Strangers and “Location-Aware” Social Networking"

[update] Oddly enough, I was editing this post to point out Peter's great list-of-links regarding the mobile social networking efforts when I noticed he was pointing back at me.