Lately, having given up on my banjo lessons and mock-Fabergé egg crafting, I’ve found myself a new little obsession in the form of a mobile geotagging application called ‘Foursquare.’ It’s an app which gives you points and awards for moving around town, and it’s quite fun.
Here’s how it works: if you were to go to Beach Bum Tanning – as I so often do – and check in using Foursquare, the app would give you points and badges just for being there, and also alert your friends should they be nearby. If you were to be the person who went to the aforementioned tanning salon more days than anyone else – and good luck, because I’m there twice-daily getting my Oompa-Loompa look on – than you would be crowned the mayor of Beach Bum tanning (Bum #1, if you would), and be able to glow for reasons other than a sprayed-on orange sheen.
I digress. Some of you out there might be wondering why I’m dedicating so much print space to software you’ve never heard of. To that, just let me say I am in no way, shape or form being endorsed or paid by the makers of Foursquare. I should also specifically mention that I am, in fact, quite interested in being both paid AND endorsed by the makers of Foursquare. Check out my LinkedIn, Foursquare-Guys!
Shameless self-promotion aside, the application is only about a year old (As the New York Times reported when they scooped me on Monday), and already has about 450,000 users. Even so, it’s not without a few drawbacks, with the first and foremost being one cannot check in without some sort of smartphone. It’s also still very much in beta, and has a few detractors out there, most notably at a website called Please Rob Me; a site superficially-dedicated to helping petty thieves with iPhones burglarize early-adopters. How Christian.
Anyway, maybe these are the reasons why Foursquare is something which hasn’t really caught on at Fairfield yet. The campus profile only lists three other people as having visited here and the current mayor, the Honorable Manny W., has only checked in three times, and none of these seem to have been recent.
I think Fairfield University can do better! This being said, I would proudly like to announce my campaign to unseat Mayor Manny and become the Mayor of Fairfield University myself! Much like my housemate Kyle Duggan, I will not be an official elected by the student body and, much like my good friend Eddie Muniz, I will not be an official with any actual power. What I will be, however, is the best damn mayor this school has ever seen.
Unless Foursquare hires me. If that happens, I’m out of here.
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