Social software has left the bounds of the World Wide Web and is headed for your cell phone.
A company called Dodgeball has created a social networking program for mobile phones designed to help friends, and friends of friends, get together.
"When all of the dot-coms were failing, all of my friends were getting laid off and moving and we weren't hanging out as much as we used to," said Dennis Crowley, 28, a New York University graduate, one of Dodgeball's founders.
They were using things like Citysearch, a basic city guide to coordinate their social gatherings, but weren't having much success.
"Citysearch was just a really lousy product, it still is a lousy product," he said. "So we wanted to see if we could build something better."
Crowley, and his partner Alex Rainert, 28, who received his master's degree from New York University, came up with Dodgeball in 2000.
The terms of use are reasonably straightforward. The user puts the contact information of their circle of friends into their cell phone. Those friends do the same with their circles of friends. Once someone is out and about, they can "check in" with Dodgeball. Dodgeball will then broadcast that location to everyone within the user's social circle.
"It's really pretty awesome," Crowley said. "It makes it so much easier to coordinate social interactions."
Dodgeball can be used to blast messages to all of your friends at once, like, "Who wants to go to the movies?" It can also tell you who and what is within ten blocks of where you are standing.
Type in "Pool table" and it will tell you where to find the nearest one. It will also alert you when someone in your circle comes within a half-mile radius. If that someone is a friend of a friend whom you've never met, don't worry. Dodgeball will automatically send you their picture.
"It's kind of like when you first got your cell phone. You're like, 'Wow, I can just call you wherever you are and we can meet up," Crowley said. "It's that same kind of 'aha' moment."
Only Dodgeball does all the work for you, Crowley said.
"Last night I got a message that my friend Wendy was two blocks down the street so I met her for happy hour. Then two friends message me that they're right across the street. A friend of a friend was in the back of the bar. He didn't know what I looked like, but he got my picture and came over," he said. "Then a party ended nearby and a couple of other friends checked in. People were coming out of the woodwork."
"People are always wandering around the city, it's just the nature of the grid. With Dodgeball, you can alter your path just a little and meet up with all your friends."
Though Dodgeball is not yet available in Buffalo, it is catching on all over the country, and has been rapidly expanding since April. Starting out with 20 users in New York City, it now has over 20,000.
It is not affiliated with any phone carrier, and doesn't cost anything to use.
"There are a lot of slicker ways of doing it, using GPS or Java, but we made a conscious decision to keep it very low level. You don't have to download anything or sign up with any one carrier," Crowley said.
Dodgeball even acts as something of a dating service, offering what's called a "crush list."
"Say I have a crush on you," Crowley said. "If you're within two blocks, I'll get a message that you're close, but it doesn't tell me where, it just tells me to make sure I look nice."
The crush will get a message saying, "This person thinks you're cute," along with the crusher's picture.
"Then the ball is completely in the crush's court. They have the person's location and can decide whether or not to walk over and say 'hello'," Crowley said.
Sound stalkeresque?
Crowley prefers to call it "technology that facilitates serendipity."
Tricia Rich, a junior classics major, admits Dodgeball might help her stay in better contact with her friends, but said she is not very inclined to use the service.
"I don't have the patience for that," she said. "I think it might make me want to stop using the damn phone altogether."
Still, she said, Dodgeball sounds a lot better than other social networking sites such as Friendster.
"How can they call it a social circle? It's a computer," she said.
Crowley agreed. His Web site states: "Dodgeball is designed to help you meet up with friends and friends-of-friends while you're out, not while you're sitting in front of your computer."
While some, like sophomore business major Andrew Lau, think Dodgeball sounds, "kinda cool," they also worry that it could be a hard sell.
"I think some of my friends would be into it, but others might think of it as an intrusion," he said.
In response to this, Crowley has added a new feature to Dodgeball: An "off" button.
