OpenVBX: A real win for FourSquare (and other location based services)

Call me skeptical, but checking into 4SQ to tell your PBX where you're at doesn't feel like that killer feature that's going to take them "from 1.5 million to 1.5 billion users."

Or I could carry a cell phone?<p>A very neat idea but, way over engineered.

Definitely a proof of concept, and not the shortest walk to the solution. But, haven't we all been thinking 4SQ / social media is all about friends, tweets, coupons and mayorships... this proof of concept shows 4SQ could one day solve business problems, like presence too.<p>I think that's just neato!

I just wrote it as a proof of concept during a weekend hackathon but people really liked it so it was spared from the bit bucket.<p>I started out working on a similar feature for my own VBX platform (OtherNum.com) but once Jeff showed me OpenVBX I immediately ported all my "plugins" over including my integration with Chirbit.com and MyCaption.com.<p>I wrote more about the impact OpenVBX had on my startup OtherNum on my tumblr: <a href="http://tumblr.gleep.org/" rel="nofollow">http://tumblr.gleep.org/</a><p>Ultimately, the 4square piece is a tiny piece of the OpenVBX world but I think what it shows is the potential to integrate your phone infrastructure with the world around it.

This is a good example of "just because we can do it doesn't mean it's a good idea."

FourSquare is hardly required for this. Any application like Locale or Tasker can do this on any Android phone far more effectively without relying on OpenVBX or an additional "social networking" site.