What good is Foursquare?
 

Several people have asked me "What good is Foursquare?" When I first tried it I wasn't sure if it was worth my time or not, but as with many social media & cloud computing tools you play with it first and then discover how it might be used.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking service (geo-social). It uses GPS to locate nearby places, and participants "check-in" and eventually are awarded badges and mayorships. Friends can be added so your check-ins may be shared. Foursquare can be connected to a Twitter or Facebook account, so your status and comment is posted when you check-in to a venue.

As you visit places you can also add tips or suggestions. For example, I recommended the chicken chipotle sandwich at The Posh Bagel in Mountain View and the chai tea at Tandoori Oven in Los Gatos. It's also fun to be Mayor of places like Mountain View Public Library and the Hungry Hound.

Some businesses see the marketing potential and offer discounts when you visit their establishment or even when you're just nearby. I've taken advantage of a 15% discount on a restaurant bill when I showed my Foursquare check-in.

Organizations are beginning to do more creative things with foursquare - games, tours, etc. A recent blog post, http://mashable.com/2010/04/02/foursquare-brands/ talks about how some organizations are using it. Check it out!

Tadpoles

Recently my husband, Guy, and I rescued a dozen or so tadpoles from a rain-filled, mostly empty fountain. Of course there is no such thing as a free pet. Off we went to the pet store to purchase a small tank and aquatic plants for food. The tadpoles were only about 1/4" long when we first got them. A couple weeks later and they're twice the size.

We've enjoyed watching them scurry around, twitching their "tails" to move. We're also excited about witnessing their transformation from tadpole to frog. It's an almost unbelievable metamorphosis, going from breathing in water to breathing air, trading gills for lungs, growing legs and hopping out of the tank. From egg to tadpole to frog takes a mere twelve weeks. That's a tremendous amount of change in such a short time!

I think tadpoles are inspiring. Humans seem uncomfortable with change, resist it, don't trust it. This amphibian doesn't have a choice but to live through huge changes in the first few weeks of its life! We can learn from tadpoles.