Alison Young

Self-described as “location-based social networking” BrightKite encourages you to check-in to a location and then post notes or pictures. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and have become quite fond of the ability to instantly photograph and share things occurring around me with others. The whole premise of the location-based social networking phenomenon is to be able to locate and communicate with other users in person as well as via the site. BrightKite is still in beta and membership is invite-only, however there is a growing user-base. Unlike many other sites in alpha or beta, invites are topped up so should you run out it’s only a matter of time before you acquire more to distribute as you see fit.

What can I do?

At present you are able to check-in, post photos & notes and a new feature unveiled just today allows you to comment on posts from others. In terms of friends list control you can opt to add others and also set a trust level for each friend which will determine what level of detail they can see regarding your location. There are a number of ways to set privacy options should you wish to give the site full address details such as street, or even street number. Personally I’ve locked down my posts so that un-friended and casual observers can only see my city, whereas friends can see the suburb and trusted friends the street details. When at home or the homes of others I check into only the street whereas if I’m at a restaurant or cafe I’ll use the full address and usually post a note identifying where I am.

How do I do it?

Checking in and posting can be done through the website and by sending MMS messages to your personal BrightKite email address which can be found in your Settings. Once becoming familiar with the symantics of MMS messages it’s very easy to post check-ins, notes and photos while on the go which is where I feel BrightKite really is the most fun. To make life much easier when on the go you are able to specify placemarks which can be used instead of sending the full address of places you frequent; common placemarks would be things like home, work, SydneyCBD, VicPark, and perhaps the names of favoured places to eat out. To check-in via MMS to King Street, Newtown I’d send a picture message containing the following text: @King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia. BrightKite is an international service so mentioning that you’re in Australia is useful, if you’re not sure of an exact address you might find yourself checked-in somewhere strange indeed. Of particular note was when a friend checked into Central Australia while trying to check into Central Station, Sydney. If in doubt create a placemark first then it’s as simple as MMS’ing @<placemark name>, eg @home.

I’ve configured my BrightKite account to sent notice of new posts and photos as Twitter messages which allows everybody in my timeline to see when I’ve posted a new photo. For an idea of what my personal BrightKite timeline looks like you can view it here. Timelines are also fully able to be configured in terms of friends and what you wish to see from each in terms of check-ins, posts and photos.

The other side of the fence

There have been a number of people who have raised concerns about the idea of publically identifying where you are, or more importantly, where you are not. This is a valid concern and if it troubles you to identify to a public or self-selected audience where you are then perhaps you might not enjoy what BrightKite has to offer. There have been a number of discussions about whether checking into a website is a privacy concern or not and how it might differ to the more traditional ways of informing people of your whereabouts.

Some things to keep in mind if you are interested but wary are:

• You only need to provide as much or little information as you are comfortable with. Checking into “Sydney CBD” is fine, if you wish to say you’re at “270 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000” then that’s alright too. This information is used to place a map pointer, obviously the more accurate your check-in, the more accurately the pointer placement is going to be.
• Only add people as friends if you know and trust them and are willing to share with them your whereabouts.
• Don’t have an open timeline just because everybody else seems to.

BrightKite isn’t going to suit everybody, but that’s true for any web application. Majority of the people who are involved in BrightKite or even just look at the pictures others post seem to enjoy the experience. Feel free to just look at postings from others and comment to them in Twitter. It’s all accepted behaviour.

Additional things to note

In my experimenting with the site I’ve found you can upload pictures of any dimensions you wish, to see a picture in fullsize from the picture page then click the image again. It is also possible to post notes and pictures to a location without being checked into it. Just search for the location or go to the relevant placemark and you will be able to post, however I have noticed that if you’re not checked into a location then BrightKite won’t post notice of pictures/notes that you’ve added to Twitter etc.

Already I’ve noticed a fellow, as yet unknown, BrightKite user who works in the same building as me from the pictures they’ve posted to the street I work on. Its very easy to swap timeline views from friends timeline, those around me, and everybody. It’s a fun way to see what others are posting and who else is checked in around you.

I have a few invites if you are interested in seeing what all the fuss is about. Otherwise have fun and I’ll let you all know when the site is released to one and all.

Tags: BrightKite, mobile, notes, photos, Social Networking, website

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 18:27 and is filed under Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.