MobChalk
August 8, 2012 7:30 AM Subscribe
MobChalk
MobChalk is a simple tool for anonymous communication in public spaces using your smartphone. You can leave messages, chat, or meet people. It's like invisible graffiti for every place you go.
Me and a few friends made this prototype using Pyramid, a python library, and some javascript that is admittedly kind of bad right now. It works using geolocation and Foursquare places.
I was the fourth cofounder and I did most of the front-end templates and scripting. We've got a lot of work to go, but we finally have it functioning acceptably. I'm excited to see how people use it.
MobChalk is a simple tool for anonymous communication in public spaces using your smartphone. You can leave messages, chat, or meet people. It's like invisible graffiti for every place you go.
Me and a few friends made this prototype using Pyramid, a python library, and some javascript that is admittedly kind of bad right now. It works using geolocation and Foursquare places.
I was the fourth cofounder and I did most of the front-end templates and scripting. We've got a lot of work to go, but we finally have it functioning acceptably. I'm excited to see how people use it.
Role: Developer
@semaphore
1) Mostly just because it's fun, but also so that you remain anonymous despite having a defined name per conversation. The name resets with your session and is randomly generated, but it's still easy for others to refer to you.
2) Feature, sort of. It's our intent that most of the time MobChalk be used in a location-aware capacity, but we decided not to add any boundaries so that you can use it however you like. One use case is for friends to use the wall for a location in which they'll later meet to leave messages for one another.
3) Possibly. We're using Foursquare locations, and those are crowd-sourced, so sometimes they're a little weird. We've talked about using alternate location databases and about programmatically pruning locations, but neither are feasible at the moment.
Thanks for taking a look!
posted by liamcampbell at 2:12 PM on August 8, 2012
1) Mostly just because it's fun, but also so that you remain anonymous despite having a defined name per conversation. The name resets with your session and is randomly generated, but it's still easy for others to refer to you.
2) Feature, sort of. It's our intent that most of the time MobChalk be used in a location-aware capacity, but we decided not to add any boundaries so that you can use it however you like. One use case is for friends to use the wall for a location in which they'll later meet to leave messages for one another.
3) Possibly. We're using Foursquare locations, and those are crowd-sourced, so sometimes they're a little weird. We've talked about using alternate location databases and about programmatically pruning locations, but neither are feasible at the moment.
Thanks for taking a look!
posted by liamcampbell at 2:12 PM on August 8, 2012
Is it possible to sort locations based on what has been written? Just checked it out in Firefox, i think it's an interesting idea.
posted by dubold at 3:32 AM on August 10, 2012
posted by dubold at 3:32 AM on August 10, 2012
@dubold
As of now, no. I'll put that to the top of the to-do list, though. Thanks for checking us out.
posted by liamcampbell at 9:55 AM on August 10, 2012
As of now, no. I'll put that to the top of the to-do list, though. Thanks for checking us out.
posted by liamcampbell at 9:55 AM on August 10, 2012
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-What is the reasoning behind using assigned names like "orange train" as opposed to "anonymous"?
-While I am located in Atlanta, I was able to post messages in other cities. Is this a feature or a bug? Did your team intend for it to be used for taking thoughts/words experienced in a real physical location and moving them into an online space? Is it okay if I'm able to have a conversation with somebody at a Wisconsin Burger King while in the comfort of my Georgia apartment?
-The locations are quite broad. I'm able to get both the pool and exercise room in my complex as separate locations. Do you think that MobChalk would be able to facilitate conversations more easily if there were fewer branches?
posted by semaphore at 12:42 PM on August 8, 2012