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Sep 13

I’m riding on the train – who else is on here?

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I’m riding the UTA Front Runner train from Orem to Downtown Salt Lake this morning, I’ll be riding for a little over an hour.  I’m logged into the train’s wireless to type this and I’m logged in to Facebook at the same time. Facebook has permission to know my location – but guess what?  It has no idea I’m on the train, or if my friends are – but it DOES know who my friends are. So does LinkedIn, Twitter and several other services for that matter.

What if the train was broadcasting some sort of signal that my phone could pick up, or if it embedded a value in my packets that indicated I’m on the train.  Then Facebook would know, Twitter would know, so would LinkedIn.

What if when I got on the train it checked me in to the services I’m logged in to but didn’t broadcast my location publicly – and any of my services could SMS, email or otherwise ping me to let me know my buddies are in the train car behind me on the top floor.

What if LinkedIn let me know that there are five guys sitting around me that all have one person in common – we don’t know each other, but we all know this person.  Then we could easily strike up a conversation about that and get connected on LinkedIn.  What if LinkedIn told me there’s a lady 2 cars back who is trying to hire someone with my skill set?  How cool would it be if I could take a resume out of my bag or bluetooth it to her or whatever.  But, I could walk up to her while we’re idle on the train and start talking to her about it – and maybe have a new gig by the time get to the station.

Did you start reading this thinking that social is all done and built out?

Version 1 is only part way done – we have a LONG way to go!  Foursquare you say?  Maybe – but most people I know don’t use it, especially not this consistently.

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