So, what are you doing? That seems to be the question of choice nowadays, with the popularity of mobile real-time updating and location-aware tool skyrocketing in recent months. By now, we've all surely heard of the behemoths of this new industry such as Twitter and Facebook. But given the rapid ascent many of these services have enjoyed, it stands to reason that the potential of this type of communication has only marginally been explored.

Enter Foursquare. Developed by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai in New York City, Foursquare plays out as an interactive game that spans the particular urban locale that the user happens to be in. Players "check-in" via mobile phone when they visit various spots around town, earning points and eventually badges to show off for their efforts. Go to a spot more than any other Foursquare users? Well, then you are the Mayor of that location, earning a virtual crown for your persistence.

The service's creators unveiled their baby five months ago at Austin's SXSW, and since it has spread to 21 cities worldwide. While it has expectedly taken off more quickly in places such as NYC, LA, SF and Minnesota's Twin Cities, Foursquare has outstanding potential in virtually any metropolitan locale worldwide. The game transforms each city into a living and breathing version of the Legend of Zelda, according to Crowley. But the 21st century version replaces Hyrule's caves and crannies with dipping into and out of bars, clubs, museums and restaurants to collect the game's booty.

The Hive Mind

Think of this as a social form of open-source software, with a person or group's relationship with a city and its attractions growing exponentially along with those of like-minded players. The collective conscious of Foursquare users in a particular city has the chance to improve based on the input of each individual user. The most interesting things will get noticed because people will mention them as such. And who knows, maybe an interactive game such as this may even encourage people to venture outside of their regular stomping grounds and go discover some new stuff?

SocialGreat.com

Already playing Foursquare? Then you might want to check out the web site SocialGreat.com. Many Foursquare users have complained that the stats the service compiles simply don't do enough. While it may be satisfying to look at the weekly leaderboard and see your score towering over those of your friends, Foursquare does not keep stats for individual places. Or stats before the current week. SocialGreat solves this problem, though, providing the hottest local spots over the past hour, day, week or all-time.

Other cool Foursquare nuggets:

Want to check in to a place to earn the points or make strides toward unlocking a badge, but don't want to broadcast to the world exactly where you are? No sweat — you can go "off the grid," getting all the benefits of a check-in without letting anyone know where you are. Kinda sneaky.

Badges are meant to be created by the local players. NYC players who have over 30 check-ins within the Kings County borough earn the "Brooklyn 4 Life" badge. Regular SF taco truck patrons will earn the tasty-looking badge seen at right. The possibilities for these in each own particular city are limited only by the imaginations of the players.

Have fun. Get competitive with it. Discover new things and encourage those around you to do the same. Play Foursquare. It's the next big thing.

Further reading:

— The Business Insider

— The New York Times

— Wikipedia article

| More

I was wading through all of the new social media tools that have been popping up to address content updates across multiple networks, and I came across some great resources that will make your life much easier.

First and foremost I recommend everyone reference a great post over on Freelance Folder called 35+ Social Media Tools That Make Life Easier for the definitive list. I just wanted to narrow that list down to the top 5 Social Aggregators I personally found most useful in real world application.

As more and more and more organizations are beginning to utilize social networks to promote their goods or services, they are learning how time consuming it can be to manage and update 5 or more separate accounts. As a developer and business owner myself, any tools that can streamline these tasks are always high on my radar.

Here is my list of Top 5 Social Aggregators:

Yahoo Pipes

Yahoo Pipes is exactly what it says "...a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.". Think about that, and you can understand why it is number one on my list. After playing with this tool for over 3 months, the possibilities of this new service could be huge for small businesses.

Flock

Some of Flock's strongest features are in it's flexibility to share and manipulate different types of media within the browser. If you are into sharing media with your friends, flock is for you.

FriendFeed

FriendFeed is a service that makes it very easy to share with friends online. It offers a fun and interactive way to discover and discuss information among friends. Some of the integrations and niche features FriendFeed offers, particularly for Facebook, make it very useful.

Ping.fm

One of my personal favorites so far is Ping.fm. That is not to say that Ping.fm is the absolute best, but based on experience, I believe it is one of the best web based Social Aggregators available.

Minggl

Minggl is a great toolbar that allows you to interact with all your contacts from one place, including status updates, friend categories, private messages, and scatter messages across the web from one place. So far, it does offer a bit more than Google's Friend Connect.

| More

As if next weekends Wordcamp 2009 wasn't enough technophilia for one week, Facebook Developers Dallas is also holding a Developer's Garage at the Crescent Hotel here in Downtown Dallas. The event was described as...

"A half-day of presentations and discussions by web developers, social-media veterans and Facebook employees about how to best utilize Facebook and social-media for technical, business and marketing purposes. The networking scene will be phenomenal.

This event always draws the cream of the crop from the entrepreneurial and marketing communities in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Bryan-College Station..."

This meeting will cover two different tracks:

-Developing for Facebook Platform & Facebook Connect
-Marketing/Business Opportunities

Covering:
-Facebook Pages
-OpenStream API
-Facebook Connect
-Facebook Connect for iPhone
-Social Metrics
-App Verification Program
-fbFund
-and more...

For more information, head over to the Facebook Developer Garage Page (Click Here)... Strap your nerd goggles on... its about to get ugly!

| More

For all you Wordpress heads out there, Wordcamp Dallas 2009 is coming up next week. Founded in 2008, the organization formed a Meetup Group with over 200 users in the DFW area, and boasts one of the 2nd largest meetup groups for Wordpress in the world.

This event is poised to be one of the biggest CMS events of the summer here in Dallas, with over 300 people expected to be in attendance. This years events will be held at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson. The damage for the two day event is only $30 and they even throw in get a free WordCamp Dallas 2009 t-shirt and free lunch both days! Here is the rundown...

When?
Saturday, June 27, 2009
9:30AM - 5:00PM

Sunday, June 28, 2009
9:30AM - 4:00PM

Where?
University of Texas at Dallas
800 West Campbell Road
Richardson, TX 75080

[Map]

Cost?
USD $30

For more information on tickets, be sure to stop by www.dallas.wordcamp.org

| More

I was researching in complete amazement at the new specs offered in Google SketchUp Pro 7, when I came across this nifty new feature that allows you to embed 3D Models from the Google 3D Warehouse. It's basically a community for people to share their work and knowledge. I am guessing this is to facilitate the eventual 3d mapping of the planet, one person and Google Earth API at a time!

How does Google Sketchup, Google 3D Wharehouse and Google Earth all tie in? One of the most interesting and groundbreaking features, is the ability to build 3D models of existing structures, just like the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Google Skethcup and map them directly into Google Earth. What, what?

Yes, you heard me right. We are now officially mapping a completely virtual, mirror image of our entire planet on the internet. Like some freakish Johnny Mnemonic flash back, but with more nerds. I still don't now how I feel about that completely, but it is undeniably interesting and potentially very useful if used correctly. I will say from their open source practices on countless other projects this type of technology is destined to change the world as we know it. Google continues to amaze me...

| More

Google is at it again, and this time they very well have reinvented the way we all communicate on the internet. What this technology could mean, how it could be used and the fact that it is open source could very well roll in the next "wave" of evolution in web based communication, effectively merging e-mail, project management and instant messaging into group based interactions that can later be played back in the order they progressed. This would be very useful for a large project that required several departments who all had a part to play.

Not only could different departments get the information they need in real time, but account managers, VP's and other higher level executives would have play by play access over the entire animal, being able to identify where things went wrong and adjust accordingly. For developers this is like being a kid in a candy shop, with robust API's, well thought out and organized source code that is easy to work. Oh, did I mention this is FREE!? For more information be sure to stop by the Google Wave Preview.

| More

Without a doubt, Twitter is becoming one of, if not THE latest and greatest way to share updates in the social media landscape. Great! ANOTHER account I have to obsessively update!

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Twitter is one of the fastest growing social network and micro-blogging services on the internet. Their service enables users to send and receive updates, known as "tweets". Tweets are basically text-based postings of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users, known as followers, who have subscribed to their page. Users on Twitter are able to send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or an external application. The service is completely free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur fees through your phones service provider.

In my quest to identify effective techniques to use Twitter, I came across a great article on How to Use Twitter Without Twitter Owning You - http://ping.fm/NAjOU. There are definitely some great tips for anyone out there feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the "Social Clutter". Whatever your approach, I think it is important to never lose sight on what social media is really about. Sincere communication coupled with valuable information, media or data will always be the best formula for building trust and return visitors. Regardless of the vertical market you are in, no bot, intern or link jacking strategy will ever substitute for a genuine person in the know.

In that sense, Social Media as a whole has leveled the playing field a lot more, but unfortunately many business owners are still out of the loop on exactly how to wield this technology to increase their bottom line. They may have heard of it, perhaps on the news or through a colleague, but very few business owners I come across to this day have any idea how to deploy a coherent strategy that actually fruits results.

Finding truly experienced individuals for Social Network Website Design in the Dallas area can be tricky. Because of this, I have decided to introduce a blog series in the coming weeks entitled "Social Media For The Laymen" to further explain this newly emerging paradigm in greater detail to small business owners who are not all that tech savvy, but want to learn more.

We plan on keeping it simple and to the point, with tutorials, whitepapers and more! Stay tuned...

| More

In my Sunday microblogging frenzy, I found a great post for Graphic Designers / Web Developers and other creative professionals looking to save money on their taxes.

Check it out... Designers Dozen: Tax Saving Tips for the Graphic Artist - http://ping.fm/YR6kz

| More

In the world of Web Development there are a lot of available technologies that some companies don't necessarily want you as the consumer to know about. The more in the dark you are about how everything works and what options are available, the more likely they can coral you into a solution that benefits them the most. This, unfortunately has become the Modus Operandi for many web development companies.

If you are considering starting a Social Networking website for example, you should expect a hefty price tag when you request a bid. However, a social network, does not have to be an expensive business venture these days, at least if the developer is honest with you. I wanted to write an article about the options that are currently available and hopefully remove some of the smoke and mirrors for people who are seeking larger, dynamic website developments of this nature.

If you are considering starting a social networking website, you basically have 4 options:

Read More...

| More