Out in public

I've been playing around with foursquare this week, which allows you to inform your friends of your whereabouts so that they can, serendipity permitting, rendezvous with stalk you. I'm trying to use it sensibly by, for instance, adopting a befriending policy akin to Lucian's: "You need to be someone I'd walk up to and say hi. No offence."

I'm also playing around with it to see how much human behaviour --- all right, my behaviour --- can be swayed by the possibility of racking up points. So far I've been chagrined that I zipped all over to all sorts of interesting places yesterday (not even counting the Jack of Hearts Mystery Tour), but clean forgot to "check in" on foursquare. However today I dutifully remembered to do so --- in the middle of pork porridge breakfast at the delightfully old-school Carlton Restaurant, no less.

All this, by the way, for points that aren't good for anything "but bragging rights for now", according to the official foursquare FAQ.

Apropos, this morning my RSS feeds delivered to me:

• "How I use Facebook for reporting (and what I won’t do)" by Kashmir Hill at True/Slant (via Smart People I Know) --- which articulates research methods on Facebook I've noticed, used or suspected-as-much over the last year or so, even within a narrow Singapore context.
• "Who Watches the Watchers on Twitter?" by Darren Barefoot --- whose experience with @TransitPolice made me sit up and pay attention.

Not that I'm about to drop off foursquare (or Facebook), but, you know. Let's pay attention.