Could The Popularity of Social-Networking Be a Key To A Peaceful Time Out?
February 13, 2011
So many social-networking apps exist for enticing or directly inviting friends to the upcoming concert, local bar for a some after work drinks, or even quickly advertising a local sale you happen to come across that hasn't been largely advertised. These actions typically bring people together. However, not every activity is better in groups. Do you really want to be bothered by crowds when visiting a museum, gallery, or while taking a peaceful walk in the park? Of course not, right? Interesting enough, social-networking could be the key to antisocial activity interests.
It all started after Dan Williams read a tweet by Ben Griffiths (@beng)
Hey @NHM_London, we'd like to come visit you again in the next couple of months - on which days will the museum be least busy?That very question gave Dan the idea to create an antisocial activity-focused site called When Should I Visit? When Should I Visit? consists of attendance data for 20 locations in the United Kingdom that would be likely best visited on the least busy of days, and displays graphs of daily averages for a location, plus lists the top five "Most Busy Today" and "Least Busy Today" locations. What's the big deal? When Should I Visit? uses "check-in" data from Foursquare to count attendees. Data is collected a few times per hour using the Foursquare API. Once a week, that information is combined and pushed out to a web-based front-end for users to view. Indeed, this isn't exactly the most accurate prediction. However, Dan is aware of the current limitations and tosses out some improvements that could make this service a more than suitable resource.
To make it more accurate in future I could also collect data from Gowalla and Facebook or allow self reporting from venues. Ideally attendance could be tracked by cameras mounted above museum entrances using computer vision to calculate number of people entering and exiting, such as the systems used in Apple stores. I could also account for attendance changes due to school term, time of year, weather and other factors. This would need more data and a new way of representing the best time to visit.Facebook Places is definitely a good idea, but you could also use data from even another check-in app like Loopt. Dan's idea of camera identification data would be neat, though, I don't foresee many institutions allowing that kind of possible security breach. Mashable posted a few quotes by Mr. Williams and his reflection of the project.
“It’s more of a personal project to see if it’s possible,” he says.
“It’s sort of this class of act that has become popular lately that gives you this really mundane superpower,” Williams says. “Like there are apps that tell you where to sit on the London underground so that you can get off faster, which doors are nearest the exits on the platforms. This is kind of the same. You can go to a gallery when it is slightly quieter. It’s nothing amazing, but it makes city life slightly more pleasant.”When Should I Visit? seems so incredibly simple and obvious, yet, I haven't seen anything like it. I'm now hoping someone takes this idea seriously. If it isn't Mr. Williams, I hope he gets due credit. What are your thoughts? Would you be interested in seeing a dedicated iOS app for this concept, or even such a feature added to one of the current location apps?
