Begin forwarded message:
> MingleNow - social networking that mingles online and offlineBy > foremski on culture watch > By Tom Foremski for Silicon Valley Watcher > > I just got an early briefing on an interesting idea for social > networking coming out of BlueLithium, the online advertising agency > headquartered in San Jose, CA. It's an idea developed in Blue > Lithium Labs, the R&D component of the business, to solve some > social networking problems of their own. > > "We've earned a reputation for hosting some great parties and we > wanted to put some of that experience to work in this venture," > says Dakota Sullivan, chief marketing officer at BlueLithium. > > This is the overview: people register with MingleNow and say where > they hang out, which bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. The site will > have a very large national database of nearly every social place. > Users will also be able to create their own places such as a corner > of a college campus, or a camp at Burningman. > > "There will be a page for every place that exists in the real world > and you'll be able to see pictures of the people to go to that > place," says Mr Sullivan. > > One of the goals/solutions is to figure out where your friends are > going to be hanging out, which clubs, parties etc; it will show > which places they have committed to going. "That makes it easier to > decide where to go when you are planning your weekend," says Mr > Sullivan. > > Another aspect of this venture is the belief that the places where > people hang out says a lot about their personalities and the things > that they like. This makes it easier for people to "mingle" online > and offline with like-minded others. > > Also, restaurants and bars and clubs would be able to get feedback > on menu changes, for example. And to build communities around their > businesses. > > Users would be able to rate those places and also rate each other > for flakiness (not turning up at an event when you said you would). > And users could compete for "VIP" status by inviting friends and > being active in the online/offline community. > > The public beta of MingleNow will be rolled out later in August, > nationwide, you can preregister now. And after the US roll out, the > United Kingdom is the next target. > > MingleNow already has some investors interested in the venture, > which will become a standalone entity. For now, BlueLithium will > incubate the project. > > Krishna Subramanian, is the lead developer of MingleNow, he was a > former club promoter so has a lot of experience in these social > areas. "We will also add a dodgeball type function to mobile > platforms so that people can tell their friends where they are > located," says Mr Subramanian. > > He adds that there will be RSS feeds available for nearly every > data point in MingleNow, allowing users to aggregate the > information in many ways. > > SVW's take: It's an interesting approach to social networks and > Blue Lithium is taking the right approach by overlaying the online > and offline worlds. There are several issues to deal with, such as > the private versus pubic nature of the information, the trust > aspect of the users with each other, and the gaming that will > inevitably occur in the competitive restaurant/bar/club business. > > It is an idea that could be extended to other businesses such as > dental offices, even schools, any physical location. It will be > interesting to see how groups of users will interact with MingleNow > and the direction it takes might not always be the most obvious one. > > Different uses might appear in different geographies. If the > MingleNow platform is versatile enough, it will be able to > accommodate many different groups of users. I'm looking forward to > trying it out. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@forums.nyu.edu/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@googlegroups.com/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
