The idea i have for this new service or plugin is based on some features Foursquare and Gowalla already have, but adding forms by which people can collaborate or give to causes that seek to build a better and more sustainable world. The calls to action will come after the person has made a check-in or several check-ins at one place. This will also have to do with how many people are at the same place at that time or of whether there is a group of people doing some work where you can help. 

Location based services are conceived so we can broadcast our location and our patterns of movement within a city or throughout the world. There are key points where people check-in that will allow us to guess or at least have a hint of what the interests of a person are. For example, the Financial Times placed some ads on Foursquare that will be displayed when people check-in at the offices of the stock exchange. This is motivating an action based on where the person is it and it’s guessing that a person of with certain interests will visit that place.

As we expect people to be motivated to buy a subscription or read some news because they are at certain places we can expect them to be motivated to collaborate in a project or to help certain charity. The service will have certain charities or causes or projects that will appear on your interface with a clear call to action as you check-in certain places. For example, when you check-in at an airport you could be reminded to recycle your bottles or to check out some collaborative project happening in town and then motivate you to add it as your goals for one day. The same thing can happen for when you check in at a supermarket where the app could remind you to use bags that aren’t made of plastic.

Location based services could help by motivating and making the path towards collaboration easier. Usually we don’t collaborate because we forget about the project or cause, or because we don’t remember we could participate when we are near or at the location we can help. Having a reminder when we check in at the place or letting us know about the options we have to collaborate will be a small change in the path we follow to participate in collaborative projects that could have a huge impact.

Collaboration doesn’t happen because of many reasons, one of them is lack of knowledge about a cause or project to collaborate with. So for example, a open source foundation could add task for people to make when they check-in at a software developing office or at a coworking space where some developers work. This will allow people to be aware of certain projects out there and volunteer to help doing some simple tasks. Tasks could vary in complexity from a simple download or support to a more complex task that could be executed by a team of people collaborating.

Location based technologies can help us find people with the same interests as we have (for example people that go to our gym) and let us know what this people are collaborating with so we can join them and build a community out of just a common place we share for a couple of minutes.

I’m not a game designer and I’m sure that with the help of one we could get a better idea of how the following could be done. The idea i have is to make this platform a small game where points and badges can be awarded after completing certain missions. For example, if you are the first one to collaborate with a project at your location you’ll get the “guide” badge and then get extra points for bringing in new people to the team. After doing this points can be earned every time you complete a task or you check in the place you first learned and met some of the people interested in the project.

Another possibility will be to give missions to people that check in when arriving to certain cities or countries For example, if you arrive to Peru you will get choices of missions each package offering different points and sets of skills to develop. According to your time you can either do the easy one or volunteer to participate in a bigger project. This will earn you points and badges, that will work as a motivator for you to perform those task.

A team building feature should also be added. We can’t collaborate if there’s not other people, so building a team of people interested in the same project at the same location could end up sparkling some competition between groups at other locations and this will also motivate some action. This could be a great opportunity to make people meet face to face and share a common interest which can be a way to improve our social relationships at every place we go to. For example, I go to the gym everyday yet i don’t know the 95% of people there. If we were to collaborate on a project i will have a greater chance to meet them and together we will create a community that shares the same fitness goals.

Finally there should be a way to add causes to the game and have people join them and collaborate.