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March 2005 | IEEE Spectrum | NA 59
The Artful—andMobile —DodgerThanks to Dodgeball.com, location-based social networking may be the next cellphone craze BY JAY DIXIT
RESOURCES
When Dennis Crowley wasa student two years ago atNew York University’s Inter-active TelecommunicationsProgram, his social life wasso active that he couldn’tkeep track of all the friendshe wanted to hang out with.So he patched together a
computer program to allow him tosend cellphone text messages to allhis friends at once. “It was fasterto do that than to talk on thephone,” says Crowley.
But he soon realized that send-ing a message to each and everyone of his friends—includingthose who were holed up in thelibrary or out of the state visitingtheir parents—didn’t make muchsense. So he worked out a way tosend a message that would bereceived only by friends within10 blocks of wherever he was atthe moment (more on that later).Then the Friendster.com craze hitin early 2003, in which individu-als using the Web site set up byFriendster Inc., Mountain View,Calif., could join up with friendsand friends of friends to formsprawling social networks. Fol-lowing suit, Crowley teamed upwith Alex Rainert, a fellow NYUgraduate, and added a similarWeb-based interface to his textmessaging program.
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Dodgeball.com founders
Dennis Crowley [left] and Alex Rainert
created a location-based social networking
tool that allows urbanites to link up
while out on the town.
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The result—a mobile social networking tool calledDodgeball—allows young urbanites to link up andmeet face to face when they’re out on the town.Today it boasts 15 000 users in 22 U.S. cities.
Joining Dodgeball means filling out aprofile, posting photographs of yourselfon the Dodgeball Web site (http://www.dodgeball.com), and listing your friendsand their cellphone numbers.
“It’s become a natural part of goingout,” says Kristin E., a 24-year-old printbroker living in New York City. “It’s theeasiest way to let people know where I am.”
When Kristin goes to one of her favoritebars, Local 138, and wants some company,for instance, she sends a text message [email protected] with the text “@ Local 138.”
From Kristin’s point of view, a few things happen. First,a message goes out to all her friends nearby letting them knowwhere she is. Then, she may get a message telling her the loca-tion of a nearby friend of a friend. Next, Kristin may or may notget a message letting her know that somebody she has identi-fied in her online profile as a “crush”—someone she is anxiousto meet—is nearby (the system will also notify her should some-body with a crush on her be close by). If the tool fulfills itspurpose, the evening will include Dodgeball-facilitated serendip-itous encounters—with friends, friends of friends, or crushes.
Behind the scenes, there’s a lot more going on. When Kristinchecks in from Local 138, Dodgeball has to do a number of things.First, it looks at which in-box her message landed in ([email protected], [email protected], and so on) to figure out whichcity she’s in. Next, Dodgeball looks at the originating e-mailaddress, ensuring that the message came from a mobile device, andlooks up Kristin’s profile.
The next step is to look up the venue’s latitude and longitudein a database. Each bar or coffee shop in Dodgeball’s database isgeo-coded, which means its address has been converted intoGlobal Positioning System coordinates by the service’s founders.For New York City, the database includes many of the city’s mostpopular spots—such as restaurants, museums, theaters, andsports arenas. Dodgeball then sends messages to all of Kristin’sfriends who are nearby, letting them know where she is.
Next comes the friend-of-a-friend function. Dodgeball findsother users who have checked in within the last 3 hours andcompares their locations on a virtual map to see if any are within0.8 kilometers (10 city blocks) of Kristin. Dodgeball looks throughthe social network, finding friends of Kristin’s friends. To keepfrom bombarding users with constant messages, it selects theclosest one (Steve, let’s say)—and both get messages. Hers wouldstate: “Steve @ The Magician. You know Steve through Jay,”while his would read: “Kristin @ Local 138. You know Kristinthrough Jay.”
Finally, acting as a sort of low-level dating service, Dodgeballchecks the crush list and sends crush messages if applicable.
Whether Dodgeball succeeds as a business may depend onits success as a social platform. “With Dodgeball, you knowthere’s always someone out there you can run into,” saysKristin. “It makes the city feel smaller, more homey.” How muchusers like her will pay to send and receive Dodgeball messages
remains to be seen. The service is currently free, butCrowley would like to start charging for the
Dodgeball messages.“Whenever a popular new technology has
appeared, from piano rolls to VCRs, peoplehave always questioned its viability—because it doesn't look like the oldmodel—but in the end, we’ve alwaysfound a way to pay for the things peoplelike doing,” says Clay Shirky, an adjunctprofessor in NYU’s Interactive Tele-communications Program. “So if people
keep finding value in it, it will be viable asa business.”
Now that Crowley’s title has gone from“grad student” to Dodgeball’s founder, he’s
counting on it. “It’s all about how we can make thisinto our full-time jobs,” he says. “Technology is easy.
Business is difficult.” �
JAY DIXIT is a technology writer based in New York City. His work hasappeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, RollingStone, and the Village Voice.
RESOURCES
60 IEEE Spectrum | March 2005 | NA
FROM WAR TO PEACEDon’t let a conflict at work fester—
be assertive and get it resolved BY CARL SELINGER
Sooner or later it happens. A client gets angry with you;your manager disagrees with something you did; your co-worker gets annoyed at you for not doing a task that you don’trecall agreeing to do. Conflict in the office is unpleasantand stressful—but inevitable. Learning how to resolve work-related disputes effectively is vital to success in your career.So what to do?
Here’s an instance from early in my career that taught me theimportance of conflict resolution. When I was still a junior engi-neer, I was working on a transportation project to find ways forbuses to avoid morning traffic congestion on the approach to theLincoln Tunnel into New York City. I sent some drawings toRichard, a senior traffic engineer whom I knew pretty well, to gethis comments.
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