Trumblog

After months of expanding into new cities, countries and continents location-based social network Foursquare removed all geographic barriers last week eliminating the city-based account associations and badge awards in an inclusive, one world, love-in of sorts.

If you don’t know Foursquare, it’s a social network that is based on where where you physically are.  You check in at your location and can see where your friends are checked in.  Checking in earns you points that you can track on a leaderboard and you can become “mayor” of a location by being the person who checks in there the most.  There are also badges that are earned by visiting a certain number of locations, being out a given number of nights in a row, visiting a gym enough times in a number of days, visiting a set number of locations with a photo booth, etc.  Originally your Foursquare account was linked to a city and when you visited a new city you opened that city and began earning badges there.  That led to multiple “Newbie” badges, which you get for your first check in, for example as well as other check in count badges.  It also resulted in strange associations of locations and cities as I found when checking in in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and discovering that they were associated with Vancouver and New York rather than a city in Western Massachusetts or at least Boston.

This changed with Foursquare’s update last week.  City buckets are a thing of the past and Foursquare members are citizens of the world.  “Newbie” and check in count badges from multiple cities were condensed into 1, reducing member badge counts.  But Foursquare is making up for that with 10 new badges and more on the way.  I’m not out enough each week to worry about the leaderboard and if Foursquare catches on here in Boston then my tenuous hold on 10 mayorships will be done for, but I like how badges can encourage visiting new places and perhaps even nudge us to do the right thing through public transportation badges and the like.  I also think that this new borderless life on Foursquare should lead to more city specific badges to show off our travels.

So what are some ideas for local badges?

Here are some that I’ve come up with in Boston:

• My Fair City/ Peoples Republik – 10+ check ins in Cambridge, MA
• Charlie - 10+ check ins at MBTA stations
• Tourist - a check in at any location in Faneuil Hall
• Sports Fahn – Checkins at the Garden, Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium
• Townie - 10+ check ins in South Boston
• Emerald Necklace – checkins at 5+ parks in the Emerald Necklace chain

Have you got ideas for city or regional Foursquare badges?  Let me know in the comments or submit your own badge suggestions.

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