Twitter's New Killer Apps

Some University of Washington grads are experiencing the ultimate student nightmare: their supervisor can check exactly where they are and who they're with at all times. Even stranger, they're volunteering for it. For most this would be a terrible revelation of exactly how much time they actually spend working; for these investigators it's the future of RFID (radio frequency identification).

RFID is making inroads in the real world, with initiatives such as the Department of Homeland Security's REAL ID project requiring its inclusion in driving licenses. The Washington researchers want to find the effects of such ubiquitous, easily-accessible identification information before they occur. With over a year of data from twelve ID-enabled volunteers, various new applications have been developed. The most exciting for the online reader is RFIDDER, an application that allows the wearer to update Twitter with up-to-the-minute location information. Twitter, for those not balancing on the cutting-edge of social applications, is a simple social system that consists entirely of status messages. You have 140 characters to tell the world what you're doing, by web or by phone, and it's become enormously popular.

Every time you pass a compatible reader, your Twitter can be updated with your current position - or you can choose to make such information visible only to those you have meetings with, permanently ending the days of frustrated phone-checking and mutterings of "Where are they?" While the researchers developed this spatial-status system with clear, useful goals in mind, it's exactly the sort of thing that can take off online. Such widespread data technology can give rise to emergent applications that weren't even conceived of until the technology became available - such as geocaching, flashmobs or (god help us all) rick-rolling.

But technology isn't good or bad until a ludicrous FOX news scare story makes it so. Expect news of this development, when it eventually penetrates the thick armor surrounding the skulls of the fear-pundits, to upgrade the Internet Terror Alert from "Pedophile Nesting Ground" to "Oh My God It's Eating My Children!" Behold as armies of identically over-generously insulated mothers tearfully confess their fears to the camera, declaring war on the vast and unstoppable tide of human progress. Rather than engaging in the truly difficult options, such as talking to their kids and explaining why telling random strangers exactly where they are (and how many of their innocent young friends are with them) is a bad idea.

A final silver lining: expect this innovation to apprehend some dangerously stupid criminals. If there's one thing MySpace has taught is, it's that at least one bank robber will update with "Great robbery! Currently hiding from authorities at LAT36.15 LON-115.23. LOL!!"

Posted by Luke McKinney.

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