Read Part I of the Freshly Baked @ Foursquare Ideas series.
This is Part II of the Freshly Baked @Foursquare Ideas series. In this post, we focus on exploration...particularly around events.
Exploration (or discovery) is core to Foursquare's model. You only have to view the homepage (...Find your Friends. Unlock Your City) or play with the latest 3.0 update (which features an Explore tab) to realise the value that's been placed on exploration.
Currently, users explore via direct search or through filters (food, coffee, nightlife, shops and arts & entertainment) and the Foursquare recommendation engine returns a list of locations to the user. But whilst searching for locations is an effective means to explore a city, it's just one angle, one approach.
Imagine if Foursquare were to partner with an events network such as Plancast or Yahoo Upcoming. This would add a new dimension to a user's experience of exploring their city. No longer would users just explore by locations (already added in the Foursquare ecosystem), but by upcoming events (e.g. art exhibitions, flea markets, food markets, live music gigs, etc) as well.
Imagine this:
You're in New York City and you have nothing planned for Sunday.
You load the Foursquare app to explore what's happening.
You're presented with a list of events on Sunday along with their opening hours and tips.
You see that the Brooklyn Flea Market is open till 5pm, at Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You also notice that four of your Foursquare friends have already been there.
Finally you read the tip, "Check out the bank vault whilst you're there...you'll be in for a treat!".
You add this to your to-do list, throw on a jacket and head out to check the markets.
Exploring by events...A simple, yet a new and powerful way to explore a city.
No longer will you miss out on an event of interest to you. No longer will you have to read another pocket-size pamphlet or visit another external website to list upcoming events. The beauty with this solution is that the entire exploration experience from planning to physical check-in is all contained seamlessly within one convenient environment for the user: the Foursquare app.
Below is just a sneak preview of the Foursquare Events prototype I've been developing. I've viewed the 'Events' feature as an entirely new Foursquare product offering and have thought through some of the workflows.
Currently, Foursquare allows users to check into one location at a time.
A local cafe. A new kitsch bar. A grubby metro station.
But what if Foursquare supported check ins to more than just locations? What if Foursquare supported check ins to major modes of transportation.
A flight. A cruise liner. An interstate train.
What I find interesting about this idea is that it opens up a new dimension to Foursquare. No longer are you bound to just one location at any one point in time. By checking into a major mode of transportation, you're now interacting with an object that ties multiple locations together - your origin and your destination. I think this could have major business implications as it could enable Foursquare to widen its service offerings in the future to both the consumer and business markets.
Let's look at checking into major modes of transportation as an example. Users are already doing this - they're just treating it as another legitimate location. How many times have you seen some flight/cruise/train code, an AA33, a QF108 or an OA815 (only if you're in LAX), already entered in Foursquare? Whilst confusing at times (surely checking into the airport tarmac isn't legitimate) it does confirm one thing: people are already familiar with checking into modes of transportation. From a UX perspective, it's somewhat reassuring to know that this behaviour is already part of a user's mental model of Foursquare.
My own personal user journey for this use case would look like:
I'm at JFK and I check into flight AA33.
Foursquare confirms this is the JFK -> LAX bound flight.
I am able to read up on LAX and am presented with useful data about my flight (e.g. whether it is on time or delayed, departure gate, etc.) and my destination location: LAX. In this case, I would expect to be presented with data such as the location of airline lounges, transfer gates, customs offices, rest rooms. I may even be presented with the different forms of local transport (train/bus/cab) and estimated rates (e.g. the cab fare from LAX to Downtown LA). And all this occurs in addition to the tips functionality that exists on the current Foursquare platform. Imagine how powerful and relevant this would be for travellers!
LAX is 'cached' on a quick-access list, so when I land and get mobile coverage, it immediately pops up for a rapid fire check in.
In this simple example, it is clear that the user group that is benefitting is the consumer group. They're benefitting from the useful and relevant data...and this occurs because we've shifted focus from a single location to an object (a mode of transportation) that ties multiple locations together simultaneously.
But what about the business group? I can feel people itching to know how this service could be monetised. I think this service is perfectly aligned with the travel guide industry - and if the recent Guardian article on Foursquare is anything to go by, it appears that Foursquare is perfectly lined up to enter this particular industry. But rather than competing against the travel guide giants, I'd recommend partnering with them (at least for the short term). Lonely Planet (@lonelyplanet) is infamous for it's PDF guides of cities, and it's pre-planned sight-seeing routes. Foursquare could be leveraged as a distribution network for Lonely Planet.
Just imagine this: Foursquare confirms that flight AA33 is bound for Los Angeles. You've never been to LA before, so Foursquare offers a $10 mobile guide to Los Angeles with all of the travel hot spots laid out on the map within the native Foursquare mobile app. Pretty neat huh? Foursquare could charge a retainer fee for being the distribution network and a percentage cut of every transaction made. Obviously, issues will have to be ironed out with pushing travel guides only when its relevant (i.e. only when users are travelling for holidays). This is just one minor example of a new revenue stream for Foursquare just by focusing not on a single location, but an object (a mode of transportation) that links multiple locations together simultaneously.
I've calculated that since the start of 2010, I've averaged at least one flight a week with business. I also know I've personally added my weekly flights as locations on Foursquare (for both points and mayorship purposes). Crowley (@dens), please don't hate. I've seen other commuters check into my faux-locations too! But if randoms and I are checking into these faux locations...doesn't this mean something?
So readers, I'd be keen on hearing your thoughts. Do you think this functionality would be useful? What other travel-related functionality would you like to see on Foursquare? Drop me a comment below with your opinions!
After much deliberation, I gave in to creating a Foursquare account. The reason for my hesitant uptake boils down to one reason: I don't think it's a great investment of one's time. Stripping away the badges and points (which makes the game engaging for users), it's just Twitter...only for your location. However, after test-driving it, I've discovered that Foursquare is not just a game. It has immense, untapped potential to shift the community closer towards the 'real-time web' and make Augmented Reality a mainstream reality, rather than the experimental project it currently is.
For those who aren’t familiar with the ‘real-time web’, here is a nice primer.
THE CURRENT PROBLEM
With the ‘real-time web’ in mind, I want you to consider Google Street View. I think that one of the largest obstacles for Google Street View is the validity of its image data, i.e. how contextually relevant the data is. Have you ever looked at Google Street View and noticed that the Street View Environment sometimes differs to your real environment? A new road isn't present on Street View as it was just constructed. A house is different coloured to what it is now. A business is present on Street View and it doesn't exist now. These discrepancies exists because the image data Google stores is directly reflective of the period in time in which it was captured. In the context of Sydney, Australia, the data is reflective of the environment prior to August 2008 (when the images of Australia were introduced). Yes, Google will be doing another sweep over the city (which will be an expensive and laborious task), but that's not the point. The point is that the environment changes significantly over a year - businesses have come and gone on the same property lot (multiple times over), whilst buildings have been demolished and erected. These changes aren't reflected within the image data provided by Google Street View.
A couple months ago, at the TechCrunch 50 conference , I thought that a solution to this obstacle existed. A Japanese company, Tonchidot, presented its product called the 'Sekai Camera'. For those unfamiliar with their product, basically, it's Augmented Reality based off tagging the entire world.
Here's quick video clip, in their Q+A session with the TechCrunch 50 panel.
For me, two key questions can be extracted from that Q+A session.
"How do you get people on board [to tag the entire world]?"
"When everything has moved around and all the data has changed how do you deal with it?
FOURSQUARE: THE (POTENTIAL) SOLUTION
And so, here I bring to you the potential of Foursquare and the power of crowd sourcing.
How do you get people on board to tag the entire world?
Foursquare's model is all about exploring new locations (on top of existing locations) in a fun, and more importantly, addictive manner. The community is totally immersed in a competitive environment (that's healthy...so far) to acquire more points or out-do each other by sporting more badges. And the only way to get these? Explore your city and continuously add new locations to your city. If a thousand monkeys working with a thousand typewriters are said to be able to write the greatest novel known to man :P, it does seem somewhat more of a reality that the entire world can be tagged.
When everything has moved around and all the data's changed how do you deal with it.
Whilst this serves to be Google Street View's largest obstacle, it forms the fundamental framework on which Foursquare operates off. If data has changed, a foursquare will simply just add a new location. No biggie. Plus, there's a massive bonus for Google, Australia as it will be able to significantly reduce its operational costs associated with Google Street View.
Imagine the endless possibilities if Foursquare were to be mashed up with Google Street View, and having this data back a product like the Sekai Camera.
CURRENT OBSTACLES
Unfortunately, there are several obstacles that are preventing this from becoming a reality. Many other blog posts and articles have already covered the potential privacy issues associated with Foursquare, and as such, I wish not to rehash this.
1. Currently, Foursquare users don't have the ability to directly edit locations. As a result, a mistake on behalf of the user can impact the validity of the system. A perfect example is the location of Fitness First Gym, Maroubra Junction, which has been located incorrectly in the Sydney CBD on George St (see image below).
2. Currently Foursquare allows for multiple entities to reside at a unique address. For example, 15 Broadway, Ultimo has two different results: the University of Technology, Sydney and SuperTAFE. If we truly want to move towards a real-time web, there must be a mechanism to facilitate the processing and validating updates to the data set.
3. Essentially this (potential) solution is based off the notion of crowdsourcing. As such, the success of the project is dependent on trusting that the community will provide accurate data and will operate together towards the common goal.
Whilst I know I haven't identified every single obstacle, and that my idea of the untapped potential of Foursquare may not be bullet-proof, I do believe that it's one side of Foursquare that definitely plays in its favour of becoming potentially the next 'big' market mover.
Let's just wait a couple more years and see what eventuates.
Read Part I of the Freshly Baked @ Foursquare Ideas series.
