Are You Ready For the Location Based Social Networking Era?

We are witnessing a new evolution in the onlineas common as a camera. As a matter of fact, you
world. The "WHO are you" and "WHAT are youcan get your position without a GPS (see Google
doing" is rapidly evolving to "Who are you" "What aremaps) and Location Based Services can simply be
you doing" "WHEN are you doing" and "WHERE areadded as a feature to mass social networks like
you". We can fairly say that the WWW became theFacebook. Location Based Social Networking is not a
WWWW.question of IF, it's a question of WHEN and the when
The When and Where pose many questions, mostis NOW.
of them associated with privacy. For example:The key of the social networks is interaction, and
mobile interaction = money. Who is going to pay the
1. How is the location captured: Automatic by thebill? I address some business models in my personal
system, Others on demand, You on demandBLOG, and the conclusion is that everyone in the
2. What type of location notification: Descriptive textvalue chain has something to gain.The ultimate
(i.e. "At gym", "at Starbucks"), area in a map, zipquestion is "What is the real value for the end user?"
code, exact address, a point in a mapI doubt you can base your business model on the
3. How is the sharing: Reciprocal, one way, only onhope the Facebook / MySpace "exhibitionistic"
authorizationgeneration is ready to buy "stalk/being stalked" as a
4. Location History: Movement patterns, Tracking,main added value.
MonitoringI compiled a list of Location Based Social Networks I
5. Location Ownership: Resale and/or disclose of thevisited while researching for my previous posts. Per
informationrequest of many readers I posted the list in a
But the same concerns for privacy were raisedseparate page (Location Based Social Networks.) The
before we published our family photos and videos togeneral impression I had after putting all of them
the world. The fact is that the accessibility oftogether in one page, is that many of the LBSN are
technology creates communities and services. The"me too" applications, and at this point I can't pinpoint
simplification of web page building facilitated the riseone that present a marketing message with a unique
of communities like FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedINoffer, a distinctive value proposition or main
and others. The commoditization and accessibility todifferentiators from the others.
digital cameras, camcorders, and webcams has pavedSo, are you ready for Location Based Social
the way to communities like YouTube and Flicker orNetworking? Did you find the compelling reason to
services like SnapFish. GPS devices became ashare your location with the world?
commodity, and soon GPS in a cellular phone will be