Automatic Updates

I really feel that CLUSTER needs automatic updates. Frankly, if we don't do automatic updates, we're taking the easy way out. There's a whole host of privacy and UI issues that we'll be dodging completely if the location is always set manually. Further, I think if the burden is too high, people just simply won't use the service.

In my opinion, the reason Dodgeball failed was because it was too much of a hassle to use. If I hop from one bar to the next and send a check-in message to dodgeball, it's going to take at least a minute or two - that's time when I'm just sitting there staring at my phone and not paying attention to anyone. If for some reason I get the name of the bar wrong in the check-in message, it could take several minutes as Dodgeball would have to reply back with a list of possible venues that match the name I sent, and then I have to send yet another message. (It's true, the dodgeball experience was made worse by the incredibly slow SMS responses from their system, but it shouldn't be this way anyways).

I think we should do everything possible to make the experience of using CLUSTER as least demanding as possible on the user. The technology isn't a problem - we can auto sense location, so I think we should go for it.

Off-topic: We could piggy back on top of the 3jam service to offer some interesting group messaging features. Actually, we could use 3jam as the conduit for all of our location disclosures as well. It's maybe not the most efficient way to distribute the information, but it might be the easiest to implement.