Practicum 7-Foursquare

For my last practicum post I wanted to share my experience with posting information on Wikipedia. I looked over all the material already on the webpage for Foursquare and saw that there was nothing about the "Specials" that many people use Foursquare for. I decided to add some information about the Specials right underneath the Brands heading since they are somewhat similar. I just added what I knew about the specials from using the app all semester, such as how many businesses are associated with it, what they actually are, and some examples of specials. I had never put information on Wikipedia before and thought it was kind of cool to see my own information on an actual website.

Overall I thought this was a very interesting project and something that I have never done in any other class. I think it's important to keep up with the increasing technology that surrounds us today because it is only going to get more and more advanced as time moves forward. I think that studying this type of thing is very helpful for college students to learn and understand because it is something that we use everyday and will continue to use more and more.

Practicum 6-Foursquare

For my 6th blog post I thought I'd check out the desktop-based Foursquare website and see if I could find anything new. I decided to check out their blog which I found had new updates for the month of April. Most of the updates were about new badges that Foursquare was introducing. Some of them included the twin city badges for St. Paul and Minneapolis, Earth Day badges for getting out to run or bike, badges for Greek organizations and the newest one the Graduation badge. I thought the Graduation badge was particularly cool since I'll be graduating in May. So I will most definitely be "checking in" at my graduation ceremony on Foursquare to get this badge!

Practicum 5-Foursquare

I just replied to one of the comments left on my last practicum post about how "creepy" the idea of Foursquare really is and that it is a bit concerning. I do agree with this statement to a certain point because checking in everywhere you go is kind of dangerous when you think about it. Anyone can know where you are and locate you at anytime. Yet I do think there are a few arguments that could be made:

First, you do not have to share your location with anyone if you don't want to. There is a choice to share it on Foursquare, Facebook or not at all. So basically if you check-in and do not share your location you are just checking in for the check-in points.

Second, you choose who are your friends on Foursquare. Obviously you would not friend some random person on Facebook that you don't know. Well the same goes for Foursquare-I do not friend anyone who I don't know and I only friend people whom I've comfortable with and don't really care if they know where I am.

Yet, I understand that this does seem risky to some and that the fact that people are constantly updating where they check-in could get a bit annoying, but I don't see much of a difference between checking in on Foursquare and updating your status on Facebook. Do you? 

Practicum 4-Foursquare

For my practicum update I thought I'd share with you my experience with the Specials feature. Foursquare features over 750,000 businesses that offer specials when you "check-in" to their place. One of the really good deals I found in the Madison area was at Moe's Tavern and Grill. The check-in special was one free tap of Duff beer. I thought this was a pretty good deal and went in and checked in and told my waitress and she brought me a free beer. It was pretty sweet. I ended up ordering a few more drinks with my friends but the free beer was really cool. And best of all you could unlock the special every time you checked in! So if you went there everyday and checked in you could get a free beer! Very cool, and a great marketing tool for businesses that are just starting out or want to bring in more/new customers.

Practicum 3-Foursquare

It has been awhile since I last shared my experiences with the Foursquare app. Here is my current profile status:

Above show examples of some of my hard earned badges

-I have 5 friends
-I am at 169 check-ins
-I have 5 badges, which include the Newbie, Adventurer, Explorer, Local, and Super User badge

I have realized that with this certain locative and social network device it is really hard to use and benefit from when I do not have a lot of friends to connect with. Although I have many friends, I only have a few that are on Foursquare, and many of those friends live in states other than Wisconsin. It really doesn't do much to see that my friend is at a Starbucks in Orlando, FL...so my goal for my next post is to get a few more friends connected and start to really use the app for what it was built for-to connect and share with friends while exploring new places.

Since I will be presented on my practicum project tomorrow in class here are some questions to ponder:

From what you know about Foursquare right now, would you want to use this app or an app like this one? If so, what would be your biggest use for it? If you could add an additional feature to the app, what would it be?

You can answer one or all of the questions, I'd love to hear some of your responses!

Practicum 2-Foursquare

My practicum project and overall Foursquare use has been a struggle to say the least. I try to check-in to every place I go, but sometimes I just forget and other times I find it pointless, like checking into Vilas 4 times a day. But my profile so far doesn't look too terrible-I've got 45 check-ins, 5 badges, no mayorships, and my most explored category is Bars (no surprise there). I've got 3 friends, 1 of which I do not know because my friend decided to push "Add Friend" to this random person who friended me so now I am "following" Joe B from Chicago. He comments on the places I go sometimes which is kind of weird since I don't know him...but anyway so far I'm still trying to just keep at it. Hopefully I will get some good deals at places or some new badges soon. I'll keep you all posted!

Practicum 1-Foursquare

So this is my first post for the practicum assignment. I wanted to have a few weeks to try it out before posting anything about it. My experience with the locative service Foursquare has been an interesting one to say the least. Let me first tell you all about the Internet service first. Foursquare is a locative service that lets you “check-in” to any place that you are. You can see where your friends are, explore new places, and even get discounts and specials at certain places. Although this service has a lot on it and may seem to be useful to some, I do not yet feel this way. I only have 2 friends on Foursquare and both of them do not use it on a regular basis, so really I am just checking into places for no reason. Since none of my friends are actually on Foursquare it really has no use to me because I cannot see where they are or meet up with them somewhere. So I guess the only use it has for me is the discounts and specials that “checking-in” to a place will get me, yet so far I have only received one special and that was 20% off at bar in Chicago. Hopefully more of my friends will join and I can really experience all of what Foursqaure offers.