A shot in the dark vs. a planned get together
Rather than simply telling everyone, “I’m at Uncle Billy’s BBQ” in a tweet and hoping others are within the area and can show up at the drop of a dime, the new kid on the block is Plancast which allows you to tell your social networks what you plan on doing in the future so others can join in. It’s less of an event planning site and more of an informal tool like Foursquare that allows people to “check in.” Plancast is so new that it doesn’t have its iPhone or mobile apps developed out but word is that they’re working on that.
For me personally, this tool is fantastic because I’m not much of a “drop what I’m doing and go see people” type, I’m more of the “I’ve scheduled out my entire week down to the minute” type, making Plancast conducive and more effective for me and others like me. So if you’re planning on spending Thursday working at Austin Java and wouldn’t mind if others worked with you on their own projects, tell Plancast. If you’re going hiking and would love others to join you on Saturday, tell Plancast. You get the idea, it’s a great way to invite your social network contacts into your offline social life.
Take a look:
Instead of me raving about it, I’ll take you on a photo tour. Enjoy! (…and click any image to enlarge)
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Agent Genius is not affiliated with Plancast, Gowalla, Foursquare or Twitter.
Eric Hempler
December 2, 2009 at 12:12 am
Why not just setup an event on your Facebook and invite everyone?
Lani Rosales
December 2, 2009 at 12:15 am
Less steps AND easier to populate Twitter with. Also, you can see other peoples’ events rather than just your own making it easy for me to browse and say “omg, Brandie’s coming to a conference in Austin, we should get together” and reach out personally without her having to spam me with a blanket, probably untargeted invitation.
Real Estate Feeds
December 2, 2009 at 6:08 am
Plancast – Gowalla or Foursquare For the Less Impulsive: A shot in the dark vs. a planned get together
Rather tha… https://bit.ly/6Z0Ey6
Arjan Muthert
December 2, 2009 at 9:06 am
@agentgenius Plancast – Gowalla or Foursquare For the Less Impulsive https://bit.ly/5H1F2z
Fred Romano
December 2, 2009 at 9:09 am
Sounds way to geeky for the avg joe to use. You really plan every minute? I don’t know any agent that does that.
Lani Rosales
December 2, 2009 at 10:30 am
Fred, IF you think of it this way…
untech savvy realtor is least geeky < tech savvy realtor is a little geeky < tech savvy realtor on twitter is more geeky < tech savvy realtor on plancast/foursquare/gowalla is most geeky ...you're probably right. However, I challenge you to think of it as an open invitation to your social network (which should be your pipeline)- I don't plan on using it for every tiny thing I do, but if I want locals to join us, I gently pull them instead of spamming them. So, if I do coffee every Wednesday with my coworking group (freelancers that bring their laptops to a coffee house, work on their own projects but do it in a group), I would put that on Plancast with the implication I'm inviting others.
Portland Condo Auctions
December 2, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Its like reverse stalking. I dont like people knowing where I am or where I am going to be all the time, so this is not my sort of tool I guess.
-Tyler
Karen Goodman
December 2, 2009 at 8:52 pm
There just seems to be a safety issue to me with both of these sites. I am all for connecting with my social networks, but the idea of advertising where I will am (or will be) to total strangers just seems like an open invitation for trouble.
Instead, turning an event into a tweetup when you know at least one other person you are comfortable with will join you just seems safer.
Lani Rosales
December 3, 2009 at 1:05 am
Karen, this is why more people will make their Twitter accounts private (not wanting to broadcast publicly where you are or where you are going). Plancast is public however, so I personally won’t be using it to announce family vacation plans or anything rather publicly noting events I’m going to that are open to others or events I am hosting (which is frequent).
Plancast, Foursquare and Gowalla are no more or less safe than having a public Twitter account.
Karen Goodman
December 3, 2009 at 8:58 am
I have do disagree with you on the point that these GPS sites that advertise your present location are just as safe as Twitter.
Twitter doesn’t tell people where I am or will be at any given time. I occasionally chose to announce where I’m having lunch, but otherwise the only times tweet where I am is when I am attending a large group event or will be someplace where a lot of people know me (like my office).
I know that there is a lot of information out in the cloud about all of us know, but using Foursquare would be like strapping a GPS device to my ankle and announcing it to the world. Using social media tools are great, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use some common sense in regards to safety.
Benn Rosales
December 3, 2009 at 9:59 am
“Twitter doesn’t tell people where I am or will be at any given time. I occasionally chose to announce where I’m having lunch, but otherwise the only times tweet where I am is when I am attending a large group event or will be someplace where a lot of people know me (like my office).”
This is exactly what’s been said here, controlling what you put out there, inviting people to where you want to invite them, we do this everyday with Twitvite and other meeting tools, this one is just more personal and strategic to/for you.
If you say on your public twitter account that you’re at work, I would imagine a smart someone by using the power of search or just watching you for long periods could deduce exactly where you work, has your picture, could follow you whereever you went… (I wont go any further cuz it’s just creepy) is the point she’s making, all of it is “out there” for the world to see- it’s in public, unless you’re private. At least then you have some reasonable right to privacy.
Jason Sandquist
December 2, 2009 at 11:10 pm
since joining the other day, already found a few groups/events throughout the city I had no idea that existed that *peaked* my interest that I intend on showing face to ie: start-up groups, general networking groups, wordpress, the list goes on.
Chris
December 11, 2009 at 11:43 am
Plancast is evidence that the Internet has moved into another bubble similar to 10 years prior. This is a redundant service that any of the top social services could implement in months. We will see if they survive after the first round of the current buzz for the product