Blockies photo graffiti
posted April 19th 2005 10:19AM
We're beginning to think that there are as many cellphone-based location tagging services out there as there
are people interested in using them (there's already
Grafedia, Yellow Arrow,
Siemens' mobile post-it notes, Cell Broadcast, etc.), but
if you can handle one more variation on the theme, there's now also a little something called Blockies. Here's the
scoop: you take a photo with your cameraphone, then put up a sticker with a unique ID number. You then email that pic,
along with the code, to nyc@blockies.com and they link your photo to that location so that anyone who walks by later
can enter the ID number and have your photo automatically delivered to their phone. Limited to New York City (at least
for right now), but in case you were wondering, they will send you the stickers for free.
[Via Near Near Future]
So you see this, like, mega-awesome-keewwl-urban happening, like someone kicking a tramp. You photograph it, Blockies send you a sticker and you litter the place by sticking it up? Great stuff. I couldn't find a disclaimer on the Blockies site to the effect that they advocate only responsible littering.
This city looks like hell. Do we seriously need to give people another lame reason to litter? It's bad enough that they don't bother to clean anything, update sidewalks, or enforce pet waste laws. Forget the fact that the idea is insipid and cheesy.
Boring! A better idea would be to wait for gps in more phones and then launch a global realtime turfwar/tagwar where local gangs could use their phone to piss on their competitors doorstep or leave Your mama jokes at the local mall-coordinates, and then kill each other over it. Yeah! Phat.
wow, comments above make me think someone's bitter about something. i saw some blockies stickers up in the funniest places downtown, "blocking" out some insipid advertisements. The thing is, these kinds of ideas seem like they're about a network, but I think whether they succeed or not will be dependent on the content people actually upload.