Foursquare and the ALA Conference

Many of us will be playing with checking into Foursquare at ALA this week and next. Oh yeah, it’s just playing. That’s how we learn. Geo services were a big thing at Computers in Libraries in April and at SLA in NOLA in June. And, we’ll be playing with Gowalla, QR Codes and more at ALA too. I want to find some augmented reality stuff to play with in DC too. Any ideas?

Anyway, it’s through this playful interaction (which is anything but frivolous) that we learn and generate ideas. It’s not the only way to invent and get insights but it works for me (and quite a few other library folk).

I like to think that there are plenty of things that library land can benefit from with respect to geo-location services. Both Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook are or will be geo-location enabled soon. After all, we have branches because location is important to our service model. We exist on campus because location is important. Location may be decreasing in importance with the virtual information experience but it’s not going away.

So, let’s play and share what we learn. I see libraries already doing contests using geo-location services. I’ve seen people work hard to acquire mayorships and badges – simple forms of non-monetary, non-transferrable personal rewards. I certainly see application here for inexpensive rewards for progressing through information literacy modules.

Foursquare Check-In Stickers Coming To A Store Window Near You (Video)

“How can Foursquare get more people to check into places as they go about town? One way is stickers. Next month you will start to see stickers in storefront windows reminding Foursquare users to check in and unlock specials. Foursquare’s director of business development Tristan Walker flashed one of the stickers in front of my camera when I was visiting the New York offices earlier today.”

Either way, if you get the chance, play along with us at ALA or play along at home! You can easliy commit to play for a week or two and then let your account go dormant or play more over the summer. We can all learn together – and stay ahead of the consumer / user pack.

I can see a day when we’ll have stickers for libraries as well as badges at conferences just for fun and collegiality.

Stephen