Almost a month ago, I organized the first ever Vancouver Brightkite users meetup, and we got 5 people to come out, as well as some people who had Brightkite accounts but may not have known there was a meetup. My tentative attempts to lure people from the GeoWeb 2009 conference failed miserably. I was able to distribute some t-shirts and stickers, and still have quite a few left for those who are interested. If you're in Vancouver, email me your shirt size and I can hook you up. One person was out of town during the official meetup, though she and I did eventually have coffee (she resides in my hometown, so we had at least that in common). A few others expressed interest in a subsequent meetup, so that might be something we can do in the near future when it it starts getting dark earlier. If you're a Brightkite user and want to express interest in a future meetup, post a comment in the Brightkite meetup t-shirts and stickers and beer photo.
Brightkite
Two of my favourite things: Brightkite and beer!
Followers of @justagwailo, my automated ephemera Twitter account, know that I'm a frequent user of a service called Brightkite. Brightkite is a social web application that lets people check into physical locations with the intention of socially interacting online. With Twitter integration (you can have checkins, notes, and photos automatically post to Twitter with customizable text), it's an "where I'm at" application which also shows you who has checked in nearby. You can get SMS notification of nearby Brightkite users, and even set privacy settings so that only friends see your exact location and others see a more general city or municipality as your current location. The Brightkite iPhone app makes checkins easy, giving you the option to search for something if it isn't in the "pick a place" listing, using the built-in GPS to find out what's nearby.
On the heels of the successful Brightkite meetups in Berlin and Austin and the BayArea, the team at Brightkite wrote some helpful hints on organizing a Brightkite meetups, spurring me into action to organize one for the Vancouver area.
(I should note that I'm in no way affiliated with Brightkite. I'm just a frequent user.)
In a couple of weeks, Vancouver will host the Geoweb 2009 Conference, though I won't be attending. I would like to invite those who use Brightkite in the Lower Mainland, as well as people who are interested location-based online social interaction tools to join me at The Irish Heather at 7:00 PM on the 28th of July. (That date conveniently happens to be my birthday.) I'd be interested in doing a short introduction to Brightkite, and talk about the future of location-based online social interaction (one word: games).
I see Brightkite as an interesting way to explore a city and expand people's social network. I can also see roadblocks to the effectiveness Brightkite and its ilk, and would like those interested in discussing mapping, social activity online, and collaboratively mapping the world to join me in a week and a half to see where things are going.
Did I mention I'll have Brightkite t-shirts and stickers to give away? RSVP at the Yahoo! Upcoming event listing (understanding that the address is 212 Carrall, not 217 as listed there).
On Friday at 3:00 PM, I'll speak very briefly about the subject of microblogging at Northern Voice 2009. My slides, in typical very minimalistic form, are done. For those interested in Twitter (and some of its related tools), as well as the location-centered Brightkite, I plan on spending talking for about 15 minutes discussing both the concept and the tools, then opening up the session, only a half-hour long in total, to conversation and questions.
