I really like GeoNotes, which I found on Mauro Cherubini's Weblog, and read about in detail here.
It's got so much good stuff. It lets users name places, it uses conversation and noticeboard metaphors, and not a map to be seen.
They also make what I think is a very good and very useful decision, which is to put a spatial restriction on posting and reading - you can only post and read when you're in a place, not remotely online.
Even in their little trial, something great happened. People started naming imaginary places in real locations - "Floor 42" in a ten story building - in order to put in messages for their own group of friends.
Isn't that wonderful. It seems so obvious after the fact, but you would never have been able to think that up beforehand. It emerged because their system is so good, it allows for creation.
The emergence of spontaneous usage of this tool is one of my running hypothesis. Thanks for the link to the tech report. The geonotes site seems to be down at the moment though. More here> http://www.i-cherubini.it/mauro/blog/2004/12/16/geonotes-features/
Posted by: Mauro Cherubini | December 16, 2004 at 10:54