Foursquare is one of several different “location based” social media sites. All of these services use the same general premise, users connect with a GPS enabled Smart Phone and “check in” every time they go to a different location. Each has a game element built in so users earn badges, icons, points and other virtual goodies for participating. These services also allow users to attach messages to their checkins giving locations a trail of information that can be accessed by other users.

If that pesky little word, privacy, is buzzing around in your head, I understand. I signed up for Foursquare several months ago and quickly deleted my account. I didn’t like the idea of showing the world where I was every moment of my life and found it annoying to read the status updates of others who did.

The Potential

What brought me back to location? The potential!

Ignore the privacy factor for a moment and consider there is a fast growing list of ways our entire world has changed because of sites like Facebook and Twitter. As user base has grown, the potential to change society with the massive data shared has been realized.

For example, when world media was booted from Iran following a contested election last year, social media became the only place to collect and distribute information from inside that nation. The world watched a government crack down on protesters in real-time through YouTube and Twitter and the unfolding story was shaped almost exclusively by tech savvy protesters willing to share information with the world.

What Makes Location Different?

We have always been able to correlate information created in cyberspace to time but not often location. If someone reports on Twitter “there is an accident on X street” how would a driver about to travel there in the near future get the message? Imagine if warnings, insights, and observations about a location were easily collected and shared with those people who can use the data to make decisions about how to navigate our world.

The information does not have to be the obvious like weather or traffic data but the uniquely intangible human observations like the “mood” or aesthetic of a geographic location. Storing and sharing that data could greatly influence how others view or relate to locations, businesses and brands.

For a ruff and not entirely accurate, but still fun, visual example, see trendsmap.com where Twitter data is mapped over the globe.

Think about the potential this way, we are very rapidly reaching a point where there will be more “sensors” attached to the Internet than people. Devices that include cameras, thermometers, scales, unmanned drones, smartphones, robots, satellites etc. All of these senors are providing us with huge amounts of scientific and mathematical data about our world. Add to them the human sensors who are making observations, lending thoughts, insights, problem solving and number crunching and you can see that the Internet and social media is a massive network of untapped potential.

Privacy

Web sites like pleaserobme.com have received a lot of press. That site was compiling information about users to show how they were broadcasting to potential burglars they were not home. There is no doubt that sharing this much information can be dangerous! At the same time our lives are rarely truly secure. While a potential burglar could see when I am shopping at the grocery store, they could also drive by my home and make informed guesses about the nine hours plus travel I am at work each day.

Linking Your Accounts

For the benefit of your Twitter and Facebook friends, I highly recommend tweaking your settings when you link your other social media accounts to sites like Foursquare.  I personally don’t let  Foursquare send out any messages to my other social media sites because of the information overload it sends to all of my networks. Not everyone on Twitter needs to know when I buy coffee.