Modern-Day Cicero

While the industry will debate the value of a check-in, more and more developers are coming up with unique ways to quantify and visualize your activity on foursquare and other location-based services (LBS). WeePlaces immediately comes to mind. It’s so captivating to trace your steps from point to point. Their site is great and cute and absolutely entertaining, but what purpose does it serve really? Lately I’ve been getting emails from Foursquare and Seven Years Ago, another cool take on the foursquare API. The email comes daily and it tells me where I was one year ago based on my check-ins. When I first signed up in December of last year, my alerts were few and far between, a friendly reminder that I didn't have a smartphone at the time and was checking in on an iPod Touch. Now, as I come up on my one year anniversary of graduating from the Newhouse Master’s program, I’ve been receiving daily alerts of where I was exactly one year ago.

Some of the check-ins were pretty personal; like that time that awesome girl and I snuck out to grab a burger right before Ale n Angus Pub closed. When I relive where I was day-by-day, it’s easy to be flooded with memories conjured up by my check-ins. So what does this mean for business? Well if my example above doesn’t clue you in, it’s about memories. Sure, this is one case of a site throwing the memories directly in your face, but think about what it means to put something down in writing. When I tweet, Facebook or check-in I’m documenting something worth sharing. I’m taking an action, which in the case of a check-in, marks an event, a visit, or an experience. If your place of business isn't on foursquare, you may just be missing out on that (potential) emotional attachment to your brand. Just something to consider next time you debate the value of a check-in... - Nick Cicero

I wrote a post all about my amazing experiences this weekend at the NASA Tweetup that took place at the Kennedy Space Center...however in light of recent events I think that post can wait. Besides, STS-134 hasn't even launched yet and it's status changes all the time...so it can wait.

On September 11th 2001, I was a 9th grader at Durgee Jr. High School in Baldwinsville, NY. Around 9 or so I was sitting Madame Mincolla's French class next to Kara Carrino. We had just settled into class and were taking out our verb sheets to practice French verbs. This was one of my favorite classes because Madame was a sweet older italian woman who made the class fun, and she was the type of teacher who always was "real" with us.

There was an announcement of a Code Blue, which is basically a generic emergency lockdown. She waited for the phone to ring, and immediately after picking up the phone you could tell something weird was happening. The whole class was looking around talking to each other wondering what was wrong, and she actually raised her voice and told us to quiet down so she could hear.

After she hung up, she came to the class and calmly said...the World Trade Center in New York City was bombed by terrorists...we're all going to stay here a little longer before we move to the next class. (This was before we found out it was actually plane crashes, a little bit of panic on the telephone I assume)

Moving from class to class it was a conversation between the entire school about who had family, or what other connection were shared, and the fear that comes with that. I knew a few friends who had family in the building, and (obviously) an entire nation rallied around the cause and came together closer than we may have ever been. 

So with Osama Bin Ladin eradicated, I pray that some families may seek closure, and the message delivered that human life is valuable and those who take it senselessly will be punished. At 23 years young, this event has been etched into my mind and I know others my age share the same sentiments. I'd love to hear where you were on 9/11, if you're comfortable...leave it in the comments.