Dopplr
The folks at Dopplr, who I have not spoken to directly, have apparently built the 'ships passing in the night' app that I have cried out for for years (see here, for example).
The premise is simple, plug in your travel schedule, and a bunch of traveling fools as your social network, and bingo: you will know who is going to be in some time (or your home town) when you are.
The interface is clean and simple.
Above you see a list of my trips. Note that I can't seem to be able to access the RSS feed. Might be a polling interval issue. Dopplr supports iCal subscription from calendar apps.
Above you see my (tiny) set of pals. At the moment, only Petteri, from Jaiku. He invited me to Dopplr. And he's boring, since he isn't traveling in the near term, although I just met him, here in San Francisco, the other day.
If you click on a specific place, you see a page like this:
I didn't add a note, yet.
Above you see a prospective map of my travels. And below, the same itineraries arrayed in a timeline view:
This last view shows one of the snags, I think. The app seems very day focused: I can't seem to be able to state the time of day that I will arrive somewhere, and that is critical if you are planning to meet for lunch or dinner.
I love the feel of the app, but I will have to wait for a few dozen friends to get into the beta before I can get the feel of it's actual social usage patterns.
And of course, I need the RSS feed to work. So, I am replacing my old timeline, built using 30boxes, with Dopplr, as soon as the RSS is up.
One last note. Dopplr creates a fuzzy version of your photo to display in a public page. Here's the stoweboyd page:
It doesn't look to me like the public page can be disabled at the moment, either.
There is an SMS interface to Dopplr, but you have to text a +44 number, and I decided to wait until they have a US SMS number set up.
More to follow.
If you get an extra invite, this dog wants in! you're right, geographical movement is a great way to stay in touch.
Posted by: Ted R. | March 30, 2007 at 10:41 PM
"And he's boring, since he isn't traveling in the near term..."
You sure know how to motivate a person. After the comment above, I immediately added my next trips... and saw that we happen to be in London at the same time.
Posted by: Petteri Koponeen | March 31, 2007 at 05:00 AM
Very useful for work teams, and for individual professionals with clients and colleagues spread out all over the place and on the move.
Posted by: Jon Husband | March 31, 2007 at 07:11 AM
Hey, have you figured out how to issue invitations yet? A couple of buddies of mine are interested in trying out the alpha, but though the FAQ directs me to My Account, there is no link there to invite folks that I can find...
Posted by: LauraJMixon | March 31, 2007 at 01:47 PM
Ted - Got 10 invites, and you are in!
Petteri - Proof that it works!
Jon - I can see that, but I am happy that it works for a modern nomad like me.
Laura - Then informed me I had 10 invites. I guess it's time related, or something. I have squandered nine already, so I hope they give me more soon.
Posted by: Stowe Boyd | April 01, 2007 at 11:37 PM
Thanks, Stowe. I finally heard back from them. Apparently they have either put a temporary halt to inviting new members, or I got some kind of provisional account... we'll have to see how it unfolds.
Posted by: LauraJMixon | April 02, 2007 at 10:39 PM
WOW! Thanks Stowe. Hope to find some mate that can invite me ;)
Posted by: Lorenzo Strambi | April 04, 2007 at 09:25 AM
Stowe, I am Robert, can you send me an invitation? thanks!
Posted by: Robert | April 22, 2007 at 05:34 AM
Maybe if you still have some invites, you could drop one in my direction? Thanks anyway! ;-)
Posted by: paolo | May 01, 2007 at 01:17 PM