Here’s an interesting interview by Robert Scoble with Ditto’s founder Jyri Engestrom. Ditto is like Foursquare for the future. You “check in” to where you’ll be. This lets you do a variety of things, including letting people know where you are headed, so they can meet you there. It also lets you start conversations about what you’ll be doing later today. As an early adopter and long-time fan of Foursquare, the following quote from Jyri’s interview struck me as right on the money. He focuses in on the importance of shifting the moment you check in to before you’ve even left, precisely when interactions with the application that lead to discovery are most useful and have the most potential for changing your behavior. Noodle this…
“What I think makes this more useful than Foursquare is that you’re actually catching people at the decision point before they’ve already settled down, because with Foursquare I usually check in once I’ve already sat down, I’ve ordered my latte, I’m at Kuppa Cafe and I’m, like, I should check in on Foursquare, and then I get a special nearby. What are the chances at that point of me getting up and walking across the street? They’re very low. Whereas this is more about “I don’t know where I’m going yet. I havent decided yet. If you can catch people at that decision point, and then spread it not just for location but do it for movies, do it for music, do it for all different categories of social objects, in my mind that’s going to be a huge hit”