“I will never join BrightKite. Ever. It's not for me. Believe it or not, I actually value aspects of my privacy. I'll let you know where I am, but not through that kind of service. As far as you're concerned: I'm at home in front of my computer.”
Using BrightKite would only serve to highlight how little we move around. I can see it now. Louis is at home. Still at home. Still at home. At work in his cubicle. In a meeting. Back to the cube. Back to home. Who cares? - Louis Gray
Louis, have you been looking at my Brightkite? I go from one end of town to the other. It always says the same thing. ;) - Cyndy
BrightKite is a great idea for people that want to share their information. I'm not going to say "I'm at home (123 Anywhere Street, Anywhere, USA)" because I don't want random people showing up at my house. I do thought let people know when I've made a week run to Starbucks or my favorite pizza place. I don't see anything wrong with that. If you can hunt me down and find me in a crowd of angry coffee-lovers, you deserve to find me. - Aaron Myers
If I hadn't chosen the name "Ontario Emperor," I'd probably never explicitly blog about my city of residence. You can bet I'd never publish "I'm at 123 Main St., Ontario, CA 91760" - unless I was at Oracle OpenWorld or the Grand Ole Opry or some such. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
all this nonsense about wanting to let people know our movements every second of the day and what we are thinking or doing every moment of the day reminds me of a post I wrote last Sept - http://www.winextra.com/2007/0... - Steven Hodson
I've started to be okay with it (usability and other issues aside). I don't publish (or tell Brightkite about) my street address, but if I'm heading out to a town or city or somesuch, I'll pop in my zip code. Who knows? Maybe someone I've met online is where I'm heading and I can take that relationship offline. I do agree with Louis though; I think 95% of my check-ins are going to be "home" or "work." I'm not a very interesting person, travel-wise, for most of the year. - Mark Trapp
I could see a definite value for someone like Gary Vaynerchuk or Robert Scoble or Ryan Block or any of those chic bloggers who travel around a lot. "I am here" instead of 100 tweets trying to remind people that you're going to be somewhere or are at somewhere. - Mark Trapp
I started to use it to help me fill out my expense reports for mileage, but it didn't work. I kept forgetting to use it. - Kenneth LeFebvre via fftogo
Think I'm glad I didn't ask for an invite. Another couple of days and I should be through the curve on HTML 1.0 - Charlie Anzman
If I used it, 99% of the time people would go comatose from boredom. - Mark Dykeman
It really makes it tough on us omnipresent, non-local, eighth circuit types. Always trying to monadify the goo. - david beckwith
Charlie, want an invite? I have a bunch. ;) - Cyndy
(Even though I used it), I don't really buy the "nobody cares about where I am" argument against Brightkite. That was the same line people used about Twitter: "Nobody cares what I'm doing all the time they'd be so bored." It's just another vector to tell people, who are ostensibly interested in you, a little more about yourself. - Mark Trapp
You may not join, but how will your kids feel about joining? - Ranjit Mathoda
I think I'm ready to cancel my account. Thanks guys. - Alex Sauceda via fftogo
Ranjit, I foresee the joining by kids as a great incentive for parents to join! Finally, a way to really keep tabs on them. - David Tallan
As my travel increases, I've found folks coming to a Panera I'm temporarily officing or pinging me for a meetup later in the day. I'll agree it gets kinda boring around home, but it's great for on the road. - Mike Sansone
I used BK for a little bit, then stopped. The privacy concerns are valid. Why not just hang a poster on your door and say, 'hey, whackos I live here, come harass me'. - Susan Beebe
i live on an island in the middle of the ocean so you're gonna have to spend some serious dough in air fare money to stalk me - Tyler Gillies
you can easily decide who to share your exact location with. the thing i'm curious about is if you are somewhere and see that someone else that you don't know is there to, will you say hi etc. - Delete Me
I thought Twitter was useless too. Guess what? People are angry Twitter is down. These are just tools. - Russellreno
Aside from security concerns, I'm not a member of the target audience for this app. It seems to do its job well, with a few quirks in the UI, but it is going to find its audience among those who travel frequently and don't mind being tracked like a UPS parcel. Letting your boss/spouse/kids know where you are might play a valuable part of your relationship. At least BK gives you the option to update your location and to control the degree of truthiness. It puts the option for use in your hands whereas GPS tracking is out of your control. Even so, it's not for me. I don't go all that many places; no one else cares where I go; I see no purpose in announcing to anyone else that I'm now at the Von's down the street. If you care that much about the minutiae of my life, you are truly pathetic. Even I don't care all that much. As long as I'm somewhere. - Jack Carlson
I'm loving the thinly veiled insults: "it's not for me. I value my privacy. Maybe you are an idiot who doesn't care about his or her privacy and you'll love Brightkite. But I'm so smart, and I won't use it. Just my opinion, you know, that you're crazy for using Brightkite. Just saying why I don't use it." - Mark Trapp
Kenneth Lefebvre's attempt to use the service is fascinating, even if he forgot to use it half the time. It shows how people find unanticipated uses for tools. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
Cyndy - I've got enough misc invites for the next two weeks but thanks. .... Charlie is in his home office. Charlie is on Friendfeed. Charlie is buying gadgets he doesn't need. Charlie is back in his home office. Charlie is on Friendfeed. Charlie is buying more junk he doesn't need. Charlie is home. Charlie is on Friendfeed. .. - Charlie Anzman
Politicians should use BK. Not moment to moment, but at least daily, the major appointments. The president is our employee, they work for us. There's no reason they shouldn't account for their time. Authors could use BK to promote their book tours, comedians their appearances. - Jack Carlson
my two issues: no immediate support for pics on the iPhone (you have to save individually, so no impulse use) + having to do it all the time. Maybe with iPhone 3G it might have some more appeal, but despite giving it a shot I didn't find it compelling...yet - Duncan Riley
Good point, Louis. It would only show, that I don't leave the house, the whole day. How boring. - Ryo
it's great for avoiding the people i don't want to see ... can cross the street in advance ... - gregory lent
one thing that brightkite does well is allow for pictures. I like seeing what my friends are doing when I cant be there, not just reading about it on Twitter. - Micah Baldwin
I like the app. It has filters as well as has work-a-rounds to "protect" those who really think that there is much "privacy" left in today's society. 1984 is here and now. We are not that far behind the UK in putting a camera on every corner. - Mathew A. Koeneker
