Posts Tagged ‘trioutnc’
Posted on March 27, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
A location-based road trip to SXSW with TriOut badges, widgets and check-ins.
As some of you know I had the opportunity to attend SXSW Interactive, and participate in a great American Race style road trip/competition sponsored by Chevrolet. So while SXSWi was held in Austin, TX the road trip started for me from Atlanta, GA. For the road trip I traveled 3 other friends @TheRab, @Jakrose, @NikisNotes aka, Team NC. Chevrolet was a sponsor of SXSW and the hashtag we used while traveling was ChevySXSW.
As a location-based app fanboy and partner of a location-based service (TriOut) I was looking forward to not only checking in at various locations at SXSWi, but also checking in at new cities and venues I have never been before.
Prior to the trip I was talking with Lawrence Ingraham (@LawPower) (TriOut founder/developer) about how cool it would be if we had a widget that could display all the check-ins from the road trip and a check-in badge for NC residents who were attending SXSWi. Lawrence said no problem or something like that and thus we have the road to SXSWi check-in map via TriOut below.
Note you can create your own TriOut widget here: http://trioutnc.com/u/widgets.php
I was told by Jay Cuthrell (@qthrul) fellow NC friend who’s awesome that there were over 218 NC residents who attended SXSW. Although I wish all 218 were TriOut users, that just wasn’t the case but we did have 7 TriOut users checked-in at the Austin Convention Center. When they checked-in, they were welcomed to SXSW with the TriOut badge above.
While in Austin for SXSW I added every venue I visited to TriOut such as the Gingerman, the Hilton, Champions Sports Bar + Restaurant, The Belmont and more. One common question I received by doing so was that if TriOut is a NC location-based social network, why check-in at SXSW or add locations from other cites? My response was that even though we require TriOut iPhone users to be in the state of North Carolina to create an account and we emphasize on “Exploring the Triangle”, NC area, TriOut is also about NC residents as well. TriOut users let their friends know where they check-in to and/or where they’re on the way to. They write reviews about locations, post photos to share their experience.
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As a TriOut user this doesn’t apply to only NC locations but any location that he/she visits. Meaning if you’re a current TriOut user, it’s OK to check-in, add photos and reviews to locations outside of NC.
On the return trip back from Austin, TX Team NC took a different route back as you can see via the map. A big thanks to everyone who supported us and/or followed the check-ins, I still have a few more post SXSW articles to write in the upcoming days.
What are your thoughts on the TriOut check-in map and adding check-ins to activity streams?
Note: This was cross posted on the TriOut blog.
Posted on February 25, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
What's happening with @TriOut ? A Location-Based Social Network for NC.
If you’re live in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, NC area also known as the Triangle and/or follow me on Twitter I’m sure you have seen a few Tweets about @TriOut. TriOut which stands for Triangle Out is an idea that was first conceived in October 2009 by Lawrence Ingraham @Lawpower (founder of TriOut). Lawrence knew I was a fan of location-based apps and said we have the perfect community in North Carolina to launch our own location-based service. After a few meetings over coffee and iPhone app beta testing, I joined Lawrence in helping make TriOut go from an idea to a reality. Mostly in #vampiremode at night.
Fast forward 5 months later and last week we held a launch party at the RTP Headquarters with about 100 attendees and launched the website http://TriOutNC.com for non-iphone users and the community.
Ealier this week we emailed our first newsletter to our subscribers thanking everyone and announcing our first check-in special with 3 local Dairy Queen locations and a top 5 Empire Eats check-in contest. It has been a pleasure working with Lawrence and we’re excited about the future of TriOut. Thanks for the support NC and if you’re not subscribed to our email newsletter you can do so here and on our blog.
Take a look at our first email newsletter below from TriOut with more details about the launch party, check-in specials and our contest.
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TriOutNC.com launches
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Hello everyone
Last Wednesday, at the RTP Headquarters (@theRTP) around 100 people were in attendance from early TriOut beta users and bloggers, venture capitalists and, programers/developers, along with friends and family – as we officially launched TriOutNC.com and removed the invitation-only mode for the TriOut iPhone app. We would like to thank our sponsors and everyone who was in attendance. You can read the official press release here and recap post here. Also check out some the photos here by John Rees. |
Mad Treats, Inc, Dairy Queen Check-in Special
| Another announcement we made at the launch party was our “check-in” special with Mad Treats, Inc. at 3 local Dairy Queen Locations.The current specials are available at the locations:
DQ Grill & Chill (New Bern Ave) DQ Grill & Chill w/Orange Julius(Morrisville Carpenter) DQ / Orange Julius (Brier Creek) After you have checked-in you’ll see one of the following badges for either a Buy one Medium Blizzard, Get the Second Free or get $1.00 off any smoothie. From there just show the badge to the cashier to receive your TriOut “check-in” special. Be sure to join us at the Triangle FreezeUp! FreezerBurns Live! @DQ on Monday, March 01, 2010 7:00 PM – 10:00 at the DQ Grill & Chill w/Orange Julius(Morrisville Carpenter) location hosted by Gregory Ng. You’ll recieve 10 TriOut points for attending and you can RSVP here: http://freezeup.eventbrite.com |
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Top 5 wins free $25 Gift Certificate at Empire Eats via Check-in Contest.
| As some of you may have noticed every Monday morning the @TriOut Twitter account sends out a Tweet of the top 5 TriOut users for the week. With the new TriOutNC.com website you can see the leaderboard updating in real-time. We’re please to announce the Empire Eats Top 5 TriOut Check-in Contest for the week of February 22 – 28. The top 5 users for the week will receive a $25 gift certificate at one of the following Empire Eats locations below. You can read the full contest details including how to get points here. |
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Thank You Launch Party Sponsors
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TriOut | 4501 New Bern Ave.STE 130-252, Raleigh, NC 27610 919.295.0824 | contact@TriOutNC.com| icons via http://icondock.com. |
Posted on February 19, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
How location-based services are responding to Pleaserobme, privacy tips & my response to @TechCrunch
Earlier this week a site called Pleaserobme.com was launched making fun of and bringing awareness to privacy and security concerns of using location-based apps. Along with that came an article by TechCrunch posting about the Most Stalker-Friendly person on Gowalla, which at the time before Gowalla investors Kevin Rose and Jason Calacanis decided to update their friends list was me. Even before that, one of my unofficial mentors Andrew Hyde had posted an article called Committing Location Based Service Suicide where he’s giving up location-based apps.
Since then, Brightkite and FourSquare have blogged about practicing safe check-in. TriOut another location-based service for NC only had also posted an article called TriOut and Your Privacy. You can read each post via the link below:
Brightkite: Practicing safe check-in
Foursquare: On foursquare, location & privacy…
TriOut: TriOut and Your Privacy
There are at least 17 other location-based social networks available and it will be interesting to see if and how they will respond to conversations around sites like pleaserobme.com and the growing debate on privacy. Also there’s an article on Read Write Web called: Congress to Hold Hearing on Location Data and Privacy: Today’s Top Stories on Geolocation. So it’s not just the geeks/tech community but it’s something that even government is”checking into”.
Since TechCrunch wants to call Gowalla users or users who use similar apps “stalker friendly” my advice for people using location-based services are simple.
- Don’t check-in at places where you don’t want to be bothered or “stalked”
- Don’t check-in at home or family locations
- Don’t accept every friend request, especially from people you don’t know or trust
- Read the privacy policies of each location-based social network
- Adjust your profile privacy settings on the social network and/or mobile app.
- Use common sense
Personally I have seen a huge value in location-based services from meeting new friends to business opportunities, especially at conferences and in my local community. I do believe privacy is very important but using some of the tips above and more, you should have no worries and that home is safe.
Disclaimer: I’m a partner with TriOut
Do you use location-based apps? If so why or why not and how concerned about privacy are you?
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About
Wayne Sutton helps individuals, startups and businesses succeed in understanding how to communicate on the social web via web development, user experience, brand strategy and marketing (Mobile and Social).
Wayne Sutton is an Entrepreneur, Advisor and Partner of NewMe Accelerator.
Ph: 919-816-2230
@: wayne@socialwayne.comSubmit
