Dodgeball




 * Description**

Dodgeball is mobile social software service that encourages social networking in a manner that incorporates three variables such as a location, place and a specific time. The two founders of Dodgeball, Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert developed the service to make technology help people connect through the places they move around in. "Dodgeball mingles informational and social aspects of a user’s life into something more valuable than either of those things in isolation." (Shirky, Clay, "Google Acquires Dodgeball".) The service is now available in 22 cities in U.S.


 * The way it works**

Say for instance, Dennis is at a venue called Ace Bar at 20 John Str. He is available to meet friends or someone new. He now has to check into Dodgeball by sending a text outlining simply the venue. Dodgeball notifies his network pals of his location (20 john street) and also notifies his friend's friends within 10 blocks (letting them know: how they know him).




 * First Step: You Invite your Friends**


 * Second Step: You Check in**


 * Third Step: Dodgeball sends your friends your Location / Time**


 * Analysis**

The two developers of Dodgeball grounded their project by first of all, considering the physical surroundings of the user, that is the user who is out in the city. The location indicator is pivotal in such a case for potential meetings to happen. Therefore the product satisfies an important need that arises in order for social gathering to play out effectively. It is also appropriate in terms of being economical for the user to send simply one text message to Dodgeball notifying it of the user's availability for social engagement, rather than send out texts to 15 people. As well, the network is not selective or discriminatory during its selection of who it sends the text to, as long as they are within 10 blocks, therefore increasing chances of meetings that are new and have a quality of serendipity. The future possibilities for this product are not rigid, in fact, in an article by Jason Drohn, he takes the concept of social gathering to a new level. He images Dodgeball to help people get to know each other better by automatically sending out facts about what someone likes. For instance, Dennis receives a text about what Carol likes from Starbucks, while he is at Starbucks. He may choose to order that drink, and next time they connect, that conversation starter could break the ice.

References __Dodgeball.com__. 2007. Dodgeball.com. October 25, 2007. http://www.dodgeball.com/

Drohn, Jason. "Dodgeball: Mobile Social Networking From Google." __JDsBLOG.com__. November 6, 2006. http://www.jdsblog.com/2006/11/06/dodgeball-mobile-social-networking-from-google/

Shirky, Clay. "The significance of social software." __Corante__. May 11 2005. October 25, 2007 http://many.corante.com/archives/2005/05/11/google_acquires_dodgeball.php