Visualising Foursquare. Scary. Cool.
I can fairly safely assume that I've lost my marbles by writing this post - but hey, one doesn't get to truly understand a space without diving in head first. That said, I stumbled across some interesting uses of the FourSquare API today (an API is basically a way of giving someone else permission to use your Foursquare data in other applications, visualisations or tools).
This one is called WeePlaces (click here to see my map or scroll down for the embed). It visualises your Foursquare Check Ins (all the interesting and uninteresting places you've been to over the past couple of months) in a moving timeline.
I really don't know what this means from a business point of view - but it's both cool and extremely scary. While you can't pinpoint where I live, you can definitely figure out the general area. And I'm sure deeper analysis of the time of these check ins will let you predict where I'm going to be at certain times. Humans are victims of routine after all.
The vast quantity of data that we are putting "out there" is frightening. I realise this, and am happy to live with the consequences (most likely not much at this point). But I worry about the people that don't understand or realise what they're doing. Privacy may actually be dead. I should strap a camera to my head and be done with it.
All I need is a stalker now to give you, dear reader, a slightly more balanced view!
Anyhoo - enjoy an innovative and visual showcase of the power of location based services.
This one is called WeePlaces (click here to see my map or scroll down for the embed). It visualises your Foursquare Check Ins (all the interesting and uninteresting places you've been to over the past couple of months) in a moving timeline.
I really don't know what this means from a business point of view - but it's both cool and extremely scary. While you can't pinpoint where I live, you can definitely figure out the general area. And I'm sure deeper analysis of the time of these check ins will let you predict where I'm going to be at certain times. Humans are victims of routine after all.
The vast quantity of data that we are putting "out there" is frightening. I realise this, and am happy to live with the consequences (most likely not much at this point). But I worry about the people that don't understand or realise what they're doing. Privacy may actually be dead. I should strap a camera to my head and be done with it.
All I need is a stalker now to give you, dear reader, a slightly more balanced view!
Anyhoo - enjoy an innovative and visual showcase of the power of location based services.
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