Cellphones know where buddies roam GPS technology aiding social lives
By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | December 3, 2006
When Shannon Bullard wants to hang out, she doesn't call her friends. She uses her phone as a beacon to broadcast a quick text message about her location: "@ MFA," she reports, when she's not dancing on Lansdowne Street or relaxing at home in Brookline.
Some people show up, others ping back with their locations, and -- if a friend of a friend is close by -- Bullard's phone will receive a message with their photo, name, and a suggestion that they meet.
Within a few minutes, Bullard can instantly pinpoint 25 of her friends through a form of mobile socializing that is evolving rapidly as GPS technology becomes standard in more cellphones. A slew of new programs gives people the option of knowing where their friends are at all times, helping connections that form in the online world blossom into new social networks in the real world.
"We're getting more and more invested in these objects we put in our pockets," said Ted Selker , associate professor in the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who works on developing social technologies. "The idea of figuring out how to make the cellphone enhance social engagements is, in some sense, what the phone is about."
Last week, Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint Nextel Corp. , made its friend-tracking service Boost loopt available to 4 million customers, and about 40,000 people nationwide have already signed up, according to the company. Last month, Helio, a joint venture of SK Telecom and EarthLink , began offering its competing Buddy Beacon function that also allows users across the country to track the movement of their friends on cellphone screens.
"Kids these days and their cellphones -- it's crazy," said Jason Uechi , 38, who cofounded Mologogo , a year-old software program that can be downloaded onto a GPS-enabled phone. "It's a part of who you are; it's part of your personality. It's that kind of leap. The cellphone is usurping the computer."
Mobile phones are beginning to play an expanded role because the technology is finally in place. To comply with federal 911 requirements, emergency personnel must be able to locate callers.
Many cellphone companies have met this requirement by building GPS technology, which pinpoints a user's location by using signals from satellites, directly into the phone.